By: Daniel Leblanc, Globe and Mail
Lockheed-Martin is bluntly warning the Liberal government that it will make a mistake if it does not follow the lead of its allies and fails to buy the F-35 to deter Russia and China from threatening Canadian sovereignty.
Pointing out that the F-35 has already been sold to 12 allied countries, one of the firm’s executives said the Trudeau government has every right to choose a rival aircraft – if it wants to make the wrong choice for Canada.
“The world’s best air forces have all decided the F-35 is absolutely superior and offers the best value,” said Steve Over, Lockheed-Martin’s director of international business development for the F-35.
“It’s not my prerogative to question your political leaders, but what do they know that these 12 air forces besides them don’t know?” said the Lockheed-Martin executive based in Fort Worth, Tex.
Mr. Over travelled to Ottawa last week to make his sales pitch, which came amid concerns the Liberal government is trying to avoid purchasing the F-35 aircraft that was so popular with the previous Conservative government.
Mr. Over took particular umbrage with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s recent comment that the F-35 “doesn’t work” and is far away from reaching its potential. There are already 185 F-35s flying in the United States and Italy, with plans to have more than 600 of them flying all over the world by 2020.
“I’m mystified,” Mr. Over said.
He went on to quote a lieutenant-general in the U.S. Marine Corps who has referred to his current fleet of F-35s as “Jurassic Park.” “His logic is, ‘Anything that comes into my jungle, this airplane kills,’” Mr. Over said.
The Liberal government has promised to hold an “open and transparent competition” to replace Canada’s fleet of CF-18s. Still, there is a sense in Ottawa that the Liberal government could sole-source the contract to Boeing for the purchase of Super Hornets, which is a less modern aircraft, to fulfill the Liberal Party’s election promise not to buy F-35s.
Mr. Over said Lockheed-Martin welcomes a full competitive process by which Canada would select its next fighter jets, saying a full fleet could easily be delivered by 2025, when the CF-18s will be retired. The first aircraft could be delivered some time between 2018 and 2020, depending on the process adopted by the federal government, he said.
Lockheed-Martin officials have sent out warnings that if Canada eventually decides to buy another firm’s fighter jet, the country will lose the industrial benefits that have come from participation in the F-35 program.
The Canadian Forces undertook to buy 65 of the aircraft as part of the program that they officially joined in 2006, but there is no final deal in place.
“This is not a punitive measure, it’s not a threat,” Mr. Over said. “Still, it’s impossible for us to meet our industrial commitments to the seven other partner nations if every nation does not buy the quantity of airplanes that they said they would buy.”
Monday, June 13, 2016
Fisher: Super Hornets will force Canada out of its own Arctic
Critics of the F-35 will laugh and say this is hyperbole and melodrama. It is not. Keeping the U.S. safe is the top priority of every U.S. president. If Canada cannot or will not protect its Atlantic, Pacific and northern approaches, its NORAD treaty with the U.S. permits Washington to do so.
Russia announced last week that its air force will begin deploying its first stealthy T-50 fifth-generation jet fighters next year. Such a timeline is highly doubtful. But Vladimir Putin has no higher priority than acquiring stealth technologies and, within a decade, T-50s will be deployed at air bases across the top of Russia.
Once this happens, and with threats from T-50-launched cruise missiles and Russian and North Korean intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), which fifth-generation aircraft such as the F-35 will be far more able to shoot down than Super Hornets, the reality is that the U.S. will do whatever it has to to defend itself.
That will mean patrolling Canada’s margins with USAF F-35s, which will use fighter jet-capable airfields in Iqaluit, Rankin Inlet, Inuvik and Yellowknife built mostly with U.S. money in the 1980s.
Worse than that, Washington will insist that Canada’s Super Hornets stay in the rear.
The reason is clear. Four allied air forces operate in the Arctic. The U.S., Norway and Denmark, which defends Greenland and sometimes deploys fighter jets to a base they jointly operate with the USAF at Thule, will soon only be flying state-of-the art F-35s in the Far North. The other country, Canada, will not.
