Canada may get new submarines.Let me say that again. Canada may get new submarines.No, this is not a joke.Yes, we're in the information gathering stage (as always) and yes in typical Canadian government fashion, Bill Blair, Canada’s Minister of National Defence, kicked the can down the road.But it's a start, and that must be recognized.Speaking at an event hosted by the Defense Writers Group in Washington, on May 13, Blair said Canada is weighing “collaboration” from foreign partners in a bid to figure out a way forward on replacing its fleet of aging Victoria-class submarines.According to Breaking Defense, Blair said, "I’m pretty confident we will get to a determination of our path forward on underwater surveillance submarines.”Blair told the event that he was approached about joining the German-Norwegian Thyssenkrupp-made (TKMS) 212CD class submarine package.The class is derived from the Type 212 submarine class, but will be significantly larger than the 212 class. Optical sensors will include advanced Hensoldt OMS 150 and OMS 300 optronics masts.“I met last week with the German defence minister, and he brought to me a letter signed by both him and our Norwegian counterpart — they are interested in working collaboratively with Canada on a number of different options across a broad range of defence capabilities, but also included underwater surveillance,” Blair said. “Frankly, I’m pleased and we’re hearing from many others as well.”Canada operates four Victoria-class submarines, the design of which dates back to the late 1980s. The youngest of the subs entered service in 2003. However, the RCN has been unable to sustain a single vessel at sea consistently through the class’s history and is unlikely to in the future. Perhaps the most serious event was the grounding of HMCS Corner Brook in 2011, followed by a series of incidents that has effectively kept the vessel out of service since. In other words, it has been a disaster, severely hampering the RCN’s ability to generate boats for operational deployment. “We need to be able to be, to the extent possible, connected and interoperable with allies," said Blair. "We all have a shared mission, those of us who are close and aligned, and finding the best way for us collectively to achieve that mission is really in our interest.”While Canada suffered the utter humiliation of being left out of AUKUS, the US/Australia/UK trilateral submarine partnership, the pool of potential contenders remains deep, and perhaps more suited to Canada's needs.Shipbuilders from Japan, South Korea, Germany, Sweden and the United States will likely be considered as the ministry does its work.According to Breaking Defense, when Canada’s recent Defence Policy Update (DPU) was released, critics quickly jumped on the fact that rather than including specifics about what a new submarine fleet might look like, the paper instead said that, “We will explore options for renewing and expanding our submarine fleet” in the future.Blair now says he “regrets” using the term “explore,” given the criticism that it “is not a very clear and powerful word."“It’s certainly not my intention to be wishy-washy. What I’ve tried to articulate very, very clearly and strongly in the document is, we know we have to replace our submarine fleet, and we’re going to do that,” Blair said. “There’s some work to do.”Without being able to secure actual funding for the submarines in the Defence Policy Update, the goal was to signal to industry and international partners that Canada is in the information gathering stage, Blair said.He also emphasized that whenever the submarines are bought, it will help push Canada over the NATO target of 2% GDP spending on defence.“We’ve got some work to do in both determining what our requirements are, what choices are available within the market, and we’re beginning those processes right away,” said Blair.“And then once we’ve done that work, I’ll be in a much stronger position to go back to my own government saying, we now have a very clear path to this new capability acquisition, and then seek the funding for it.”Of course, that sounds like the Canadian way — kick the can down the road with funding the stumbling block, but at least the DND is heading in the right direction.One estimate says the Victoria-class fleet has another 15-20 years of life, and given the lengthy timelines for submarine production, getting under contract sooner rather than later seems imperative.Replacing the subs “is necessary. It is, I might suggest, inevitable,” he said. “One of things we’re hearing from our armed forces, but also hearing from industry, they need the clarity and certainty of direction, and then commitment. And so I hope in the DPU, I provided them with direction. And I’m working hard on getting the commitment.”That will be welcome news from industry, which also found the language in the DPU to be underwhelming.Speaking to a group of reporters and analysts in Stockholm, Simon Carroll, President of Saab Canada, said of the language, “I don’t personally think that goes strong enough, that that wording is strong enough for future submarines in Canada.""I think we need to advance the ‘explore’ status and put some money to it or put some numbers to it at the moment. So I think that was for me a little disappointing,” he said.“Others will say it’s given us policy coverage. And I get that. I just think we need to get moving forward because I think putting it in the same categorization as a number of the other ‘explore’ capabilities that Canada wants to look at in the future doesn’t say we’re going to buy submarines in the future, even though we know full well that the Victoria class submarines are on their way out.”Noting that the work is underway, Blair was careful not to put any sort of hard timeline on when a final decision could be made.“You’ll forgive me, I can’t get too far ahead or presenting anything to government,” he said. But, “I have a sense of urgency around this.”With a Prime Minister more interested in gender diversity and inclusion in the military, this might be a tough sell.
