RCN Personnel to serve on Spanish AOR

According to defensa.com 28 members of the Royal Canadian Navy will serve on the Spanish AOR the Cantabria during JOINTEX-15.

This is the same AOR the RCN is looking to lease to help fulfil the Navies supply gap neededs on the East coast next year. Defensa.com reports that the Spanish Navy will lease the Cantabria to the RCN in 2016; just as it did for the Australian Navy in 2013.

However, according to the RCN; while they confirm that this is the plan, no formal arrangements have been made yet.

More details to follow when not posting on a mobile device. :)

Project Resolve: Asterix iAOR to be ready by 2017

Davie Shipbuilding announced on October 8, 2015 that the Asterix had been successfully delivered to its ship yard in  Levis, Quebec, and the final transfer of ownership is complete.

Davie and Project Resolve, will now being retrofitting the Asterix to become an intermediate Auxiliary Oil Replenishment (iAOR) ship for the Royal Canadian Navy until its new Berlin-Class (to be named Queenston-Class) are built.

The Asterix will then operate on a leased basis from Davie to the RCN. Davie announced that they expect the vessel to be delivered and entered into service during the summer of 2017.

HRH Prince Charles Visits RCN Ships

Navy News / October 8, 2015

By Lieutenant (Navy) Kelly Boyden

His Royal Highness Prince Charles (2nd from left), along with Commodore Craig Baines (left), Commander Canadian Fleet Atlantic, and Rear Admiral John Weale (back), Flag Officer Scotland Northern Ireland, are shown the Operations Room by Commander Kristjan Monaghan (center) Commanding Officer of HMCS Montreal on October 3, 2015.

His Royal Highness Prince Charles, The Prince of Wales, and recently appointed Commodore-in-Chief Canadian Fleet Atlantic, visited Her Majesty’s Canadian Ship (HMCS) Montréal and Her Majesty’s Canadian Submarine Windsor on October 3, 2015, while in Faslane, Scotland. The Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) vessels were alongside Faslane in preparation for the start of military exercises JOINT WARRIOR and JOINTEX 15.

His Royal Highness, accompanied by Commodore Craig Baines, Commander Canadian Fleet Atlantic, expressed his pride in being the ships’ Commodore-in-Chief, conveyed his appreciation for the hard work of the ships’ companies, and wished them success in Exercise JOINT WARRIOR. He also took the time to promote a young sailor in HMCS Montréal from ordinary to able seaman, and presented a deserving officer with his bridge watch-keeping certificate.

“It was a profound honour for the whole of the Royal Canadian Navy to host His Royal Highness during his visit,” said Vice-Admiral Mark Norman, Commander of the Royal Canadian Navy, from National Defence Headquarters in Ottawa. “The Royal Family and Canada’s Navy have maintained a strong relationship since the foundation of the RCN in 1910. It is fitting that His Royal Highness was able to visit HMCS Montréal, one of his fleet’s newly modernized frigates, as well as HMCS Windsor, on the eve of the submarine’s date of commissioning into the Royal Canadian Navy 12 years ago.”

The visit aboard Montréal and Windsor was the first opportunity His Royal Highness has had to visit Canadian Fleet Atlantic ships since being appointed their Commodore-in-Chief on May 5, 2015. As Commodore-in Chief, His Royal Highness is kept informed of all important Canadian Fleet Atlantic activities and engages with the fleet in a ceremonial capacity as opportunity allows.

“Together with the Commanding Officers of Montréal and Windsor, Commander Kristjan Monaghan and Lieutenant-Commander Peter Chu respectively, as well as the entire ships’ companies, it was a source of great pride to host our Commodore-in-Chief,” said Cmdre Baines. “The ships’ companies were particularly thankful for the opportunity to provide His Royal Highness with a first-hand look at the ships and personnel of his fleet.”

The ship and submarine, along with HMC Ships Halifax, Athabaskan, and Winnipeg, are participating in Exercise JOINT WARRIOR from October 4 to 15. The Canadian Armed Forces will also be represented by two CH-124 Sea King helicopters embarked on HMCS Athabaskan and one Sea King embarked on HMCS Winnipeg, as well as a CP-140M Aurora aircraft, during the semi-annual military exercise hosted by the Royal Navy.

AOPS To Get Friend or Foe Identification

David Pugliese of the Ottawa Citizen wrote yesterday that the RCN's Arctic Offshore Patrol Ships (AOPS) will be getting Thales IFF Technology. 

