NAC News – Edition 389 Christmas Edition
Your weekly national and international naval news for the week of December 24th, 2020
🎁 Christmas 🌲 Edition – 389 “China has arrived as the other superpower, and by that token Biden doesn’t have any choice but to try to define a new way of thinking about the challenge.” 6 December 2020 Michael O’Hanlon, The Washington Post
Rod Hughes – Editor NAC News rhughes@shaw.ca (comments welcome to help improve this service)
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★ Editor’s stars of the week
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NOTICES
- ★ Naval Affairs Partnership Programme – Over the past year the NAC National Board has been considering how to ensure continued funding for our emergent Naval Affairs programme, which after several years of development is now achieving measurable success. We are pleased to announce a partnership with the Association of Marketing Professionals (AMP) in the promotion of and the securing support for, our Naval Affairs Program. To this end they will be helping us to connect with industry to secure the needed support and to promote the work we are doing in educating Canadians on the need for a modern and well-equipped RCN. We will keep you apprised of the progress of this exciting initiative. If there is a way that you as a member can be supportive or directly assist AMP in their efforts, please contact the NAC Executive Director.
- RCN Zoom presentation “Canadian Surface Combatants – the RIGHT ship for the RCN, the RIGHT ship for Canada” by Capt (RCN) Christopher Nucci, Director Naval Strategy. Tue 12 Jan 2021 @ 2:30 PM EST. There is no fee, but registration is required so please contact LCdr Kray Robichaud Kray.Robichaud@forces.gc.ca and include your full name and professional details (i.e. position/title & organization)
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CANADA
- ★ Vice-Admiral Art McDonald named new chief of the defence staff (Editor – Congratulations to one of our NAC members! Only our fourth naval CDS, with the last being VAdm Murray acting CDS in 1997 – Adm John Anderson (1993) and Adm Robert Falls (1977-1980)
- Happy Holidays 2020 from Defence Team leaders! (Editor – 9:17 min video)
- MND Holiday Message 2020 (Editor – 1:54 min video)
- Commander RCN delivers Holiday Greeting and End-of-Year Update
- #4 Michele Tessier: only the third woman to ever command a Canadian naval warship (Editor – a down east interview of a great officer in this 59:59 min video)(Exec Dir – Note we have received several comments that LCdr Tessier is the fourth woman to command a Canadian warship)
- Battle of the budget: DND gears up to defend cost of new warships in the New Year and
- NSS Progress and Perspectives (Editor – article by our Director of Naval Affairs, Tim Addison)
- HMCS Toronto returns to Halifax just in time for Christmas
- ‘A strong and gentle love’: Master sailor grieved at memorial ceremony as HMCS Winnipeg returns home
- Canadian submarine docked extra year due to leak found following errant test (editor – and a reminder – Naval Affairs Program Briefing Note # 5) and The Saga Of This Long-Busted Submarine Is An Example Of How Sad Canada’s Tiny Sub Fleet Is
- Ottawa blocks Chinese takeover of Nunavut gold mine project after national security review
- New veterans ombudsman experienced disability backlog firsthand
- Refitting SACKVILLE: 2018-2021 (Editor – literally hundreds of pictures – enjoy!)
- NAC – Naval Affairs Program Briefing Note # 10 Assets and Platforms
- Defence Minister Sajjan launches panel to probe racism in the ranks
- Federal fisheries minister announces phaseout of Discovery Islands fish farms
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USA & AMERICAS
- USNI News Fleet and Marine Tracker: Dec. 21, 2020
- Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group Begins Second 2020 Deployment
- First Female Nuclear Carrier CO Will Command USS Abraham Lincoln
- Raytheon to produce 90 Block V Tactical Tomahawk All Up Round Vertical Launch System missiles for US Navy
- Russian intimidation of Bering Sea fishermen shows gap in Arctic investment, Sullivan says
- USCG Cutter Active Completes 46-Day Mission Seizing $159M in Cocaine
- Congress guts funding for cruiser replacements
- Navy Issues RFP for Snakehead LDUUV Prototypes
- US Navy Future USS Daniel Inouye Destroyer Completes Builder’s Trials
- Navy Releases Fourth Round of USS Thresher Inquiry Documents
- ★ Bottlenecks Wear Down World Economy’s Fleet of Container Ships and Global Cargo Logjam Deepens
- Good News For Sailors: High Tech Lasers Could Replace Needle Guns
- First Steel Cutting Ceremony For US MARAD’s New NSMV Training Ship
- A New Look at John Paul Jones
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INDO-PACIFIC
- China says tailed U.S. warship in Taiwan Strait and Chinese Aircraft Carrier Group Sails Through Taiwan Strait
- U.S. Expands Export Restrictions on Technology to Chinese Shipbuilders and US blacklists companies with possible military ties
- Destroyer USS John S. McCain Performs South China Sea FONOP and South China Sea: US destroyer sails near Spratly Islands to ‘assert navigational rights’ and Navy rejects China’s claim it ‘expelled’ US warship from disputed South China Sea
- China’s Maritime Militia is a Problem – The USCG Could Be the Solution (Editor – startling graphic)
