NAC News – Edition 390 – Happy New Year
Your weekly national and international naval news for the week of January 1st, 2021
🎉 Happy New Year 🥂 Edition – 390 “The history of sea power is largely, though by no means solely, a narrative of contests between nations, of mutual rivalries, of violence frequently culminating in war. The profound influence of sea commerce upon the wealth and strength of countries was clearly seen long before the true principles which governed its growth and prosperity were detected.” Alfred Thayer Mahan, The Influence Of Sea Power Upon History, 1660 – 1783
Rod Hughes – Editor NAC News rhughes@shaw.ca (comments welcome to help improve this service)
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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
- MND New Year Message (Editor – 2:01 official min video)
- Year in Navy 2020 (Editor – RCN official 2:48 min video)
- MND Message : Upcoming appointment of the new Chief of the Defence Staff Editor – I errored last week in my note reference VAdm McDonald being the 3rd naval CDS, there have in fact been 4 counting VAdm Larry Murray who was acting CDS for almost a year, with Admirals Bob Falls and John Anderson before him. There have been 17 CDS since 1964, 9 Army, with Gen de Chastelain serving twice, and 7 RCAF generals.
- Off The Wall – Building the Harry DeWolf Part 6/6 (Editor – 3:39 min video)
- Naval Affairs Program Briefing Note # 31 Keeping navy ships/boats at sea maintenance
- CDAI – Adam Lajeunesse: polar silk road: deconstructing Chinese ambitions in the north
- Military bases struggling with personnel shortages, internal review finds
- Canadian Forces in process of releasing member who called on military personnel to disobey COVID-19 orders
- Hunting down racists in the ranks of the CAF
- The Memory Project Veteran Stories: Wally Powell RCN (Editor – 5:17 min recording)
- Mission to Seafarers brings Christmas joy to workers stuck on ships at anchor in Metro Vancouver
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USA & AMERICAS
- USNI News Fleet and Marine Tracker: Dec. 28, 2020
- New in 2021: Here are all the ships the Navy will commission and christen in the coming year
- ★ CIMSEC Sea Control 219 – USCG Commandant Admiral Karl Schultz (Editor – excellent 1:00:04 hr podcast)
- On First Deployment, New Cutter Shows Coast Guard’s Evolving Role
- U.S. Coast Guard Accepts Delivery of Ninth Minotaur-Missionized HC-144B Ocean Sentry Aircraft
- The Navy Should Make Hard Choices To Implement Its New Strategy
- Report on Navy Laser, Railgun and Gun-Launched Guided Projectiles
- Bollinger to Build Four More Fast Response Cutters for U.S. Coast Guard
- U.S. Naval Institute Blog article: Defensive Directed-Energy Weapons: Enhancing Survivability
- Boeing to provide ground control station for US Navy MQ-25 Stingray aerial refueling drone
- Why in this COVID-Ridden World Would Anyone Ever Want to Become a Naval Officer? Here’s a few reasons…
- New in 2021: Blue Angels to start flying F/A-18 Super Hornets
- Go inside charred interior of Navy ship that burned for four days (Editor – 1:47 min video)
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INDO-PACIFIC
- Hints of Chinese Naval Procurement Plans in the 2020s
- The cost of victory – Chinese interest rates (Editor – not a maritime article, but interesting points to ponder)
- Editors’ picks for 2020: ‘How to deal with the increasing risk of doing business with China’ (Editor – Australian article that focuses issues for Canada to ponder)
- 2 Japan-Based Destroyers Conduct Second Taiwan Strait Transit This Month
- USS John S. McCain Conducts Second FONOp This Week, This Time Off Vietnamese Islands
- China to strengthen military coordination with Russia
- China’s Second Type 075 Landing Helicopter Dock Started Sea Trials
- Chinese Navy Expanding Bases Near South China Sea
- Photos: China’s Third Amphibious Assault Ship Nears Completion as First Docks with Shandong Carrier
- Russian Navy’s corvette Aldar Tsydenzhapov enters Pacific Fleet
- U.S. Navy Deploys Heavily-Armed Mark VI Patrol Boats to Philippine Sea (Editor – 8:02 min video)
- US Navy’s Hong Kong port calls likely to be scuppered as ties with China’s military continue to deteriorate
- Stretching The Meaning Of The Word ‘Defense,’ The Japanese Navy Mulls Land-Attack Missiles For Its New Warships
- Australia to Acquire Two More P-8A Poseidon Maritime Patrol Aircraft
- Myanmar Navy has commissioned seven new warships and one submarine
- NSTL conducts trial of air droppable container
- Chinese Submarine Drone Discovered Near Gateway to Indian Ocean
- South China Sea: India, Vietnam to conduct military ‘passing exercise’ in sign of closer ties
- Indonesia to sign contract with Ukraine to purchase RK-360MC Neptune mobile missile coastal defense system
- Thales Australia To Deliver Enhanced Sonars For Collins-Class Submarines
- South Korea: Five shipping companies form alliance
- Indian crews trapped by China’s Australian coal ban
- Gwadar port sealed off to protect Chinese firms
- Palau and USCG Bust Chinese Vessel for Illegal Fishing
- ★ ONE Plans Six World’s Largest Containerships and ONE APUS Collapsed container removal operation (Editor – a huge pick-up-sticks game in this 10:26 min video)
- China to Build Four of the World’s Largest Containerships
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EUROPE
- Russian Black Sea Fleet frigate on its way home after Mediterranean deployment
- Russia Completes Trials Of New Otvet Anti-Submarine Missile (Editor – 27 sec video)
- Two Borei-A strategic nuclear subs to be laid down in 2021 — Defense Ministry
- 17 Missing After Russian Trawler Capsizes Off Novaya Zemlya
- U.S. Readying Fresh Round of Sanctions Against Nord Stream 2 Pipeline
- Rosatom to build small-scale land-based nuclear plant in northern Yakutia by 2028
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MIDDLE EAST
- Iran vows ‘massive response’ to Israeli submarine in Gulf
- The U.S. Navy Is Surging A Lot Of Firepower Into The Persian Gulf—And It’s Not Clear Why
- USS Georgia Visits Bahrain
- Egyptian Navy takes delivery of its new FREMM frigate FFG 1002 Al-Ghalala
- NAVDEX 2021: The most important naval defense exhibition in the Middle East
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GLOBAL INTERESTS
- Nimitz Carrier Strike Group supports Operation Octave Quartz
- Defense updates weekly news round-up 27th Dec – Chinese claim of expelling USS John S. McCain is false! (Editor – 10:56 min video)
- Naval News Monthly Recap – December 2020 (Editor – 5:28 min video)
- Migrant boat sinks off Tunisia leaving at least 20 dead
- The world’s growing concrete coasts (Editor – startling statistics)
- Atlantic discovery: 12 new species ‘hiding in the deep’
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SCUTTLEBUTT
- Victor II SSN Sub Brief (Editor – 30:49 min video) then the Victor III Sub Brief (Editor – 1:05:20 min video)
- 16in Barrels: Construction and Maintenance (Editor – 7:56 min video in honour of Saint Barbara for the gunners) and associated Assembling 16in Gun Turrets (8:57 min video)
- USS OLYMPIA “The Ship” (Editor – berthed in Philadelphia a 3:39 min video) and a little more detail in USS Olympia – Pint-size battleship in a cruisers skin (Editor – 19:02 min video)
- WWII: Anniversary of the Sinking of the Battleship Scharnhorst
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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.