NAC News – Edition 341 HMCS Ottawa

Your weekly national and international naval news for the week of January 24th, 2020

Edition – 341 HMCS Ottawa; K341 HMCS Perry Sound (WW2 Revised Flower Class Corvette)

Rod Hughes -Editor NAC News rhughes@shaw.ca  (comments welcome to help improve this service)

Contact David Soule executivedirector-nac@outlook.com if you wish someone (who may be a member or perhaps a good candidate to join) to be added to the NAC News email distribution.

★   Editor’s stars of the week

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NOTICES

• Vanguard ShipTech 2020 Forum  Keynote Speaker: Mario Pelletier
• Commissioner of the Canadian Coast Guard, The Westin, Ottawa, ON 25 February 2020, 7:30 – 17:00
• CDA Institute Conference – Ottawa 4-5 March 2020 – STICKHANDLING THROUGH ROUGHING AND INTERFERENCE:HOW TO POSITION CANADA IN A WORLD OF GREAT POWER PLAYS
• Robert Hampton Gray VC. DSC. RCNVR memorial fund raising
• 2020 NAC BOA Gala, Conference and AGM – 30 April – 3 May 2020 in Ottawa.
  • 30 Apr (Thursday) – Evening – 2020 BOA Gala Dinner at Canadian War Museum
  • 1 May (Friday) – Day – NAC National Conference
  • 2 May (Saturday) – Morning – NAC National 2020 AGM
  • 3 May (Sunday) – 1000-1400 – National RCN BOA ceremony/parade and associated social gathering
• Vanguard Launches First-Ever Canadian Submarine Event  (Editor – The next big RCN procurement challenge!  The Deep Blue 2020 Forum, a one-day event, will take place on 29 October 2020, details to follow)

CANADA

• CBC Program – High Arctic Haulers  (from your Executive Director- an interesting new 6-part CBC series on community re-supply by ship in the Canadian Arctic as well as several stories on folks who conduct the re-supply and some of the residents. This series is currently being broadcast on CBC so check TV listings and those at the link)
• The case for Canadian militarization of the Arctic 
• Growing use of submarines
• Fighter jet competitors still wait to hear if they meet Canada’s interoperability requirements
• HMCS Halifax prepares for Cyclone helicopter landing  (Editor – 33 sec video)
• Military equipment to be installed as monuments at new DND HQ — price tag is more than $1M
• Port of Halifax: Canada’s Atlantic Gateway to the World
• Remembering Chief Petty Officer Max Bernays  (Editor – 2:17 min video)
• New SALTS schooner to be named Leonora
• Treaty to Protect RMS Titanic Wreck Site Takes Effect

USA & AMERICAS

• USNI News Fleet and Marine Tracker: Jan. 20, 2020
• Why Did the Navy Build Super Aircraft Carriers Instead of a Lot of Medium Ones?
• Carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt Leaves San Diego for Indo-Pacific Deployment
• US Navy completes first Super Hornet ISRT Block II flight
• ★   Navy Will Commission All Expeditionary Sea Bases as USS Warships
• U.S. Navy Tests USS Ford’s Compatibility with Legacy Aircraft
• Entire Navy Tomahawk Missile Arsenal Will Upgrade To Block V
• America’s Plan To Sink Enemy Navies
• US approves US$1.5bn FMS to support RAN’s major surface combatants
• First Navy CMV-22B Osprey in COD (Carrier Onboard Delivery) High-Visibility Color Scheme Makes Maiden Flight
• Why Nothing Seems to Beat the Virginia-class Submarines  (Editor – 10:02 min video)
• Royal Navy warship HMS Medway gets a Hollywood exit from Portsmouth on maiden deployment to fight pirates in the Caribbean
• Textron’s Common USV Ready for Production, Experimenting with Lethal Surface Warfare Payloads
• US Navy Revives Flak Gun Concept for Shooting Down Drones  (Editor – sometimes is as simple as an ammo change)
• Next Ford-class Carrier to be Named After Pearl Harbor Hero Doris Miller
• Legendary barque Kruzenshtern visits Rio de Janeiro in trans-Atlantic voyage
• Petty Officer Censured for Graft in Long-Running GDMA Scandal

INDO-PACIFIC

• ★   Indo-Pacific submarine arms race  (Editor – As Canada “ponders” our next submarines this is a significant article.  With the small number of boats Canada involved, and the fact we have never built our own boats, which foreign boat will Canada acquire?)
• Potential flashpoints in the 2020s: Overlapping contestation, governance and environmental crises  (Editor – good summary for a helter skelter part of the world)
• Officials: U.S.-Japan Iron Fist Amphib Exercise ‘Extremely Important’ as China’s Navy Expands
• This is why India hates the aircraft carrier it bought from Russia #WARTHOGDEFENSE  (Editor – I had not heard the full story, what a mess explained in an 8 min video)
• Indian Navy Lowers its Sights
• India successfully test-fires nuclear-capable K-4 ballistic missile off AP coast
• Korea takes part in U.S.-led multilateral anti-submarine exercise
• USS Emory S. Land Makes First Visit to Kure, Japan
• Thailand is sending submarine crew to train in China
• China’s Unmanned “Mini-Destroyer” Out on Sea Trials
• Enhancing the value of northern Australia in the era of great power competition  (Editor – points raised that sort of echo Canada’s north)
• India Okays Model Pact on Seafarers
• Study: Pacific Ocean “Blob” Led to Unprecedented Seabird Die-Off

