NAC News - Edition 471 - Naval Association of Canada

NAC News – Edition 471

Your weekly national and international naval news for the week of July 22nd, 2022

Edition: 471 “I finally learned the reason why so many RN ships had Canadian radar officers aboard. Most electrical engineers in England had been signed up before the war to develop the RAF radar defence control network. As a result, the Admiralty was obliged to look to Canada for electrical engineers.” A Midshipman’s War – A young man in the Mediterranean Naval war 1941-1943, page 185, Frank Wade, 1994

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. Contact David Soule executivedirector-nac@outlook.com if you wish someone to be added to the NAC News email distribution. (Influencer or good candidates to become a NAC member, and note the first year’s NAC & Branch membership dues are waived)

NOTICES

Naval Reserve 100th Anniversary 2023. Crow’s Nest Magazine Jan 1962 – Now it’s the RCNR. The UNTD Association of Canada has started a list. Please inform David Soule if you know of other events as they develop.

14-16 November 2022 Registration for Maritime Security Challenges 2022 in Victoria BC is open! The past two years have seen an explosion of major events and trends that are shaking the world: a once-in-a-century-pandemic; a land war in Europe; international energy and food crises; the rise of authoritarian political movements and governments; more dramatic weather; and decades-high inflation. Many of these issues are playing out at sea, as shipping costs soar, navies modernize to protect their national maritime claims, and state rivalries flourish in the maritime domain.

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THIS WEEK’S SIGNIFICANT ARTICLES

Ukraine hits key bridge in Kherson region, as Russia signals wider scope of war

EU told to prepare for Russian gas shut-off and Russia turns the gas tap back on, but only part way

Food crisis: Ukraine grain export deal reached with Russia, says Turkey

Editor – I never thought that these three article would be leading in NAC News!

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CANADA

Military monies and It’s time to get serious about fixing defence procurement: opinion

Trudeau announces expanded oceans protection plan

Defence Team News | 15 July 2022 (Editor – impressive interview with RAdm Christopher Robinson, Deputy Commander of the RIMPAC Combined Taskforce)

HMCS Halifax and Montréal return from European NATO mission (Editor – 45 sec video included)

60 Seconds with SLt Abiman Mahendra (Editor – 1:46 min video)

MP Kevin Vuong faces military summary trial for failing to disclose charge then Military fines MP Kevin Vuong for failing to report criminal charge

Statement from the Office of the Canadian Forces Provost Marshal (Editor – the General was the Chief of Military Personnel and Commander MILPERSCOM until placed on leave last fall)

The Royal Canadian Navy’s oldest commissioned ship docks in Owen Sound

Commander Royal Canadian Navy invites you to design new coin

(Note: this is for RCN and family members but I am sure if some of you retired members have some good ideas your design submission won’t be passed up!)

Naval large tug Project (Editor – the first named HARO was just launched, BARKERVILLE, CANSO, and STELLA MARIS to follow shortly)

What’s Inside a Coastal Defence Navy Ship? #HowItWorks (Editor – good look aboard HMCS Glace Bay in a 24:09 min video)

Kraken Upgrades MCM for Royal Danish Navy and Kraken receives $2M from U.S. defense customer for aperture sonar systems

Navy Bike Ride – Riding Together as One Navy, Strong

Report on the Public Service Pension Plan for the Fiscal Year Ended March 31, 2021

Lookout Newspaper, Issue 28, July 18, 2022

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USA & AMERICAS

USNI News Fleet and Marine Tracker: July 18, 2022

US fleet size not first priority yet New Navy Fleet Study Calls for 373 Ship Battle Force, Details are Classified

Record-Setting Drone Could Change Maritime ISR – or Backstop GPS

Dutch Navy ship busts 650 kilos of cocaine just hours after completing training

Congressional review flags Virginia Class delays, cost pressures

The Anvil and the Lighthouse: Why Forward Deployments Are Vital (Editor – an attaboy for the first person to point out the Canadian content)

Raytheon delivers 1st SPY-6 radar to US Navy’s aircraft carrier

Austal USA Delivers 32nd LCS to U.S. Navy

Report to Congress on Constellation-class Frigate Program (FFG-62)

Report to Congress on the Future of Unmanned Aircraft

North America is seeing a hiring boom in naval industry robotics roles

Blue Angels Announces First Female Jet Pilot

Navy Announces Punishments for Bonhomme Richard Fire, SECNAV Censures Former SWO Boss

Cyber-attacks on Port of Los Angeles have doubled since pandemic

The World Can’t Get Enough Of US Diesel As Exports Surge

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INDO-PACIFIC

China Reveals Disposable Long-Range Nuclear Reactor Torpedo Design

USS Benfold Catches China’s Attention With Back-to-Back FONOPs then Aircraft carrier Shandong sails through Taiwan Straits amid US warship’s ‘cost-saving’ provocation

RIMPAC ‘not aimed at China’

