NAC News – Edition 443
Your weekly national and international naval news for the week of January 7th, 2022
Edition 443 “Those of us who have enjoyed the long peace since 1945 need to reflect that much of the world, including Indochina, Afghanistan, the Great Lakes district in Africa and large parts of the Middle East, has been and still sees conflict.” Margaret McMillian: War, How conflicts shape us, Penguin Canada 2020 pg. 8
Rod Hughes – Editor NAC News rhughes@shaw.ca (Comments welcome to help improve this service.)
Links to keep in touch with the NAC and RCN can be found at the bottom of this email.
NOTICES
14 January 2022 10-11 (AM Eastern Time): CSIS and USNI present an online presentation in the Maritime Security series – Dialogue: FIFTH Fleet Mission and Operations Update featuring Vice Admiral Brad Cooper, Commander, United States Naval Forces, Central Command / Commander, FIFTH Fleet and Commander, Combined Maritime Forces. Vice Admiral Cooper and Vice Admiral Peter H. Daly, USN (Ret.), Chief Executive Officer and Publisher, U.S. Naval Institute, will discuss the priorities and operational imperatives of the FIFTH Fleet area of responsibility.
NEW 26 January 2022 1300-1500 (Halifax time) Hold a spot for RUSI(NS) and NORAD & USNORTHCOM hosting of Distinguished Speakers Commander Corey Gleason, Commanding Officer, HMCS Harry DeWolf, and Captain Al McCabe, United States Coast Guard 17th District, to speak to RUSI(NS) and guests with “Arctic Maritime Security: US Coast Guard and Canadian Navy Operations.” Invitations to follow.
NEW 28 April 2022 A ray of sunshine for 2022. Initial planning has commenced for a BOA Gala Dinner in 2022. This will be the first BOA dinner since 2018 and as in the past, the NAC will honour Canada’s Naval Veterans with a special evening at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa. To their great credit, the Ottawa Branch will undertake yet again the BOA dinner on behalf of NAC National to raise funds to support the Naval Affairs programme, which has expanded since 2020 with significant contributions to the nation-wide discussion on why Canada needs a capable and effective RCN. Subject of course to the situation regarding provincial and local COVID restrictions, the Dinner will be held on the evening of 28 April 2022, the Thursday before Battle of the Atlantic Sunday. Mark your calendars and details to unfold over time.
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THIS WEEK’S SIGNIFICANT ARTICLES
Trudeau announces new posts for senior civil servants (Editor – note Jody Thomas becomes the prime minister’s national security and intelligence adviser, and Bill Matthews to deputy minister of National Defence.) and Trudeau’s new national security adviser is hawkish on China
Canadian navy needs to recruit 1,000 sailors to crew new warships: Vice-Admiral
Niobe Papers – two new papers posted – Paper No 16 “Personnel Vulnerabilities In the RCN” by LCdr Fraser Gransden and No 15 “A Pathway to Decarbonization” by LCdr Linda Hodgkins.