The F-35 is revolutionary in that it will basically be a flying computer with sensor fusion. F-35s flying hundreds of kilometres apart will be able to create a common battle picture. Being stealthy, they will secretly patrol far more safely while collectively surveying vast amounts of territory for information that they can instantly share with each other, spy and command aircraft and ground stations.
Once the Super Hornet is found, as it will be by a stealthy enemy, F-35s in the vicinity will become targets, too. That is why the U.S. will not want Canadian fighters operating anywhere near its warplanes in the north.
A new argument advanced by the government last week is that there is a “credibility gap” for NATO and Norad with the existing F-18 Hornets that must be immediately filled by an interim purchase of Super Hornets. NATO and Norad people have privately but emphatically insisted that no such crisis exists and will not exist for about a decade, so there is no reason for Canada to rush to make a decision.
As for this being sold as an interim buy, with a decision on the F-35 later, this is a red herring. Canada has neither the money nor the military infrastructure to support two fleets of fighter aircraft.
An older but still persistent argument to support the Super Hornets is that it will be safer to operate in the Far North than the one engine F-35s. Advances in civilian and military jet engine technology long ago made such thinking obsolete. Otherwise, the Pentagon would not have decided that only F-35s will fly from its most northern air base near Fairbanks, Alaska.
The Super Hornets’ advantages in range, payload and an extra engine are irrelevant if the aircraft is not survivable. The Super Hornet will not be invisible to radar so, at a certain point in the not too distant future, it will be shot down long before it can engage the enemy.
With the U.S. defending Canadian air space because of Ottawa’s refusal to buy F-35s, what the RCAF will eventually end up with in the north is a niche capability in air/sea rescue.
That Canada is prepared to cede its defence and sovereignty over all three maritime approaches to the USAF is one of the many reasons that there is extreme disappointment and disbelief across the upper reaches of Canada’s military community about what has been decided. What makes them furious is the government’s refusal to discuss the matter.
Finland has looked at the numbers that Denmark came up with after a competition in which it chose the F-35 over the Super Hornet. As a result, the Finns are believed to be close to deciding that they, too, will reject the Super Hornet in favour of the F-35. If Finland follows Denmark’s lead, it will become the 12th western-oriented air force in a row to choose the F-35 over the Super Hornet, with Canada the only exception.
Canadians should ask themselves: Is everyone who made those decisions — including those confronting similar security challenges in the Arctic — stupid? What is it that makes Canada so unique that it feels it can ignore the collective wisdom of all its allies and friends?
There are no two more important issues for a government than national defence and sovereignty. Such matters must be settled fairly and as transparently as possible. Have the promised open competition to decide what aircraft is best to defend Canada for the next half-century
Russia announced last week that its air force will begin deploying its first stealthy T-50 fifth-generation jet fighters next year. Such a timeline is highly doubtful. But Vladimir Putin has no higher priority than acquiring stealth technologies and, within a decade, T-50s will be deployed at air bases across the top of Russia.
Once this happens, and with threats from T-50-launched cruise missiles and Russian and North Korean intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), which fifth-generation aircraft such as the F-35 will be far more able to shoot down than Super Hornets, the reality is that the U.S. will do whatever it has to to defend itself.
That will mean patrolling Canada’s margins with USAF F-35s, which will use fighter jet-capable airfields in Iqaluit, Rankin Inlet, Inuvik and Yellowknife built mostly with U.S. money in the 1980s.
Worse than that, Washington will insist that Canada’s Super Hornets stay in the rear.
The reason is clear. Four allied air forces operate in the Arctic. The U.S., Norway and Denmark, which defends Greenland and sometimes deploys fighter jets to a base they jointly operate with the USAF at Thule, will soon only be flying state-of-the art F-35s in the Far North. The other country, Canada, will not.
The F-35 is revolutionary in that it will basically be a flying computer with sensor fusion. F-35s flying hundreds of kilometres apart will be able to create a common battle picture. Being stealthy, they will secretly patrol far more safely while collectively surveying vast amounts of territory for information that they can instantly share with each other, spy and command aircraft and ground stations.