RIMPAC SINKEX: Malaysian Corvette KD LEKIR Fires Exocet Missile (Editor – 2:15 min video) and wonderful look at All 38 Ship at RIMPAC 2022 (Editor 23:12min video)

MQ-9 Makes Debut at RIMPAC SINKEX 2022

Defence Team News | 20 July 2022 (Editor – Aurora Detachment showcased in a 2:46 min video)

American MV-22 Ospreys move to Australian ship for RIMPAC exercise

French Navy Plans Aircraft Carrier Mission to the Pacific in 2025

The Pacific Deterrence Initiative: Defending Guam Is Paramount

Indian Navy Expanding to Meet China Threat, Better Team With Allies

South Korea Creates ‘Submarine Killer’ Naval Air Command

New Zealand’s First Boeing P-8A Poseidon Rolls Out of Paint Shop

CIMSEC: Sea Control; 364 – How foreign companies are financing China’s naval expansion (Editor – fascinating 32:09 min podcast that raises awkward questions)

Korea and Spain Defence Majors Ready to Participate in 75(I) Submarine Project

Photo of what seems to be China’s new submarine revealed in official report and Chinese Type 039C submarine secretly entered service

UPDATED: Two Sailors Evacuated After Hours-long Fire Breaks Out Peruvian Warship

How to bridge the capability gap in Australia’s transition to nuclear-powered submarines and The Nuclear Submarine Builders must be consulted by the Task Force

India Detains Russian Ship Carrying Munitions for Unpaid Fuel Bill

Australia, Fiji launch maritime infrastructure project (Editor – BZ Australia)

Bid date for mega submarine building project extended again, to Dec end and Indian Navy decommissions INS Sindhudhvaj after 35 years

U.S. Affirms Support for Philippines Over Disputed Islands

Fiji and Solomon Islands Sign Maritime Boundary Agreement

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EUROPE

Ukraine:

Ukraine war: Russia plans to annex Ukrainian land – US and it seems to be tit-for-tat for longer range western weapons arriving Russia to extend war goals in Ukraine, says FM Lavrov | DW News (Editor – useful news report in a 2:14 min video)

Russians Used Sub-Launched Missiles to Strike Vinnytsia Business Center (Editor – expensive way to blow up a store)

Northern Fleet sabotage-reconnaissance group eliminated, claims Ukraine Intelligence

Belgium Mulls Sending Mine Hunter To The Black Sea

How Russia’s current war in Ukraine echoes its Crimean War of the 1850s (Editor – not a naval articles but a useful perspective) and What to expect next in the Ukraine war

Meeting on Resuming Ukrainian Grain Exports Likely This Week

Nord Stream: Gazprom Declares Force Majeure on Some Gas Supplies to Europe

Ukrainian nationalists shell populated localities to elicit return fire — top brass (Editor – not a naval article, but strange Russian logic and propaganda on display)

General:

EU Task Force Stops RoRo Seizing Vehicles Under UN Libyan Arms Embargo

French And Italian FREMMs Join Harry S. Truman CSG and Chief of French Navy on cooperation with U.S. Navy, future Aircraft Carrier and war in Ukraine (Editor – 3:21min video)

Navy exercise in Black Sea proceeds at a distance as Ukraine fights along its own shores

Danish warships escorting Russian nuclear powered submarine Severodvinsk to Baltic Sea and more details First Baltic Sea voyage for Russia’s 4th generation multi-purpose sub

Royal Navy tracks movements of Russian submarines into the North Sea

Italian Navy, telecom provider team up to deter attacks on undersea cables

The minesweeper “Pyotr Ilyichev” is being transferred to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky

Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov will begin dock overhaul

Details emerge on huge new Glasgow shipbuilding facility

Trident missile-armed submarine HMS Vanguard re-joins fleet

What weapons will be fitted to the Type 26 frigates? (Editor – RN version)

The oldest ship in the Royal Naval Service to become the new Littoral Strike Ship

UK’s Dragonfire Laser Directed Energy Weapon Started Trials

Turkey sends Type 209 submarine and three warships to Cyprus

Ireland decommissions a third of fleet

Greek Supreme Court to Decide Fate of Seized Iranian Oil

Water Levels on the Rivers of Europe

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MIDDLE EAST

Iran Announces Indian Ocean Naval Drone Division (Editor – when a drone approaches a warship…what do the ROE permit? How does the crew determine hostile intent, or not)

Navy warship HMS Montrose resumes Middle East patrols

U.S. Welcomes Lebanon, Israel Maritime Boundary Efforts

Cameras to Replace Peacekeepers at Strategic Red Sea Strait

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GLOBAL INTERESTS

U.S. Navy, China And France’s Future Aircraft Carriers Compared

Algeria showcases two submarines during military parade (Editor – Algeria now operates more boats than Canada!)