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CANADA
Derek H. Burney: Recalibrating Canada’s global focus must be a 2022 priority (Editor – not a maritime commentary but one of strategic importance)
Military preparing for promised consultations with sexual misconduct victims and Commanding officers shouldn’t be allowed to order destruction of evidence after trials, military sex assault survivor says
Opinion: The American polity is cracked, and might collapse. Canada must prepare (Editor – I’ve seen a few articles like this one, not too sure what to make of them, but given the implications I think I would be remiss in not bring them to our membership’s attention)
Hi-tech fix in the works to help RCN avoid marine mammals
A tale of two fighter jets — and what it means for Canada’s defence and place in the world
A Decade of Davie | Une Décennie de Davie (Editor – a great company 20:43 min video)
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USA & AMERICAS
USNI News Fleet and Marine Tracker: Jan. 3, 2022
Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group Deploys With Marine F-35C Squadron
Department of the Navy A Strategic Blueprint for the Arctic
Getting Back On Top: How to Rebuild the Navy
Panel: New National Defense Strategy Needs More Substance, Clear Goals
A Warfighting Imperative: Back to Basics for the Navy
USS Louisiana, last of the Ohio class to be refuelled, leaves dry dock
Aegis Going Through Substantial Digital Transformation, Lockheed Martin Says
Congress Wants Answers On The Railgun It Just Funded Even Though The Navy No Longer Wants It
Navy Stands Up High-Powered Microwave Division to Refocus Directed Energy Efforts
USS Milwaukee Back in Sea After COVID-19 Outbreak
First Woman to Take Command of Historic USS Constitution
Navy’s unmanned minesweeper clears underwater shock trials
Carson Helicopters Awarded to Supply SH-3H Sea Kings to Argentine Navy
Second Korean Pohang-class corvette arrives in Peru
Navy Relieves USS Paul Ignatius CO Due to ‘Loss of Confidence’
About Five Percent of Active-duty Coast Guard Personnel Remain Unvaccinated; 206 Marines Separated for Vaccine Refusal then, of course a Federal Judge Grants Preliminary Injunction Against DOD Over Vaccine Mandate and Marine Separations Over COVID-19 Vaccine Reaches 251
Picnic on Active Aircraft Carrier #shorts (Editor – 40 sec video)
ExxonMobil Makes Two Oil Discoveries Offshore Guyana. Liza Unity FPSO on Track for First Oil in 1Q
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INDO-PACIFIC
Australia-Japan RAA signed: defence forces to operate together ‘seamlessly’
Chinese Carrier Strike Group Liaoning Returns From Deployment
Theatre Commands the next logical step: Indian CNS Admiral R. Hari Kumar
South Korea Begins Construction on 2nd KSS-III Batch-II Submarine
US exhausts cards against China despite rising military activities near Taiwan, S. China Sea (Editor – the war of words continues)
Beginning of Exercise Sea Dragon between six nations including US
Russia arming up China’s New Cold War rivals (Editor – not a maritime article but points to ponder)
Germany navy frigate pays first visit to Vietnam
Navy’s Newest Fire Scout UAV Version Deployed to Westpac without Fanfare
India Launches Indigenous Nuclear Submarine
Russian Navy Project 23900 LHD To Carry Mine Warfare USV
“Hornet’s Nest” / Home of the Russian Submarines / Top Secret / Combat Approved / New Episode (Editor – amazing footage and access in a Russian TV show in a 38:58 min video)
Thai Aircraft Carrier Tests VTOL Drone MARCUS-B
Chinese intelligence ship approaches Qld coast
P-8I Aircraft Commence Operations from INS Hansa
Navy to test Rafale-M Jet for INS Vikrant
One more country is modernizing its naval fleet with Type 31 frigates
China Wins Number-One Rank in Annual Shipbuilding Orders for 2021
Indonesia Suspends Coal Exports To Secure Domestic Power Supply and China Coal Futures Surge Amid Indonesia Export Ban
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EUROPE
Extraordinary meeting of NATO Ministers of Foreign Affairs
Deteriorating Croatian-Serbian relations, a flashpoint for NATO and Russia (Editor – wars never start in the Balkans!)