Once the Super Hornet is found, as it will be by a stealthy enemy, F-35s in the vicinity will become targets, too. That is why the U.S. will not want Canadian fighters operating anywhere near its warplanes in the north.
A new argument advanced by the government last week is that there is a “credibility gap” for NATO and Norad with the existing F-18 Hornets that must be immediately filled by an interim purchase of Super Hornets. NATO and Norad people have privately but emphatically insisted that no such crisis exists and will not exist for about a decade, so there is no reason for Canada to rush to make a decision.
As for this being sold as an interim buy, with a decision on the F-35 later, this is a red herring. Canada has neither the money nor the military infrastructure to support two fleets of fighter aircraft.
An older but still persistent argument to support the Super Hornets is that it will be safer to operate in the Far North than the one engine F-35s. Advances in civilian and military jet engine technology long ago made such thinking obsolete. Otherwise, the Pentagon would not have decided that only F-35s will fly from its most northern air base near Fairbanks, Alaska.
The Super Hornets’ advantages in range, payload and an extra engine are irrelevant if the aircraft is not survivable. The Super Hornet will not be invisible to radar so, at a certain point in the not too distant future, it will be shot down long before it can engage the enemy.
With the U.S. defending Canadian air space because of Ottawa’s refusal to buy F-35s, what the RCAF will eventually end up with in the north is a niche capability in air/sea rescue.
That Canada is prepared to cede its defence and sovereignty over all three maritime approaches to the USAF is one of the many reasons that there is extreme disappointment and disbelief across the upper reaches of Canada’s military community about what has been decided. What makes them furious is the government’s refusal to discuss the matter.
Finland has looked at the numbers that Denmark came up with after a competition in which it chose the F-35 over the Super Hornet. As a result, the Finns are believed to be close to deciding that they, too, will reject the Super Hornet in favour of the F-35. If Finland follows Denmark’s lead, it will become the 12th western-oriented air force in a row to choose the F-35 over the Super Hornet, with Canada the only exception.
Canadians should ask themselves: Is everyone who made those decisions — including those confronting similar security challenges in the Arctic — stupid? What is it that makes Canada so unique that it feels it can ignore the collective wisdom of all its allies and friends?
There are no two more important issues for a government than national defence and sovereignty. Such matters must be settled fairly and as transparently as possible. Have the promised open competition to decide what aircraft is best to defend Canada for the next half-century
By: Matthew Fisher, The Ottawa Citizen
LONDON — The most questionable aspect of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s quixotic decision to renege on the promise of an open competition for Canada’s next fighter jet and suddenly ram through the sole-source purchase of Super Hornets — a decision Postmedia News has revealed it is close to making — is that, by doing so, Canada will end up surrendering sovereignty of its Arctic air space to the United States Air Force in about 10 years.
Liberals Announce Streamlined Procurement Approach to Accelerate Delivery of Canadian Surface Combatant Vessels
Government of Canada Press Release
HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA--(Marketwired - June 13, 2016) - Government of Canada
The Honourable Judy M. Foote, Minister of Public Services and Procurement, and the Honourable John McKay, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Defence, representing the Honourable Harjit S. Sajjan, Minister of National Defence, today announced a streamlined and transparent procurement approach to deliver the Canadian Surface Combatant to the Royal Canadian Navy up to two years sooner than originally planned.
The refined procurement approach will allow Canada to competitively and transparently select an existing warship design to modify, rather than continuing with the previous approach of selecting a Warship Designer and a Combat Systems Integrator to custom design the Canadian Surface Combatant.
The government used input from industry and Steve Brunton, its shipbuilding expert advisor, to develop the streamlined procurement approach. Canada will continue to work closely with the industry and remains committed to generating middle-class jobs, economic benefits and industrial growth for the country through the National Shipbuilding Strategy.
