By Dr. Ann Griffiths, 21 December 2024
A report on military readiness issued a few days ago by the Department of National Defence is depressing reading. Bottom line – the Canadian military is not as ready as it should be, and readiness is declining. The percentage of naval assets that can meet requirements in support of operations has gone down, now significantly below the target of 60%. The navy didn’t meet its serviceability targets because of a number of factors. The existing ships – frigates, MCDVs and submarines – are getting old, the new Arctic and Offshore Patrol Ships have had some mechanical problems, and there are personnel shortages. This is not what we need as Donald Trump takes over as US President. See Canadian military readiness declines | Ottawa Citizen
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The fact is that as platforms age they require more and more maintenance which means more cost and more down time.
With the Halifaxs starting to hit 30 years old, the Victorias already there and the Kingstons as well, this leaves us widely open and I do feel that we should expect the numbers for readiness to get worse before they get better.
If you look at the UK Type 23 fleet and recent events over there with the early (but late) decommission due to structural issues of HMS Northumberland, you can see that we may have to decommission a couple of Halifaxs before replacements are ready.
We have already heard how HMCS Winnipeg has some hull issues. The question is how much of the fleet will be affected? And how long can we go on extending service life?
Just as a note regarding HMS Northumberland comment, the Type 23s were only ever designed for 18 years service life. All have now exceeded this with some examples at nearly double this; the T23 fleet because of the decade long delay in the replacement program and cancellation of T24 and T25 designs, then add on the delays to T26.