UK’s Dreadnought-class submarines will feature Lockheed’s navigation subsystems
NATO warships join Greek maritime exercise
Russian submarine hit Royal Navy warship sonar in North Atlantic
Constructions hit post-Soviet high at bustling Sevmash shipyard
Learning the lessons – the loss the Norwegian frigate Helge Ingstad
Report on U.S.-Turkey Relations (Editor – strange situation)
Spotted: Russian icebreaker escorts ship convoy to Antarctic station and more details of the station Russian research station Vostok
MSC overtakes Maersk as world’s largest ocean carrier
COVID Outbreak Ends Voyage For Thousands Already Aboard Cruise Ship
ROV Discovers Italian World War Two Submarine Wreck
Potentially explosive shipwreck in River Thames to be broken up
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MIDDLE EAST
Iran says it launched rocket into space, cites ‘research objectives’ (Editor – not a maritime event but one with regional implications)
13 years on: PLA Navy continues escorting in Gulf of Aden
Video: Suspected Israeli Strike Sparks Massive Fire at Port of Latakia
U.S. navy ships interdict heroin worth $4 million with international task force
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GLOBAL INTERESTS
One crew member Killed, six Kidnapped in New Gulf of Guinea incident
Denmark frees pirates captured off West Africa
Dead zones: how chemical pollution is suffocating the sea | The Economist (Editor – unsettling 18:10 min video)
Ghana to receive Flex Fighter security vessels
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SCUTTLEBUTT
HMS St Lawrence – Guide 264 (Editor – 6:55 min video) and more details HMS St Lawrence (1814)
USS Albacore AGS-569 Sub Brief (Editor – so many lessons to learn from this fascinating history lesson in a 43:23 min video)
Know Your Navy – All The Ships And Subs In The RN
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SIGNIFICANT RCN DATES – JANUARY
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 now defunct “Canada Channel”, “Legion Magazine”, The Naval Service of Canada, Its Official History Vol 1-3, and Roger Litwiller’s excellent web site, encyclopedic guidance from Fraser McKee, the Uboat.net site, and anywhere else I can find credible information. For a comprehensive list of the staggering merchant losses – sunk, damaged, or lost – here is an excellent web page: Canadian Merchant Ship Losses of the Second World War, 1939-1945 by Rob Fisher {Revised June 2001})
- 1 January 1907 Military – British Admiralty provisionally hands over the Halifax Dockyard to Canadian authorities.
- 1 January 1923 The National Defence Act, which was passed in June 1922, takes effect, creating the Department of National Defence.
- 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.
- 1 January 1991 The crew of HMCS Preserver flies to the Persian Gulf to relieve HMCS Protecteur’s crew.
- 3 January 1941 Canada and the U.S. acquire air bases at Gander, Newfoundland, and Goose Bay, Labrador, on a 99-year lease.
- 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 had her bow was blown off up almost to the bridge, but she was towed into Halifax, rebuilt, bought by Irving Oil as a tanker. As an extra note, all the Park ships were named after actual parks. But the park she was named after in Manitoba is Nipawin Park. The spelling & launching name error was not noticed until much later!
- 4 January 1781 Royal Navy press gang seizes Lunenburg farmers in Halifax and puts them on a British Man-of-War, despite a jury finding that the impressment is illegal.
- 7 January 1941 A Special Committee of the Cabinet War Committee recommends that Japanese-Canadians not be allowed to volunteer for the armed services on the grounds that there is strong public opinion against them.
- 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 west of Oran Algeria.
- 14 January 1952 HMCS Uganda is renamed Quebec.
- 15 January 1991 The UN security Council deadline for Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait passes and the Persian Gulf War begins.
- 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.
- 21 January 1975 HMCS Assiniboine rescues eight crew members from a merchant ship foundering off Nova Scotia in a daring Sea King helicopter rescue.
- 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 Women’s Royal Canadian Naval Service as members of the RCN Regular Force.
- 29 January 1914 First public parade of Royal Naval Canadian Volunteer Reserve
- (RNCVR) in Victoria. With ex-RN instructors.
- 30 January 1991 At the Battle of Babiyan two CF-18s were diverted to attack an Iraqi fast patrol boat that had managed to escape destruction by other aircraft. After two strafing runs with the CF-18s 20 mm guns, the boat was irreparably damaged and later found to have sought safe-haven in Iran.
- 31 January 1923 The Royal Canadian Naval Reserve and Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve are established. Twenty-two years later during the second world about 100,000 officers and men were enrolled in the RCN, the RCNR, and the RCNVR, and some 6,500 women in the WRCNS. The peak strength of the entire Naval Service was reached in January 1945 with over 92,000 including Wrens.
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