Quotes
"The Canadian Surface Combatant project is the most complex procurement in Canadian history. Along with the Arctic Offshore Patrol Ships project, it will create 2,400 direct shipbuilding jobs in Halifax. We continue to seek opportunities to deliver ships as quickly as possible and to ensure that this and other ship construction projects provide middle-class jobs and prosperity to hardworking Canadians. This streamlined approach is aligned with our efforts to modernize procurement and to make it easier for Canadian businesses to work with government."
The Honourable Judy M. Foote, Minister of Public Services and Procurement
"I am pleased to see the refinements announced today to the Canadian Surface Combatant procurement strategy. This new streamlined and transparent process will help deliver on the government's commitment of providing the ships the Royal Canadian Navy needs to defend Canadian sovereignty, and will support economic growth in Canada."
The Honourable Harjit S. Sajjan, Minister of National Defence
"Canada is a maritime nation and has the longest coastline of any country on earth. These new ships will ensure that the Royal Canadian Navy is ready to take on maritime challenges of the 21st century."
The Honourable John McKay, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Defence
"Through the application of the Industrial and Technological Benefits Policy on the Canadian Surface Combatant project, the Government of Canada will leverage economic benefits by creating opportunities for Canadian content on the vessels while generating billions of dollars in high-value investments in marine and other sectors of Canada's economy. These large investments will help to drive innovation and growth for years to come, while greatly strengthening our shipbuilding industry."
The Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development
Quick Facts
The Canadian Surface Combatant project will replace Canada's aging destroyers and frigates. Ship construction is scheduled to commence after the completion of the Arctic Offshore Patrol Ships in the early 2020s and the procurement is expected to span 20 to 25 years.
The Canadian Surface Combatants will be the major surface component of maritime combat power for Canada. The inherent warfare capability and versatility of the fleet, either independently or as part of a Canadian or coalition task group, will allow it to rapidly deploy worldwide on short notice.
As part of the government priority to modernize procurement practices, Public Services and Procurement Canada is streamlining its practices to make them faster and easier for government departments to buy, and for suppliers to sell.
Related Products
Backgrounder on the streamlined procurement approach for Canadian Surface Combatant
Associated Links
National Shipbuilding Strategy
The Honourable Judy M. Foote, Minister of Public Services and Procurement, and the Honourable John McKay, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Defence, representing the Honourable Harjit S. Sajjan, Minister of National Defence, today announced a streamlined and transparent procurement approach to deliver the Canadian Surface Combatant to the Royal Canadian Navy up to two years sooner than originally planned.
The refined procurement approach will allow Canada to competitively and transparently select an existing warship design to modify, rather than continuing with the previous approach of selecting a Warship Designer and a Combat Systems Integrator to custom design the Canadian Surface Combatant.
The government used input from industry and Steve Brunton, its shipbuilding expert advisor, to develop the streamlined procurement approach. Canada will continue to work closely with the industry and remains committed to generating middle-class jobs, economic benefits and industrial growth for the country through the National Shipbuilding Strategy.
Quotes
"The Canadian Surface Combatant project is the most complex procurement in Canadian history. Along with the Arctic Offshore Patrol Ships project, it will create 2,400 direct shipbuilding jobs in Halifax. We continue to seek opportunities to deliver ships as quickly as possible and to ensure that this and other ship construction projects provide middle-class jobs and prosperity to hardworking Canadians. This streamlined approach is aligned with our efforts to modernize procurement and to make it easier for Canadian businesses to work with government."
The Honourable Judy M. Foote, Minister of Public Services and Procurement
"I am pleased to see the refinements announced today to the Canadian Surface Combatant procurement strategy. This new streamlined and transparent process will help deliver on the government's commitment of providing the ships the Royal Canadian Navy needs to defend Canadian sovereignty, and will support economic growth in Canada."
The Honourable Harjit S. Sajjan, Minister of National Defence
"Canada is a maritime nation and has the longest coastline of any country on earth. These new ships will ensure that the Royal Canadian Navy is ready to take on maritime challenges of the 21st century."
