Royal Canadian Navy

30 posts

Solutions Needed Now

By Ted Barnes, 17 March 2024 It was recently noted in the media that the CAF is in a death spiral. While I don’t share that exact sediment there is […]

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Busy Navy

Dr. Ann Griffiths, 15 April 2021 As we all hunker down at home waiting for the world to open up again, the RCN has already had a busy year! HMCS […]

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NAC logo

Briefing Notes about Naval Issues

20 January 2020. Quite often, military people end up talking to other military people. They speak the same language and know the same acronyms. It’s just easier to talk to […]

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UK Mexeflote Raft

The Utility of Mexeflote

Davie Shipbuilding gave a presentation at the Canadian Defence Security and Aerospace Exhibition Atlantic in Halifax on 5-7 September. Davie’s presentation featured the new (interim) Auxiliary Oiler Replenishment ship, Asterix. […]

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Input Costs Down, Number of Ships Up?

There has been much written about how defence inflation has eroded the budget allocated to the National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy (NSPS).1 As time passes, the argument goes, the NSPS budget […]

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Old Parts and New Ships

It is reasonable that the Department of National Defence1 (DND) is considering (conducting a “staff check,” to use military language as also used by an interviewee in a television report […]

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Naval Transformation Announcement*

* Moderator’s Note: This message was sent out last week by email to all naval addresses in conjunction with the announcement of major changes to the national-level CF headquarters structure. […]

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The ‘HX’ Convoy System

After my post describing the ‘slow’ SC convoys, I received many requests for information about the other series of east-bound convoys, the ‘fast’ HX series, which many Canadian warships escorted […]

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The Battle of the Atlantic is misnamed

Using the term ‘Battle’ for the protracted struggle in the Atlantic during the Second World War diminishes the importance of this important series of campaigns that spanned the entire war. […]

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What is doctrine and why is it so important?

Most official definitions talk about doctrine as though it is the bedrock of all things naval. This one comes from the USN’s Naval Doctrine Publication 1 (NDP1) Naval Warfare: “Naval […]

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Return of the Royal Canadian Navy?

On 16 August the government of Canada announced its decision to restore the historic names of the three environmental commands of the Canadian Forces; Maritime Command is now the Royal […]

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What does transformation mean to the navy?

Rumours have been swirling ever since Lieutenant-General Andrew Leslie submitted his report on transformation to the CDS that there was big trouble brewing.  John Ibbitsen writes in today’s Globe and […]

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Finding the right balance is key

I agree with much of Ken Hansen’s analysis.  While we have indeed done badly at maintaining leading edge capabilities after purchase (note, however, exceptions of Halifax-class, CP-140, and CF-18 mid-life […]

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Canadian navy’s role in maritime trade*

*Moderator’s Note: This article was original published in The Nova Scotian on 10 January 2011. I have decided to focus my first article of the New Year on prosperity and […]

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Mugridge OpEd: Navy hasn’t adapted to new world

David Mugridge, a Visiting Doctoral Fellow with CFPS, has published a contrarian viewed of the navy’s future in the Nova Scotian, the Sunday supplement to the Chronicle Herald.  You can […]

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