An Artists Rendition of the (Under Construction) AOPS Photo: CBC 

Here is his Article:

Published on: October 7, 2015 | Last Updated: October 7, 2015 5:03 PM EDT

Thales has recently been contracted by Lockheed Martin Canada to supplying IFF (Identification Friend or Foe) interrogators and transponders for the Royal Canadian Navy’s Arctic Offshore Patrol Ships.

The Long Range IFF interrogator will enable AOPS to identify friendly aircraft and to ensure 360 degree cooperative civilian and military aircraft surveillance, Thales noted in a news release.

More details from the firm:

The contract won by Thales is based on the latest version of the BlueGate Long Range IFF interrogator products and new miniaturized transponder. It is fully compliant with the latest version of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) civilian standards and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) / US Department of Defense (DoD) military standards. 
By fulfilling the latest standards, the Arctic Offshore Patrol Ships will be able to make surveillance without any restriction, in particular to on shore Civilian Secondary Surveillance Radars.

Thales has supplied over 19,000 IFF units for more than 100 types of aircraft, vehicles and naval vessels worldwide.

NATO Will Support Turkey against Russia - if Needed

In a statement made yesterday by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg; NATO will defend all its members, including Turkey. Secretary General Stoltenberg was directly referencing Moscow's incursion into Turkish airspace earlier this week, and encounter with US fighter aircraft.

NATO is meeting with its members to discuss possible deployment options should Moscow continue to threaten NATO's southern boarder in Turkey. So will Canada become involved in Turkey? Only time will tell.

Below is an article published by CTV News Staff & the Associated Press:

John-Thor Dahlburg, The Associated Press
Published Thursday, October 8, 2015 3:34AM EDT
Last Updated Thursday, October 8, 2015 6:47AM EDT

BRUSSELS - NATO secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg said alliance defence ministers on Thursday will consider the implications for NATO's own security of the "troubling escalation of Russian military activities" in Syria.

He said NATO is ready to deploy forces, if needed, to defend alliance member Turkey.

On Wednesday, Russian warships fired cruise missiles in the first combined air-and-ground assault with Syrian government troops since Moscow began its military campaign in the country last week.

Over the weekend, Turkey reported back-to-back violations of its airspace by Russian warplanes.

U.S. Defence Secretary Ash Carter and his counterparts from the 27 other NATO nations had already been scheduled to meet Thursday in Brussels.

Stoltenberg told reporters the meeting will receive an update from its military commanders on the situation in Syria, as well as Afghanistan.

"In Syria, we have seen a troubling escalation of Russian military activities," Stoltenberg said. "We will assess the latest developments and their implications for the security of the alliance. This is particularly relevant in view of the recent violations of NATO's airspace by Russian aircraft."

NATO on Monday issued a statement demanding that the violations cease. Russia called its penetration of Turkish airspace a minor incident that was unintentional. Stoltenberg had already brushed off the Russian explanation.

"NATO is able and ready to defend all allies, including Turkey, against any threat," the secretary-general said Thursday. He said NATO had already increased "our capacity, our ability, our preparedness to deploy forces, including to the south, including in Turkey, if needed."

"We are constantly assessing the situation also with the Turkish government," Stoltenberg said, adding that he would be meeting later Thursday with Turkish Defence Minister Mehmet Vecdi Gonul.

British Defence Secretary Michael Fallon accused Russia of acting chiefly in Syria not to attack the Islamic State terrorist organization but to shore up the beleaguered government of President Bashar al-Assad, thus making a serious situation "much more dangerous." NATO officials have expressed fears there could be an encounter, accidental or otherwise, between Russian planes and air forces of the U.S.-led coalition attacking Islamic State in Syria.

"We'll be meeting today to see what we can do to de-escalate this crisis particularly in terms of air safety," Fallon said as he arrived at NATO headquarters. "We'll be calling on Russia specifically to stop propping up the Assad regime, to use their own (air) crews constructively to stop Assad bombing his own civilians."

German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen said Russia must recognize that if it targets opposition groups in Syria that are fighting Islamic State, "Russia will strengthen IS and this can be neither in the Russian interest, nor in our interest."

The defence ministers' meeting, their first since June, is also expected to approve ongoing efforts to retool NATO to meet a daunting array of contemporary security threats. Decisions expected include approval for two new NATO headquarters units in Hungary and Slovakia to enhance their defences and speed the deployment of reinforcements sent by other alliance nations, and changes in the beefed-up NATO Response Force to, in Stoltenberg's words, make it "bigger, faster and more capable."

"We are facing many challenges from many different directions," Stoltenberg said. "Conflict, instability and insecurity."

"We will assess what we have to do to adapt NATO to current and future challenges," he said-including cyberattacks and the mix of conventional and unconventional tactics commonly known as hybrid warfare.