The Honourable John McKay, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Defence
"Through the application of the Industrial and Technological Benefits Policy on the Canadian Surface Combatant project, the Government of Canada will leverage economic benefits by creating opportunities for Canadian content on the vessels while generating billions of dollars in high-value investments in marine and other sectors of Canada's economy. These large investments will help to drive innovation and growth for years to come, while greatly strengthening our shipbuilding industry."
The Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development
Quick Facts
The Canadian Surface Combatant project will replace Canada's aging destroyers and frigates. Ship construction is scheduled to commence after the completion of the Arctic Offshore Patrol Ships in the early 2020s and the procurement is expected to span 20 to 25 years.
The Canadian Surface Combatants will be the major surface component of maritime combat power for Canada. The inherent warfare capability and versatility of the fleet, either independently or as part of a Canadian or coalition task group, will allow it to rapidly deploy worldwide on short notice.
As part of the government priority to modernize procurement practices, Public Services and Procurement Canada is streamlining its practices to make them faster and easier for government departments to buy, and for suppliers to sell.
Related Products
Backgrounder on the streamlined procurement approach for Canadian Surface Combatant
Associated Links
National Shipbuilding Strategy
Canadian Pathfinders Did Submarine Jump First...10 years ago
By: David Pugliese, Defence Watch
The Canadian special forces public relations machine is in full drive these days.
Witness the latest media report about what is being termed a “daring parachute drop” of Canadian special forces soldiers into the ocean, so the commandos could link up with the submarine, HMCS Windsor.
It happened last fall during a NATO exercise and is now being touted by Canadian Special Operations Forces Command or CANSOFCOM.
“Well beyond swimming distance to the coast, it seemed like an act of dangerous derring-do, even for special forces soldiers,” the Toronto Star reported Sunday.
Canadian special forces jumped from a C-130, landed in the water, and then clambered on board HMCS Windsor. In another drill they launched their inflatable rafts off HMCS Windsor.
In addition, special forces personnel conducted similar trials off the coast of Nova Scotia last year, according to CANSOFCOM. “It takes a lot of courage to jump out the back of an airplane when all you see is water around you and just trust that something will pop up. It was pretty amazing,” Maj.-Gen. Mike Rouleau, commander of Canadian Special Operations Forces Command told the Toronto Star.
Indeed, it is pretty amazing.
And it was also pretty amazing when Canadian Army Pathfinders first did exactly the same drills with the same submarine….in 2006.
Actually the Pathfinders did Canadian special forces one better. They not only repeated the drills over and over but did the same parachute jumps at night.
I was on HMCS Windsor at the time photographing the exercise off the coast of Nova Scotia.
Strange, CANSOFCOM officers didn’t mention that exercise to the Toronto Star.
In 2006 the Army Pathfinders told me they had tried to interest Canadian special forces in their pioneering development of these skillsets with Canadian submarines but they were dismissed outright. (the Pathfinders didn’t talk about courage or how amazing they were….they viewed the skills they were developing as just another method of inserting behind enemy territory).
The CANSOF-submarine story comes after the recent series of articles and TV broadcasts about Canadian special forces on the front lines of Iraq. Just as interesting was another article as part of that series in the Toronto Star which claimed Canadian special forces were for the first time since World War 1 preparing for a chemical weapons attack (the article was about CANSOFCOM’s preparations to deal with the potential of gas/chemical attack from the Islamic State in northern Iraq…and the dangers special forces faced).
Maybe CANSOFCOM officers hadn’t heard of the Second World War? Or the Cold War? Or the first Persian Gulf War?
During all these conflicts, Canadian troops prepared for the threat of chemical attack on the battlefield. In fact, Canada was a leader in chemical and biological warfare research and weaponry during the Second World War.
CANSOFCOM’s “quiet professionals” have become “chatty narcissists,” one military officer explained to Defence Watch.
But another observer at National Defence headquarters says that claim is too simplistic – there is more to the CANSOFCOM back-slapping and self-congratulation.
So what exactly is happening here?
