After two years of planning a new future for the Canadian forces, the Conservative government today announced what it called the Canada First Defence Strategy.

The strategy is essentially the plan to replace six old and, in some cases, rusting pieces of equipment with new ones, which is what the Conservatives promised to do in the last election campaign, two and a half years ago.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper is promising to spend as much as $30 billion over 20 years to replace ships, vehicles, rescue and surveillance planes, and fighter aircraft. But not all of this is new.

In fact, planning for all of those projects has been under way for some time. In some cases, plans to purchase the equipment had been announced but then cancelled and then, in at least one case, reannounced when the Conservatives took office.

The prime minister said the Canadian Forces would be expanded to 100,000 soldiers, sailors and air crew, which is also a number already promised.

He also said the defence budget would be doubled in 20 years, which may happen. But defence spending, of course, is notoriously at the whim of whoever is in office.