EUROPE

• Highlights of UK Carrier Strike Group Westlant 2019 deployment (Editor – impressive eye-candy in 3:29 min video
• Ankara Participates in NATO Naval Drill With European Allies – Defence Ministry
• New Russian PM grants drilling fields to Gazprom in Arctic
• French Carrier Strike Group begins “Foch” deployment
• Northern Fleet aviation to get new sub hunters
• Government intending to ‘grow Destroyer and Frigate force by 2030’
• Royal Navy too short of ships to police fisheries after Brexit, Lords told
• FS Mistral L9013 – The Pride Of The French Defense Industry  (Editor – impressive ship and capability in this 10:37 min video)
• Russian design bureau displays future nuclear-powered aircraft carrier project
• France orders eight diving support fast boats for navy
• Here’s how the destroyer Zumwalt’s stealthy design handles stormy seas
• Analysis: Project 22350 frigates save Russian shipbuilding – take 1
• MoD confident ‘Crowsnest’ carrier early warning ready 2021
• German Yard Taking Legal Action Over Frigate Procurement Decision
• Canal Istanbul: Choppy Waters For Turkey’s Latest Megaproject

MIDDLE EAST

• Great start for Australian lead Combined Task Force 150
• ★   Iran running out of time to meet financial watchdog’s demands  (Editor – not a naval subject but interesting background to the conflict)
• Eight Countries Back European-Led Naval Mission In Strait Of Hormuz
• Russia, Japan kick off anti-piracy drills in Arabian Sea
• Seoul to send destroyer to Strait of Hormuz

GLOBAL INTERESTS

• Anti-ship missile evolution  (Editor – all navies are probably wrestling with this issue)
• Polar Star Reaches Antarctica
• IMO’s 2050 Decarbonization Target Has $1 Trillion Pricetag
• Pirates Release ‘Happy Lady’ Crew Members
• Duke Crew Released by Pirates, One Died in Captivity
• Eight Abducted from Trawler Off Sabah

SCUTTLEBUTT

• HMCS Ontario – Guide 148
• Nuclear Seaplane Striking Force – The Aircraft Carrier Replacement (Editor – for the “nasal radiators” 10:23 min video)
• Linsen Attack! German Explosive Speed Boats  (Editor – 10:57 min video)

SIGNIFICANT RCN DATES – JANUARY

(It’s been a year for this “month-to-month” calendar – if you see any omissions or errors please inform me, and any more modern significant dates are also welcomed.  The list draws primarily from the Directory of History and Heritage’s comprehensive “Significant Dates in Canadian Military History”, the “Canada Channel”, and “Legion Magazine”)

• 1 January 1923 – The National Defence Act, which was passed in June 1922, takes effect, creating the Department of National Defence.
• 1 January 1907 – Military – British Admiralty provisionally hands over the Halifax Dockyard to Canadian authorities.
• 1 January 1946  The Royal Canadian Naval Reserve and the Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve together become the RCN (Reserve).  From this date officers of the Regular Force and Reserve wore the same sleeve lace.
• 4 January 1943 HMCS Prince Henry is re-commissioned as Landing Ship Infantry (Medium).
• 4 January 1945  German U-boats torpedo steamship “Polarland” near Halifax; Canadian merchant ship “Nipiwan Park” also sunk by submarine attack.
• 4 January 1781 Royal Navy press gang seizes Lunenburg farmers in Halifax and puts them on a British Man-of-War, in spite of a jury finding that the impressment is illegal.
• 8 January 1944  HMCS Camrose and HMS Bayntun sink the German submarine U-757 in the North Atlantic.
• 9 January 1945  HMCS Ehkoli, a former RCN patrol boat, is re-commissioned in the RCN as a survey vessel.
• 11 January 1957  HMCS Magnificent arrives in Port Said with the main body of the Canadian contribution in troops and materiel to the United Nations Emergency Force controlling the Israeli-Egyptian border.
• 13 January 13, 1943 – RCN corvette HMCS Ville de Québec sinks German submarine U-224 off Italy; RCN’s first U-boat kill.
• 14 January 1952  HMCS Uganda is renamed Quebec.
• 17 January 1957  HMCS Bonaventure is commissioned at Belfast, Northern Ireland. She is the first aircraft carrier to be owned outright by Canada and incorporates several post-war technical developments: an angled deck, mirror landing aid, and steam catapult.
• 19 January 1911  The Royal Naval College of Canada opens in Halifax.
• 19 January 1943  HMCS Port Arthur sinks the Italian Submarine Tritone in the Mediterranean Sea.
• 22 January 1942  The Canadian Naval Board is established.
• 24 January 1932  HMC Ships Skeena and Vancouver land armed parties at Acajutla, El Salvador, to protect British subjects threatened in a revolution.
• 24 January 1946  HMCS Warrior, the RCN’s first aircraft carrier, is commissioned and Nos. 803, 825, 826, and 883 Squadrons (already manned by Canadians) are transferred from the Royal Navy.
• 26 January 1955  Cabinet approves the entry of members of the Womens’ Royal Canadian Naval Reserve as members of the RCN Regular Force.
• 30 January 1991  At the Battle of Babiyan a CF-18 Hornet attacks and causes irreparable damage to an Iraqi warship. It was the only CF-18 credited with an official victory during the Gulf War.
• 31 January 1923  The Royal Canadian Naval Reserve and Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve are established.