RFA Largs Bay, Karel Doorman and the Red Mistrals IMHO were all missed opportunities that Canada should have stepped up for.
The continued decline in our Navy, Preserver paid off today, is a result of successive government failure to recognize the importance of a balanced military able to support government policy. Sending our uniformed personnel into harms way without appropriate resources is criminal.
We hitch hiked our way to Afghanistan. We had to play second fiddle in the first Gulf campaign because of our lack of resources. We sent a frigate to Haiti after the earthquake. We had to wait for the damn ferry to send the Army to Newfoundland after a hurricane a couple of years ago.
Organic RO/RO transport capacity is worth its weight in gold when all other means are unavailable or destroyed. Military assets are not just for offensive actions. Large cavernous amphibious type vessels such as LPD's, LHD's and MRV's can and should be the force multipliers that government can utilize for both soft and hard power projection.
Maybe the Dutch are on to something. They have structured their fleet with two large amphibious ships, one JSS, six frigates, four OPV's, four submarines and three dozen minor vessels and 9000 members.
We have the same number of members 12 frigates, one destroyer, four submarines and no support ships as of today plus minor vessels. On order are 5 or 6 AOPS and three AOR .
We are by no means able to compare apples to apples between our two nations. The physical size of our coastal responsibilities plus our global commitments requires a more robust fleet. The vastness and emptiness of our northern regions bely the need to ensure we have a physical presence available. I agree aerial surveillance is the best way to keep an eye on the area but we still need the ability to prosecute onsite if required. As a maritime nation with so much of our major centres accessible from the sea it makes sense for our nation to have the ability to assist its own from the sea, or great lake (our inland seas).
The Americans are toying with the idea of upgunning LPD's and using them in non traditional ways. The Dutch and the Brits (Poms as Ngati would say) are using their Bay and Enforcer classes as motherships, sea bases, to support operations as diverse as counter narco and anti pirate and refugee interdiction and support. They do this because they have the asset as well as the inherent flexibility that these platforms provide.
Using the rule of three's a fleet of 15 hulls provides 5 in a high state of readiness actively involved or ready to deploy, five hulls in training, and 5 hulls in various stages of refit or maintenance.
I watched this 32 year old CBC documentary hosted by Terrence McKenna detailing the challenges faced by our troops because of a lack of investment, the navy the worse off.
http://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j...y-guns&usg=AFQjCNGZ_NVEIjhf9c8jjCfyjR3W_af2EQ
Here we are three decades later and we are facing the same problem.
Unlike the Dutch who sell off their 20 year old hulls and refresh their fleet we are performing midlife refits in order to keep these hulls long past heir design life.
More jobs keeping old stuff going than investing in new hulls.
So now that my rant is over I wonder if its time for a total change to what we expect our navy to be able to accomplish.
Using the last 20 years as a basis of operations I see the following as important;
-deployed presence and enforcement patrols in a low to moderate threat environment
-support to peace making up to high threat
-full on war fighting potential at high threat
-HADR
Going back to a previous post I suggested a mixed fleet that I feel would serve us better. In order to allow the deployment of two Task Groups plus individual taskings I would like to see
two Queenston AOR (even though I dislike the names)
one Resolve AOR / HADR support
six highend ASW frigates based on the German F125 class c/w VLS ESSM
eight General Purpose Absalon frigates as built by Denmark
three Holland class OPV for deployment to low threat situations
six Dewolf class AOPS for the Arctic
minimum of four submarines
As much as I feel we need a class of LPD or LPH or Dutch JSS its about as likely to happen as there is of an increase to 2% of GDP for defence.
