Your Navy Today: Friday, 24 February 2012
Your Navy Today is intended to enhance understanding & awareness across the RCN and among our Friends of the Navy. It does not constitute policy, orders or direction. This bi-weekly summary of events in the RCN and elsewhere is a personal assessment, and any errors in interpretation are solely mine.
— RAdm Mark Norman, Deputy Commander, Royal Canadian Navy
Global Strategic & Maritime Context
The heads of service of the US Navy and Air Force co-authored an important article that appeared earlier this week in The American Interest, describing their vision to preserve American freedom of action in the global commons. Entitled “Air Sea Battle—Promoting Stability in an Era of Uncertainty”, the document provides a historical perspective of American power projection in the Cold War and post-Cold War eras, describes the emergence of “anti-access” and “area denial” strategies and capabilities and outlines the American response to these developments.
A recent report estimates that the total global cost of Somali maritime piracy in 2011 approached $7B (US). The full report is available here, as is the two-page summary.
National Context
The Government last week announced initiatives on both coasts aimed at positioning Canada's marine industry to support the National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy (NSPS). In Dartmouth, Federal Ministers Bernard Valcourt and Peter MacKay unveiled the Atlantic Shipbuilding Action Plan, targeted at Atlantic Canadian firms. In Victoria, Lynne Yelich, Minister of State for Western Economic Diversification, announced the federal contribution towards a $2.5M Marine Training Centre.
Later in the week, the Government announced that it had signed its Umbrella Agreement with Halifax's Irving Shipyard. Under NSPS, Irving will be building the Arctic / Offshore Patrol Ship and the Canadian Surface Combatant.
Allies and Partners
Comd RCN, VAdm Maddison, this week participated in separate discussions with the U.K's Chief of the Defence Staff, General Sir David Richards, and the U.S. Secretary of Defense, the Honorable Ray Mabus, both of whom were in Ottawa to address the Conference of Defence Associations' (CDA) Annual Conference on Defence and Security.
Comd MARLANT, RAdm Gardam, recently hosted the Swedish Ambassador, His Excellency Teppo Tauriainen, during the latter's first visit to Canada's east coast. RAdm Gardam and Director General Major Projects and Delivery (Land and Sea) RAdm (Ret'd), Mr. Ian Mack, provided to the Ambassador their perspectives on the National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy
Media
International. Greece, Syria and Iran continued to draw much attention in both the mainstream media and among international defence and security analysts.
National. Comd RCN's visit to Calgary last week generated significant local and regional media interest. Remarks he made at a number of venues, including those relating to the Arctic, climate change and the Navy, were carried nationally, while his radio appearance was also carried in other Canadian markets. The return of HMCS Vancouver to Esquimalt on Sunday, following her deployment to the Mediterranean, was also widely reported.
Institution
His Excellency the Right Honourable David Johnston, Governor General and Commander-in-Chief presented Decorations for Bravery today at Rideau Hall. Among the 46 Canadians recognized were Lt(N) André Bard, whose decoration will be awarded at a later date, and Leading Seaman David Denman, whose citation read:
On September 23, 2009, while working as a dive team, Lieutenant André Bard and Leading Seaman David Denman risked their lives to search for possible live ammunition in a pond, in Stewiacke, Nova Scotia. An unknown number of grenades had been thrown into a large pond. One of the explosives had malfunctioned and was in an extremely dangerous state. Using a metal mine detector in the murky water, the dive team searched the bottom of the pond, where they found the unexploded grenade buried deep in the mud. The device was carried a safe distance away and detonated. Lieutenant Bard and Leading Seaman Denman continued their thorough search of the pond, finding and removing other weapon fragments.
Canadian Forces & RCN Business
Members of the Treasury Board Secretariat met with Comd MARPAC recently during their tour of HMC Dockyard facilities and 443 SQN in Patricia Bay, that included visits to Fleet Maintenance Facilities Cape Breton, New Firehall/Base Ops Centre, Fleet Diving Unit (Pacific), and the Damage Control Facility, all with a view of gaining insights into the RCN's challenges and long-term plans for property and infrastructure in MARPAC.
