Article content continued

It adds that the ability to deploy and sustain combat forces is not only contingent on strong logistical networks, but is also “an essential instrument of national power and should continue to be exploited to attain national objectives.”

The directive traces the operational support hub initiative directly back to 2007, when the Harper government acquired four massive C-17 Globemaster military transport planes.

“The decision to acquire four C-17s (CC177) for strategic airlift indicates the government’s intention to utilize the CF more extensively off continent,” it reads.

“This directive is based on the assumption that in the future, Canada will continue to deploy and employ forces internationally in support of national interests,” it later adds.

To date, agreements to establish operational support hubs have been signed with Jamaica and Germany.

Each will see a small team of Canadian military personnel stationed permanently within a major, strategically located city served by an international airport and seaport facilities.

When needed, the outpost will ramp up and act as a staging area and resupply hub for Canadian missions in the surrounding region.

“These ‘turn-key’ arrangements will allow the CF to rapidly make the strategic move into the most dangerous regions of the world and then project tactically forward into an operational area,” reads an undated briefing note.

The defence department has aimed to reach similar agreements with five other countries located near potential hotspots in Asia and Africa.

“While natural disasters and other factors also enter into the equation, the likelihood of failed or failing states was a key driver,” reads a slide presentation presented to senior military commanders a few weeks before the directive was signed.

Most of the Canadian Forces’ recent major missions — including Afghanistan, Libya and after Haiti’s devastating earthquake in January 2010 — have been to countries that would be considered failed or failing.