Cruise Industry Recovery Runs Into Labor Crisis

Fishing Vessels Account For Half Of Ocean Plastic Pollution (Editor – OMG)

Existing Fiber-Optic Cables Can Be Used to “Listen” for Whales

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SCUTTLEBUTT

SS Warrimoo International Date Line claim (Editor – a ship with an interesting history, a tragic end, and an amazing claim that’s worth a chuckle)

Type 212A Sub Brief (Editor – 41:43 min video)

Iconic Ships 18: Sutton Hoo (Editor – 37 min video)

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THIS WEEK IN RCN/MARITIME HISTORY

23 July 1951 The RCN (Reserve) begins recruiting women for service with the Women’s Royal Canadian Naval Service (the Wrens) for the first time since the Second World War.

24 July 1917 The Military Service Act is passed allowing for conscription of single men.

24 July 1942 HMCS St. Croix, one of the former American destroyers, commanded by LCdr A. Hedley Dobson, DSC, RCNR sank the German submarine U-90 while on patrol in the North Atlantic Ocean. The submarine was sighted on the surface several miles away and was successfully engaged with repeated depth-charging.

24 July 1943 The Canadian built (West Coast Shipbuilders, Vancouver) but British crewed, SS Fort Chilcotin was torpedoed and sunk by U-172 about 340 nm off the Atlantic coast of Brazil. Four crew members in the engine room were casualties.

25 July 1942 On 25 July 1942 the 54-ton motorized Nova Scotian fishing schooner SV Lucille M, with the Master (Percy Richardson) and 10 fishermen onboard, was slowly approaching a rich fishing area (Browns Bank) about 45 nm south of the southern tip of Nova Scotia. They were after swordfish. At 08:00 (GMT+2), the sea state was calm with overhead clouds but with some moonlight shining through and a light wind, when U-89 (Dietrich Lohmann) sighted “a faint light and soon thereafter the shadow of a sailing vessel”. At 09:55, the U-89 had closed to 400 meters and opened fire with both the 8.8 cm deck gun and 2.5 cm C/30 anti-aircraft machinegun. Four men were wounded, and their wooden schooner was engulfed in flames (42°02’N, 65°38’W). The eleven “South Shore” fishermen, in three rowboats, made it safely back to Shelburne, Nova Scotia.

27 July 1944 Two weeks after the D-Day landings, the Canadian built (Burrard Dry Dock Company, Vancouver) but British manned SS Fort Lac La Ronge, was on a “special service” assignment and was delivering supplies to troops at Juno Beach, France. However, on 27 July 1944, she was “attacked by a one man torpedo” (49°22’N 00°21’W) less than three nautical miles from the beach. There were no casualties, however the damage resulted in the ship not being able to steer or raise steam. Her undamaged cargo was delivered to Juno Beach later that day. After discharging her cargo, she was towed back to England. She was later beached at Appledore, North Devon and was broken-up in 1949.

27 July 1953 Korean War Armistice

29 July 1942 The Great Lakes freighter SS Prescodoc (Paterson Steamships Ltd., Fort William, Ontario) was pressed into wartime service in May 1940. On 22 November 1941, the Prescodoc departed Saguenay (location of the Alcan aluminum smelter) and was bound for British Guiana via Dingwall, Nova Scotia (to take on a cargo of gypsum) and three other ports for fueling. She arrived at Demerara, Georgetown, British Guiana on 29 December 1941. (The delivered Gypsum was used to treat soils with high aluminum toxicity and promote growth of plant roots.) Over the next six months, the Prescodoc delivered eight loads of Demerara bauxite to either Port of Spain, Trinidad or to St Thomas, US Virgin Islands (for onward shipping to North American aluminum smelters). Her ninth bauxite delivery was for Trinidad. She departed Georgetown on 28 July 1942 and was sailing independently (no escorts). On 29 July, at 10:19 (GMT+2), and about 130 nm northwest of Georgetown, U-160 (Georg Lassen) fired a single torpedo into the freighter. The torpedo hit just forward of amidships, and the Prescodoc quickly sank (8°50’N 59°05’W). The master (John Charles Prowse) and 15 crew members were casualties. Five crew members were picked up by the Yugoslavian freighter SS Predsednik Kopajtic (also a bauxite carrier) and were landed at Port of Spain, Trinidad.

29 July 1948 HMCS Royal Roads is transformed into a Canadian Service College and begins training flight cadets, as well as naval cadets.

29 July 1972 HMCS Iroquois, the first of the DDH 280 class destroyers, is commissioned.

SIGNIFICANT RCN DATES – 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, NAC member Roger Litwiller’s excellent web site, encyclopedic guidance from NAC member Fraser McKee, the Uboat.net site, and anywhere else I can find credible information. For the merchant ship history, I thank NAC member Bill Dziadyk for his able assistance and detailed work. The RCN lost 1,965 men and 24 ships during the War, most of them in the Atlantic. A comprehensive list of the staggering merchant losses – sunk, damaged, or lost – Canadian Merchant Ship Losses of the Second World War, 1939-1945 by Rob Fisher {Revised June 2001}, and for the loss of individual personnel RCN Ship Histories, Convoy Escort Movements, Casualty Lists 1939-1947)