HMCS Athabaskan to be Paid-Off March 10

RCN Press Release

The Royal Canadian Navy has announced that the ‘paying off’ date of the destroyer HMCS Athabaskan will be March 10, the Royal United Services Institute of Nova Scotia pointed out today.

Here is more information from Colin Darlington, Vice-President, RUSI (NS):

“Besides the ceremonial aspect of this event, there are other stories. Athabaskan is the last of the Iroquois-class destroyers in the RCN, really, the last destroyer at all in the RCN. Her departure marks the loss of the area air defence (long range anti-missile and anti-aircraft) capability for the Navy. Iroquois-class destroyers were also the Navy’s ‘command ships’ (sometimes known as ‘flag ships’ or ‘leaders’) that had additional telecommunications equipment, command information management systems, work spaces and accommodation to support an embarked commander and staff of a naval task group (a task group can be a destroyer, two-three frigates, a replenishment oiler). A number of Halifax-class frigates have been modernized to include a command capability to make up for the loss, pending building of the Canadian Surface Combatants. Athabaskan also provided a flight deck to train Sea King helicopter detachments.”