By Dan Middlemiss, 19 June 2024
At the request of the Commander of Joint Operations Command and the head of the Canadian Navy, Minister of National Defence (MND) Bill Blair authorized a combined RCAF-Navy operation focused on Havana, Cuba, where five powerful Russian naval vessels, including the nuclear-powered cruise missile submarine Kazan and the frigate Admiral Gorshkov, were moored. A CP-140 Aurora and HMCS Ville de Quebec frigate assisted the United States in tracking the Russian flotilla as it approached Cuba.
According to MND Blair, Ottawa also sent one of Canada’s most modern naval vessels, HMCS Margaret Brooke, an Arctic and Offshore Patrol Ship, “to demonstrate Canada’s presence, naval capability and commitment to safe and open waters in the Americas.” [1]
Blair also noted that this naval mission was intended as an act of deterrence against Moscow. Blair stated that “presence is deterrence. We were present.” Canada is “committed to maintaining a credible military presence in the sea and in the air around our continent,” Blair said. “Any foreign actors coming into our neighbourhood can expect to see our armed forces fulfilling their mission to protect Canada's interests,” he added. [2]
HMCS Margaret Brooke is armed with a Mk 38 25mm gun and two M2 Browning machine guns.
Shortly after the arrival of the Canadian ship, the Russian flotilla departed Cuba and was reported headed for Venezuela.
There is no confirmation yet that Russian President Vladimir Putin is considering withdrawing Russian military forces from Ukraine.
Notes:
1. Steven Chase, “Warship’s visit to Cuba was intended to deter Russia, says minister,” The Globe and Mail, 18 June 2024. Accessed at: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-warships-visit-to-cuba-was-intended-to-deter-russia-says-minister/
2. Peter Zimonjic, “Minister defends Canadian navy ship’s visit to Cuba with Russian vessels in port,” CBC News, 17 June 2024. Accessed at: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/bill-blair-defence-minister-havana-1.7237261
11 thoughts on “Canada Confronts Russian Navy in Cuba”
I imagined the Russians were shaking in their boots when the ship sailed in. What’s that on its deck? A pea shooter. A powerful statement, at least it’s not 30 years old. . .
Ron, somehow I don’t think that was the intended reason to send HMCS Margaret Brooke to Havana….a turn to starboard as they were passing by would have ruined the Russians whole day.
What does Ukraine have to do with this story? How can a civil design ship with almost not combat capability, ‘confront’ the Russian Navy?
It wasn’t sent for that reason whatsoever.
Hello,
Respectfully, confronted how, and why?
I ask because our media seems to take a very emotional view of this situation. See this ridiculous piece of reporting: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/cuba-canada-russia-ukraine-navy-havana-1.7235799, with the author trying hard to push the angle that the two countries’ ships being in Havana at the same time was “putting Canada in an embarrassing situation”, and that “Nothing happens by coincidence and the Russians were planning this with the Cubans”. All ignoring that the Russian visit was very well publicized (https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/russian-warships-arrive-havana-week-cuban-officials-citing-110909386 for example, or https://tass.com/world/1799859). The Cubans said the Russians would be there between June 12 and June 17, at Cuba’s invitation, the Russians say they will arrive on June 12.
Cuba invited Canada to come at the same time. Were we so incompetent and stupid to not know the Russians would be there?
And if the Russians were there, so what? We had to “deter” them from doing what? They showed up, did their drills, exchanged what they had to exchange with Cuba, gathered whatever intelligence they needed, and they left. Just as our own fleets do everywhere on the planet.
So why the emotion, and why a need to “defend” our accepting Cuba’s invitation? It just looks foolish to act this way.
The simple professional approach would have been to say:
“Russia is openly sending some of its newest platforms and systems to Cuba…Cuba is inviting us…we sent a patrol ship naturally, and of course, we collected absolutely all intelligence we could about them. We got super duper HD photos, 3D video, all acoustic signatures, radio signatures, we even sampled the water from their exhaust and got infrared shots of their plumbing, job well done! Thank you Cuba for making our work easier”.
So besides collecting all this useful information, how did we “confront them”? Did they turn back when they heard the Canucks were coming? Did we go in deck gun shooting across their bows to shoo them away? Did the sight of Margaret Brook force them to immediately surrender to Ukraine’s mercenary army? Or did we just offer them Tim’s doughnuts, but without the double-double? Heck, the Admiral Gorshkov even had the top deck open to the public for visits. Did we send some enforcers to break stuff and tell them what’s what?
Rather than this emotional noise, it would be nice to see some technical reports on what was learned about these vessels and their systems. Do we know more about their propulsion, acoustics, electromagnetic profiles? Do we know how they build their hulls? Do we know more about their armament and sensors? Do we have very high resolution images of absolutely every piece of equipment on the outside of those hulls? That, and a cold-headed compare/contrast with our own systems would make more interesting reading.