Canada may get new submarines.Let me say that again. Canada may get new submarines.No, this is not a joke.Yes, we're in the information gathering stage (as always) and yes in typical Canadian government fashion, Bill Blair, Canada’s Minister of National Defence, kicked the can down the road.But it's a start, and that must be recognized.Speaking at an event hosted by the Defense Writers Group in Washington, on May 13, Blair said Canada is weighing “collaboration” from foreign partners in a bid to figure out a way forward on replacing its fleet of aging Victoria-class submarines.According to Breaking Defense, Blair said, "I’m pretty confident we will get to a determination of our path forward on underwater surveillance submarines.”Blair told the event that he was approached about joining the German-Norwegian Thyssenkrupp-made (TKMS) 212CD class submarine package.The class is derived from the Type 212 submarine class, but will be significantly larger than the 212 class. Optical sensors will include advanced Hensoldt OMS 150 and OMS 300 optronics masts.“I met last week with the German defence minister, and he brought to me a letter signed by both him and our Norwegian counterpart — they are interested in working collaboratively with Canada on a number of different options across a broad range of defence capabilities, but also included underwater surveillance,” Blair said. “Frankly, I’m pleased and we’re hearing from many others as well.”Canada operates four Victoria-class submarines, the design of which dates back to the late 1980s. The youngest of the subs entered service in 2003. However, the RCN has been unable to sustain a single vessel at sea consistently through the class’s history and is unlikely to in the future. Perhaps the most serious event was the grounding of HMCS Corner Brook in 2011, followed by a series of incidents that has effectively kept the vessel out of service since. In other words, it has been a disaster, severely hampering the RCN’s ability to generate boats for operational deployment. “We need to be able to be, to the extent possible, connected and interoperable with allies," said Blair. "We all have a shared mission, those of us who are close and aligned, and finding the best way for us collectively to achieve that mission is really in our interest.”While Canada suffered the utter humiliation of being left out of AUKUS, the US/Australia/UK trilateral submarine partnership, the pool of potential contenders remains deep, and perhaps more suited to Canada's needs.Shipbuilders from Japan, South Korea, Germany, Sweden and the United States will likely be considered as the ministry does its work.According to Breaking Defense, when Canada’s recent Defence Policy Update (DPU) was released, critics quickly jumped on the fact that rather than including specifics about what a new submarine fleet might look like, the paper instead said that, “We will explore options for renewing and expanding our submarine fleet” in the future.Blair now says he “regrets” using the term “explore,” given the criticism that it “is not a very clear and powerful word."“It’s certainly not my intention to be wishy-washy. What I’ve tried to articulate very, very clearly and strongly in the document is, we know we have to replace our submarine fleet, and we’re going to do that,” Blair said. “There’s some work to do.”Without being able to secure actual funding for the submarines in the Defence Policy Update, the goal was to signal to industry and international partners that Canada is in the information gathering stage, Blair said.He also emphasized that whenever the submarines are bought, it will help push Canada over the NATO target of 2% GDP spending on defence.“We’ve got some work to do in both determining what our requirements are, what choices are available within the market, and we’re beginning those processes right away,” said Blair.“And then once we’ve done that work, I’ll be in a much stronger position to go back to my own government saying, we now have a very clear path to this new capability acquisition, and then seek the funding for it.”Of course, that sounds like the Canadian way — kick the can down the road with funding the stumbling block, but at least the DND is heading in the right direction.One estimate says the Victoria-class fleet has another 15-20 years of life, and given the lengthy timelines for submarine production, getting under contract sooner rather than later seems imperative.Replacing the subs “is necessary. It is, I might suggest, inevitable,” he said. “One of things we’re hearing from our armed forces, but also hearing from industry, they need the clarity and certainty of direction, and then commitment. And so I hope in the DPU, I provided them with direction. And I’m working hard on getting the commitment.”That will be welcome news from industry, which also found the language in the DPU to be underwhelming.Speaking to a group of reporters and analysts in Stockholm, Simon Carroll, President of Saab Canada, said of the language, “I don’t personally think that goes strong enough, that that wording is strong enough for future submarines in Canada.""I think we need to advance the ‘explore’ status and put some money to it or put some numbers to it at the moment. So I think that was for me a little disappointing,” he said.“Others will say it’s given us policy coverage. And I get that. I just think we need to get moving forward because I think putting it in the same categorization as a number of the other ‘explore’ capabilities that Canada wants to look at in the future doesn’t say we’re going to buy submarines in the future, even though we know full well that the Victoria class submarines are on their way out.”Noting that the work is underway, Blair was careful not to put any sort of hard timeline on when a final decision could be made.“You’ll forgive me, I can’t get too far ahead or presenting anything to government,” he said. But, “I have a sense of urgency around this.”With a Prime Minister more interested in gender diversity and inclusion in the military, this might be a tough sell.
