By Dr. Ann Griffiths, 5 January 2025
We’re a few days into 2025 and I hope the year has been going well for everyone thus far. As we reflect on life, the universe and everything at this time of year, let’s look back at 2024.
As far as CNR is concerned, 2024 was a great year. We entered our 20th year of publication. We held our annual CNMT-sponsored essay contest. We published an interesting interview with Admiral Josée Kurtz and (spoiler alert) we have a fascinating interview with Commodore Jason Armstrong, Director General Naval Force Development, coming up in the winter issue. The articles and commentaries we’ve published over the past year have been excellent – and the photos have been amazing. Plus, of course, the discussion on this forum has been illuminating and, at times, feisty.
Was it a good year for the RCN? On the positive side, the sixth AOPS – the future HMCS Robert Hampton Gray – was launched in December 2024. There has been some effort to make the AOPS capable of operating with helicopters which will enhance their scope. The ships will undoubtedly soon begin to ramp up their activities – eg., HMCS Margaret Brooke took part in Op Caribbe – but it’s still not clear (to me) what exactly the ships will be doing for most of their time. Also on the positive side, first steel for a production test module was cut for the Canadian Surface Combatants, now officially termed River-class destroyers, and apparently slow progress is being made re the acquisition of submarines. On the negative side, it’ll be a long time before we see either the destroyers or the submarines.
Meanwhile, the world seems to be sliding into a dark place, Canada is under pressure to increase defence spending, and we’ll have to wait and see how serious our neighbour is about putting tariffs on Canadian goods. It seems like updating/increasing defence and security capabilities can no longer be punted into the distant future.
