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 […]
NAC Briefing Note
29 posts
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. […]
The Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) is versatile – and will become even more so when the ships included in the National Shipbuilding Strategy (NSS) are complete. The fleet of submarines, frigates and coastal defence vessels can be adapted to various missions. The RCN trains for naval combat including high-intensity operations, […]
How do navies get fuel, ammo, food and spare parts when they’re at sea? Naval forces often have agreements with allied or friendly states that allow them to visit ports to buy fuel and supplies, but often there is no convenient state nearby. And in sparsely populated regions like the […]
The Royal Canadian Navy is a blue-water navy - it travels around the world to play a number of roles to further Canadian foreign policy goals. It conducts operations, often with allies, such as counter-terrorism, counter-narcotics, disaster relief and capacity-building operations, as well as war-fighting exercises. What ships/boats does the […]