The Chief of the Defence Staff and Comd RCN were in Esquimalt to welcome home HMCS Vancouver from her 224 day deployment to the Mediterranean. Their visit to Canada’s west coast fleet also included a day at sea with HMCS Victoria (see photo of the CDS being briefed by Victoria's Combat Officer, Lt(N) Peter Chu, below, as well as this link to a video of General Natynczyk’s day at periscope depth), as the boat progresses its readiness program towards operational status later this year.
Credit: David Malysheff
General Walt Natynczyk, Chief of the Defence Staff, listens as Lieutenant(N) Peter Chu, Combat Officer on board HMCS Victoria, points out details on a radar display.
Outreach and Engagement
Comd RCN last week travelled to Calgary to meet with a range of business and community leaders, defence academics, friends of the Navy and local media.
VAdm Maddison also participated in a panel discussion in Ottawa with his fellow heads of services at the Annual Conference of Defence Associations' Conference. His opening remarks, addressing the conference theme "The Canadian Forces – Capabilities required for the Home and Away Missions", are attached separately.
Since Comd RCN issued his Speakers' Bureau MARGEN on 12 February, 35 sailors from across the RCN have already signed up to participate, from Ordinary Seaman to Capt(N), with four events already conducted and 14 pending.
Maritime Operations (MARLANT and MARPAC operating areas except where noted)
The RCN this week has 287 personnel deployed on named international operations, and a further 1,679 at sea for force generation and defence diplomacy activities, for a total of 1,966 personnel deployed or 27.3% of its trained effective strength.
HMCS Charlottetown is deployed to the Mediterranean Sea as part of Operation Metric, Canada's commitment to maintaining a forward deployed Canadian Forces presence in the Middle East and North African region in 2012. The Halifax class frigate is conducting operations with the Standing NATO Maritime Group in support of Operation Active Endeavour (OAE), the NATO led counter-terrorism mission. This week, Charlottetown took part in Proud Manta 12, NATO's largest anti-submarine warfare exercise. Eleven NATO nations participated in Proud Manta 12, including five submarines, twelve warships and fifteen aircraft.
HMC ships Iroquois, St John's and Ville de Québec sailed for Task Group Exercise (TGEX) 2-12. The primary aims of the joint Navy and Air exercise are to support force generation with regards to multi-ship operations and the ships' air detachments and to support HMCS Ville de Québec's workups programme.
HMCS Goose Bay and HMCS Kingston sailed for workups in preparation for their employment with Operation Caribbe this spring.
HMCS Vancouver returned home to Esquimalt 19 February after a seven month deployment to the Mediterranean region. The deployment initially included the ship's participation in Operation Mobile, the Canadian contribution to the NATO-led Operation Unified Protector. Following the liberation of Libya, Vancouver's mission shifted to Operation Sirius, where the ship joined the Standing NATO Maritime Group as part of Operation Active Endeavour.
HMCS Algonquin conducted force generation training off the west coast of the United States and conducted a port visit in Mexico in preparation for a North American Maritime Security Initiative (NAMSI) Quickdraw exercise. The two-day exercise focused on command center to command center communications, requests for assistance and handover procedures between Canada, the United States and Mexico.
HMCS Regina was at sea conducting workups.
HMCS Victoria was at sea conducting dived workups and sea trials, with HMCS Ottawa acting as the submarine consort.
HMC ships Brandon, Nanaimo and Saskatoon participated in Pacific Guardian 1-12, a bi-national combined maritime security exercise designed to develop the capabilities of the Kingston Class vessels, Port Security Unit (PSU) and the Naval Cooperation and Guidance for Shipping (NCAGS) organizations. The two-week exercise took place in the southern waters of British Columbia with PSU and NCAGS operating out of HMCS Discovery in Vancouver. A US Coast Guard cutter, aircraft, helicopter and dive team also participated in the exercise.
Patrol Craft Tenders (PCTs) Caribou, Moose, Orca and Raven were at sea in support of MARS IV NABOB DIVISION training.
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