Military sources say the Liberal government’s defence review has the various services scrambling to highlight their abilities and protect their piece of the budget and capability pie. Special forces are costly and CANSOFCOM wants not only to protect their turf but to position itself for playing more of a role in Canadian defence.
Ten years ago it dismissed the idea put forward by the Pathfinders about using submarines for insertion and extraction. Now Canadian special forces embraces that and highlights the success of its personnel involved in that skill-set.
Much of the work being done by CANSOFCOM with Kurdish forces in northern Iraq – instruction in driver training, first aid, military planning, mortar training, calling in airstrikes – could easily by done by the regular Canadian army. But it’s high profile and continued involvement will ensure CANSOFCOM’s budget will stay intact, if not grow, observers say.
CANSOFCOM has the support of Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Jon Vance for these efforts,Defence Watch has been told.
But in an era of limited financial resources will the army, navy and air force suffer as a result?
The Canadian special forces public relations machine is in full drive these days.
Witness the latest media report about what is being termed a “daring parachute drop” of Canadian special forces soldiers into the ocean, so the commandos could link up with the submarine, HMCS Windsor.
It happened last fall during a NATO exercise and is now being touted by Canadian Special Operations Forces Command or CANSOFCOM.
“Well beyond swimming distance to the coast, it seemed like an act of dangerous derring-do, even for special forces soldiers,” the Toronto Star reported Sunday.
Canadian special forces jumped from a C-130, landed in the water, and then clambered on board HMCS Windsor. In another drill they launched their inflatable rafts off HMCS Windsor.
In addition, special forces personnel conducted similar trials off the coast of Nova Scotia last year, according to CANSOFCOM. “It takes a lot of courage to jump out the back of an airplane when all you see is water around you and just trust that something will pop up. It was pretty amazing,” Maj.-Gen. Mike Rouleau, commander of Canadian Special Operations Forces Command told the Toronto Star.
Indeed, it is pretty amazing.
And it was also pretty amazing when Canadian Army Pathfinders first did exactly the same drills with the same submarine….in 2006.
Actually the Pathfinders did Canadian special forces one better. They not only repeated the drills over and over but did the same parachute jumps at night.
I was on HMCS Windsor at the time photographing the exercise off the coast of Nova Scotia.
Strange, CANSOFCOM officers didn’t mention that exercise to the Toronto Star.
In 2006 the Army Pathfinders told me they had tried to interest Canadian special forces in their pioneering development of these skillsets with Canadian submarines but they were dismissed outright. (the Pathfinders didn’t talk about courage or how amazing they were….they viewed the skills they were developing as just another method of inserting behind enemy territory).
The CANSOF-submarine story comes after the recent series of articles and TV broadcasts about Canadian special forces on the front lines of Iraq. Just as interesting was another article as part of that series in the Toronto Star which claimed Canadian special forces were for the first time since World War 1 preparing for a chemical weapons attack (the article was about CANSOFCOM’s preparations to deal with the potential of gas/chemical attack from the Islamic State in northern Iraq…and the dangers special forces faced).
Maybe CANSOFCOM officers hadn’t heard of the Second World War? Or the Cold War? Or the first Persian Gulf War?
During all these conflicts, Canadian troops prepared for the threat of chemical attack on the battlefield. In fact, Canada was a leader in chemical and biological warfare research and weaponry during the Second World War.
CANSOFCOM’s “quiet professionals” have become “chatty narcissists,” one military officer explained to Defence Watch.
But another observer at National Defence headquarters says that claim is too simplistic – there is more to the CANSOFCOM back-slapping and self-congratulation.
So what exactly is happening here?
Military sources say the Liberal government’s defence review has the various services scrambling to highlight their abilities and protect their piece of the budget and capability pie. Special forces are costly and CANSOFCOM wants not only to protect their turf but to position itself for playing more of a role in Canadian defence.
Ten years ago it dismissed the idea put forward by the Pathfinders about using submarines for insertion and extraction. Now Canadian special forces embraces that and highlights the success of its personnel involved in that skill-set.