- The Chinese Navy Has a Command Problem
- South China Sea: PLA’s new dry dock in Hainan big enough for Type 002 aircraft carriers, analysts say
- Japan Increases its Defence Budget to Record $52 Billion for Stealth Jets and Long-Range Missiles
- ★ Op-Ed: All systems go for next-gen Hunter class frigate program and Government launches SICP plan to support sovereign industry capability (Editor – busy Australians)
- Navy, JFD demonstrate submarine rescue capability
- Future ships of the Indian Navy
- Russia and China Team Up in the Indian Ocean
- U.S., French Nuclear Attack Submarines Exercise Together Off Guam
- HMNZS Te Kaha Arrives In New Zealand With New Capability Following Integration Of Canadian-Developed CMS 330 Combat Management System
- Wakashio Owner: Mauritius Disaster Caused by Lack of Safety Awareness
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EUROPE
- ★ Russia Launches Unusual Floating Science Station for the High Arctic
- Royal Navy support vessel RFA Argus returns home after seizing more than £400m of drugs in Caribbean
- Germany And The Netherlands Joining Forces For F-124 / LCF Frigate Replacement
- Russia plans to upgrade Admiral Vinogradov antisubmarine ship
- Russian Navy to get four submarines in 2021
- Latest amphibious assault ship accepted for service in Russian Navy
- HMS Prince Of Wales: Repairs To Aircraft Carrier To Cost £3.3m (Editor – 1:35 min video included)
- Turkey to produce Ada-Class corvettes of MILGEM project for Ukrainian Navy
- German Navy receives new REMUS 100 UUV from HII
- Spanish Company Jalvasub Engineering to develop fuel-cell for Air-independent propulsion of S-80 submarine
- Over 900 drones enter service in Russia since 2012
- MAIB: Unexploded Ordnance May be Cause of Fishing Vessel Blast
- 1,000 lost on one boat – this woman hopes to name them and ‘Invisible shipwrecks’ belie falling migrant deaths: UN
- Sweden to Allow Underwater Probe of Estonia Wreck Site
- Russian Freighter Caught in the Ice in Siberian Arctic and Shipping on Northern Sea Route breaks record
- ★ Unique Look Inside One of the Biggest Container Ships in the World | Richard Hammond’s Big (Editor – given the One Opus recent container collapse this 7:20 min video should be of interest) and MARIN – Follow-up research container loss Wadden (Editor – not the cause I expected explained in this 6:03 min video)
- Hapag-Lloyd orders six LNG-powered 23,500+ TEU ULCVs in $1 billion deal
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MIDDLE EAST
- U.S. Sub Sends Message With Rare Surfaced Transit Through Hormuz
- Israeli submarine reportedly crosses Suez Canal in ‘message’ to Iran
- US Navy and Saudi naval forces conduct joint Air Operations in support of Maritime Surface Warfare exercise
- Turkish Navy has formally handed-over command of Combined Maritime Forces’ (CMF) Combined Task Force 151 to Pakistani
- NH-90 NFH naval helicopter for Qatar performs its first flight at Leonardo facility in Italy
- US Navy cruiser seizes more than 500 kg of narcotics in North Arabian Sea
- Iraq to Sign $2.625 Bln Port Contract with S.Korea’s Daewoo
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GLOBAL INTERESTS
- U.S. Aircraft Carrier, 2,500 Marines Off the Coast of Somalia as Pentagon Repositions Forces in Africa and U.S. Navy Strike Force Arrives off Somalia for Troop Withdrawal
- Israel Shipyards starts construction of first African OPV-45 patrol boats
- IMO Condemns Charterers’ ‘No Crew Change’ Clauses
- Maersk Boxship Boarded off West Africa
- Small, Cheap Metocean Buoys Expand Coverage of High-Res Wave Data
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SCUTTLEBUTT
- Coastal Defences – A Brief History with Military History Visualized (Editor – 1:58:04 hr video)
- Latest America’s Cup boats explained (Editor – for you sailing fanatics, a sensation series of videos [this one 9:40 min] on these incredible boats); and How the new AC75 will fly 3:14 min video; America’s Cup Defender Analysis 7:18 min video; and Luna Rossa Pirelli /Prada 2:47 min video. Enjoy!
- HMS Victoria – Guide 210 (Editor – a crazy time for warship building. Since the HMS Victoria tragedy, and apart from a shore establishment, the RN has not named another ship Victoria, nor had Canada until our submarine HMCS Victoria)
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SIGNIFICANT RCN DATES – JANUARY
(If you see any omissions or errors please inform me, and more modern significant dates are also welcome. The list draws primarily from the Directory of History and Heritage’s comprehensive “Significant Dates in Canadian Military History”, the now defunct “Canada Channel”, “Legion Magazine”, Roger Litwiller’s excellent website, the encyclopedic guidance of NAC member and author Fraser McKee, and anywhere else I can find credible information.)
- 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 commanded by A/LCDR L. Raymond Pavillard, RCNR, and HMS Bayntun sank 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 1943 RCN corvette HMCS Ville de Québec commanded by LCdr A.R.E. Coleman, RCNR sank the German submarine U-224 off Italy.
- 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 commanded by Lt Edward T. Simmons, RCNVR sank 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.
- 29 January 1914 First public parade of RNCVR in Victoria. With ex-RN instructors.
- 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.