Regards
When your Chief of Defence Staff states that Russia and China are at war with Canada, then anything that brings those forces together can be considered a confrontation. Blair himself says the whole operation was ‘carefully planned’ and that the operation was intended to deter Russia..
Of course, one wonders about what sort of gong show is going on here. In an earlier press release, the HMCS Margaret Brooke was being sent “to mark 80 years of diplomatic relations with Cuba.” (https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/blair-defends-navy-s-cuba-visit-says-critics-may-be-confused-about-its-purpose-1.6929986).
As to how carefully planned this deployment was in advance, Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly told CBC News in a recent interview she was unaware that one of Canada’s patrol vessels was docked in Havana at the same time as Russian warships. “This is information that is news to me,” Joly told host David Cochrane on the weekend.
We can feel sorry for the RCN sailors involved who were only doing their jobs, but once again our politicians cannot resist making fools of the military by exaggerating and making misleading claims about our military capabilities and activities. The Prime Minister’s Office was probably trying to make Canada look good in advance of the NATO Secretary-General’s visit to Ottawa to scold Canada for continuing to be a laggard on defence spending.
If we only need a single, constabulary AOPS to deter Russia now, then Canada need not bother buying expensive surface combatants – that will not be delivered in numbers until the 2040s in any case – to deal whatever Russia and China are up to these days.
Yours is a very clear and intelligent assessment of what is really going on. We are not confronting anyone’s navy. Real naval power now includes sensors, communications and networking systems – which the AOPS have. I agree with you that the hysteria is unfounded but unfortunately it undermines us and adds to the sense of inferiority that pervades too many of these columnists.
The AOPS ships are clearly for Patrol, Intelligence, Special OPS, icebreakers and now potentially a useful diplomatic function too.
But on a lesser issue, in my own opinion, I would be asking the designers and the builders about the state of the paint on the hull, hopefully it’s due to a lot of sea time. If smaller crews mean less maintenance, then the CSC program should be looking at the marine coatings and cathodic protection systems used in the offshore industries
AOPS does have sensors but not in the class of an actual combatant and they can’t gather sigint. You can be sure while there the ship’s intelligence team closed up to monitor the Russian units to study upper deck features, take photos, videos etc. You can also be sure that no crew member was allowed to use their cell phones and the ship’s WiFi was turned off as the Russians have the ability to spoof WiFi free hotspots to lure people to use it.
As for the state of the paint, the RCN uses a two part epoxy that is more environmentally friendly than the old ship’s side grey the RCN used to use but it’s not as durable. The ships get painted once during a five year refit cycle and ships crew are only allowed minor touchups and only after extensive preparations are made. Couple that with except for Halifax and Esquimalt painting while in the water and even rust removal is forbidden by environmental laws. In areas such as the Caribbean which are MARPOL special areas and environmentally sensitive, even more strict rules apply. Even after a full paint ship in a couple of weeks rust starts to show. The Russians are not subject to such rules.
This visit was more than likely arranged many months ago between Ottawa and Cuba well before the Russian navy ever came to town, so it is nothing new. The fact that the Margaret Brooke AOPS is there at the same time is probably good for SIGINT for the CAF. The Russians however are not stupid and will probably leave Havana “silent” to counter any Canadian “snooping/spoofing”. I do believe that the Russians were surprised and possibly shocked however that a Canadian warship had entered Havana for a port visit just after the Russian warships and submarine had already tied up and were more than likely not told by Havana in advance.
No it wasn’t. It was a fairly recent decision and the Russians was quite aware of their arrival in advance. It may of been smarter to send the VDQ but I would imagine they didn’t want to increase tensions.
Hello,
My fear is that insecure columnists and incompetent leaders are pushing tensions towards devastating war. We saw this with WWI spiraling out of control as media pushed politicians to more bloodshed.
The apparently ignorant Melanie Joly should have been on the phone with Lavrov and said “listen Serge, we don’t like you, we don’t want you or your boats anywhere near us, so we will send a patrol ship, a frigate, a sub, and a green all-electric ferry to watch you. Don’t get jumpy.” Then Lavrov would have said “ok sure, trade us a case of Crown Royale for a case of our finest banned Russian vodka and we’ll make sure the sailors don’t kill each other.”
To the columnists, Joly should then have said “yes I know all about it, I spoke to my counterparts in both Russia and US, and there is no need for alarm. RCN and USN rendezvous-ed with the Russkies and kept it cordial. Have a nice day.”
Even at peak Cold War tensions, we trusted that the armed forces were professional and had a sense of self-preservation and logic. Nobody should want war. Those who do are lunatics with SD Syndrome. The gong show of insecure incompetents is the most dangerous as they have a poor grasp of cause & effect and are oblivious to reality.
To the big boys waving big sticks around, the message should be “deconflict! Because no one will come out of a real fight in one piece”. I hope the competent professionals out there take this to heart.
As for the paint job, I see a lot of it along the plate weld lines. Does the new “green” paint not adhere as well at the seams? The stuff around ports and openings looks like rust staining from internal mild steel (non stainless) piping.
Regards