Much of the work being done by CANSOFCOM with Kurdish forces in northern Iraq – instruction in driver training, first aid, military planning, mortar training, calling in airstrikes – could easily by done by the regular Canadian army. But it’s high profile and continued involvement will ensure CANSOFCOM’s budget will stay intact, if not grow, observers say.
CANSOFCOM has the support of Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Jon Vance for these efforts,Defence Watch has been told.
But in an era of limited financial resources will the army, navy and air force suffer as a result?
HMCS Windsor back at sea after engine woes
By: BRUCE CAMPION-SMITH Ottawa Bureau, The Toronto Star
OTTAWA—The Canadian sub HMCS Windsor is back at sea following engine repairs and navy commanders are confident the maintenance woes won’t imperil its participation in NATO exercises later this month.
The sub had embarked on its trans Atlantic crossing just over a week ago when problems with an engine supercharger forced areturn to port in Halifax for repairs.
Rear-Adm. John Newton, commander of Maritime Forces Atlantic, praised maintenance crews for the quick turnaround and said the cause of the supercharger failure remains under investigation.
“It is not like other failure modes we have witnessed over the years,” Newton told the Star in an email Sunday.
But he said in the repair and engine trials, crews took a “hard look” at related equipment to assure themselves that there were not other problems with the sub before heading back to sea.
The sub is bound for the North Sea to join “Dynamic Mongoose,” the annual anti-submarine warfare exercise organized by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. That exercise is set to run June 20 to July 1 and will involve some 5,000 personnel from nations within the military alliance.
Because of the slow pace of the ocean crossing, it’s not certain that Windsor will arrive in time for the start of the exercise but Newton expressed confidence that the sub would not miss much.
“Most of the boat’s planned program will be recovered,” Newton said.
“The submarine will be interacting with NATO forces as one would expect whenever our fleet sails east into European waters. It will be exercising and patrolling,” Newton said.
He said that military planners are accustomed to adjusting exercises to accommodate the comings and goings of naval assets.
“Everybody who plans and executes submarine operations in an alliance structure works to adjust their parts to accommodate boats, ships and aircraft arrivals, departures and changes as necessitated by national arisings,” Newton said.
At the moment, HMCS Windsor is Canada’s lone operational sub. The three other Victoria-class subs are in dock for maintenance work.
OTTAWA—The Canadian sub HMCS Windsor is back at sea following engine repairs and navy commanders are confident the maintenance woes won’t imperil its participation in NATO exercises later this month.
The sub had embarked on its trans Atlantic crossing just over a week ago when problems with an engine supercharger forced areturn to port in Halifax for repairs.
Rear-Adm. John Newton, commander of Maritime Forces Atlantic, praised maintenance crews for the quick turnaround and said the cause of the supercharger failure remains under investigation.
“It is not like other failure modes we have witnessed over the years,” Newton told the Star in an email Sunday.
But he said in the repair and engine trials, crews took a “hard look” at related equipment to assure themselves that there were not other problems with the sub before heading back to sea.
 |
| HMCS Windsor departs from a Halifax port on May 26. The sub is bound for the North Sea to join “Dynamic Mongoose,” the annual anti-submarine warfare exercise organized by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. (ANDREW VAUGHAN / THE CANADIAN PRESS FILE PHOTO) |
Because of the slow pace of the ocean crossing, it’s not certain that Windsor will arrive in time for the start of the exercise but Newton expressed confidence that the sub would not miss much.
“Most of the boat’s planned program will be recovered,” Newton said.
“The submarine will be interacting with NATO forces as one would expect whenever our fleet sails east into European waters. It will be exercising and patrolling,” Newton said.
He said that military planners are accustomed to adjusting exercises to accommodate the comings and goings of naval assets.
“Everybody who plans and executes submarine operations in an alliance structure works to adjust their parts to accommodate boats, ships and aircraft arrivals, departures and changes as necessitated by national arisings,” Newton said.
At the moment, HMCS Windsor is Canada’s lone operational sub. The three other Victoria-class subs are in dock for maintenance work.
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