Canadian Army’s major restructuring hinges on receiving billions of dollars of new equipment

The Canadian Army’s major restructuring to better prepare for war and domestic emergencies is being heralded as a generational change but the initiative will rely on billions of dollars of new equipment if it is to succeed.

The army made a splash with its official launch Sept. 10 in Edmonton of what is being called a new “war fighting division.”

Work on the revamp has been underway for a while. Army commander Lt. Gen. Michael Wright outlined the restructuring last year in a document called Inflection Point 2025 .

It called for developing a force prepared for major combat although at this point the restructuring involves having various existing units report to newly named divisions.

Wright pointed out that for decades Canada’s Army had been built on “contribution warfare” — sending forces as part of allied coalitions such as in Afghanistan. The plan is now to prepare the army to field and equip a force capable of participating in major combat operations as an equal partner.

Wright has also warned that Canada can’t rely on allies to provide the capabilities needed for what he calls “high-value war fighting roles.”

“It is a big shift,” he said of the restructuring in a December 2025 interview with Canadian Army Today, an army-affiliated publication. “It also requires a shift in mindset across the Army.”

But the Army has acknowledged the plan is also reliant on an influx of new high-tech equipment.

An April 2026 briefing obtained by the Ottawa Citizen shows that the army has 50 major equipment programs on the go, with a number directly linked to its new restructuring. Those include the upgrade and eventual purchase of new tanks, the acquisition of drones, self-propelled howitzers, ground-based air defence systems and new vehicles for Arctic operations.

But the briefing points to the price tag of tens of billions of dollars, making the success of the restructuring beholden to the Liberal government coming through on its promise to significantly boost the defence budget, and for the army to get a share of that.