Article content

In a recent article in the Ottawa Citizen, there were details about Canadian Army equipment that had been declared surplus and was either being destroyed or sold off.

Included among that equipment were the TOW 2 missiles and related systems purchased by the Army around 2009 for $100 million.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Canadian Army sold its surplus TOW 2 missiles to U.S. Marines. Did Canada get a fair price? Back to video

According to documents obtained by the Citizen, the stocks included 592 TOW 2 (analog) missiles, 897 TOW 2 (digital) missiles and 662 TOW 2B (top attack missiles).

The problem was that no one at National Defence Headquarters in Ottawa could readily say for certain what happened to the weapons. The thought was that they were sold but no one had any details.

Now Department of National Defence spokesman Dan Blouin has come back with the answer. He says the U.S. Marines purchased all of Canada’s TOW 2 missiles. There were no details on the price the Marines paid.

But sources tell the Citizen the Marines got a real deal, picking up the weapons for a fraction of the $100 million price.

The Canadian Army decided to get rid of the TOW missiles after they were required by the Harper government to find cost-savings.

Defence Watch, Ottawa Citizen