It is not unusual for big organizations to experience problematic behaviour among personnel. The Canadian military is no exception and, as an organization with a long history of male dominance, the mistreatment of women in the ranks has been receiving attention. The question is how to address the problem. The […]
NAC Briefing Note
29 posts
We know that technology affects warfare. How we fight has changed dramatically over the years as technology has developed. We are in the midst of another significant change to warfare – cyber-warfare. Inherent in this is, of course, cyber-security. Warships (and on-land military support infrastructures) require multiple computer networks. Command […]
The Royal Canadian Navy follows Canadian government support for international maritime law, and this means that RCN ships often participate in operations that involve countering malign behaviour at sea. People smuggling, drug trafficking and sanctions violations means taking a closer look at ships in certain areas. Boarding parties can be […]
We have already discussed the importance of maintaining naval ships. This is critical because Canada keeps its navy ships in service for many years. But not only is maintenance critical, so is modernization. If ships are to be in service for 30 or 40 years, they need to be updated […]
How do data, emails, money transfers and digital communications travel to Europe or Asia? Virtually all trans-oceanic data now travel by undersea fibre-optic cables, not via satellites. Undersea cables have a long history, and have become increasingly important as the world has become more interdependent and as communication technology was […]
We’re in the midst of the second wave of COVID-19. The complete economic shutdown of the spring has not (yet) happened everywhere, but our lives are still being affected by the pandemic. We know the conditions and effects on land, but what about on the water? Canada is a trading […]
Unless the RCN wants to rely on friends and allies, Canada needs support ships/Auxiliary Oiler Replenishment (AOR) ships when RCN ships deploy. Until about five years ago, Canada had two AORs – HMCS Preserver and HMCS Protecteur – but both ships have now been retired. This meant that Canada had […]
In case you haven’t been paying attention, Canada is building new ships for the navy. We hear about design, capabilities, timetables, numbers and especially costs. But we don’t hear a lot about crewing the new ships. Technology has already reduced the need for large crews in some cases. But, although […]
After almost two years of broad consultations, the government released a defence policy entitled Strong, Secure, Engaged: Canada’s Defence Policy (SSE) in June 2017. It is intended to provide direction on defence policy for the next 20 years. The broad strokes of SSE reflect what has been said in previous […]
We know that the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) is a blue-water navy, and RCN warships regularly sail to distant lands to work with allies. But what about closer to home? The navy undertakes tasks such as defence of Canadian sovereignty, securing Canada’s maritime approaches, drug interdiction operations, fisheries patrols, search […]