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 […]
NAC Briefing Note
22 posts
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 […]
We know about naval ships, but what about Canada’s naval aviation capacity? What capabilities does Canada have, and what do they do? There are a variety of maritime aviation capabilities, and they undertake numerous operations ranging from search and rescue, to surveillance, to anti-submarine warfare. The capabilities can be classified […]
Canada has two sea-going services – the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) and the Canadian Coast Guard (CCG). Why two? They operate different ships and, while their tasks sometimes overlap and they often cooperate, they are different organizations with their own responsibilities, capabilities and mandates. The CCG is a civilian service […]
Most global trade is transported via the oceans, and Canada relies on the oceans to transport all its non-US trade. As well, Canada has always been a supporter of law and order at sea in the belief that a rules-based system benefits everyone. Today, a framework is provided by the […]
Canadians often define themselves as northern people, and think of the North as an integral part of the country. That attitude may be summed up, for example, by the famous lines of the song by Gilles Vigneault, “Mon pays, ce n’est pas un pays, c’est l’hiver” (“My country is not […]
At the end of July 2020, the first Arctic and Offshore Patrol Ship (AOPS) – HMCS Harry DeWolf – was handed over to the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN). This was a great moment for several reasons. First, this is the first ship built for the navy through the National Shipbuilding […]
At the onset of the Cold War, it became clear that the Arctic was of strategic significance. So, for a brief period, the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) established a presence there. But this presence was sporadic and largely abandoned with the transfer of HMCS Labrador - the navy’s only icebreaker […]
The Royal Canadian Navy’s (RCN) has 12 Halifax-class frigates, which are split between the East and West Coasts of the country. They were built in the 1990s and joined the fleet between 1992 and 1997. They are very flexible and versatile warships, and have become the workhorses of the navy. […]