naval affairs

NAC News – Edition 524

NAC News – Edition 524

Seaspan major list

Your weekly national and international naval news for the week of  August 5th, 2023

Edition: 524 HMCS Provider (Editor – I just discovered, a bit late and unofficially, that the new Protecteur Class Joint Support Ships will be HMC Ships Protecteur 522, Preserver 523, and Provider 524!? (Seeking verification) Can’t wait to see them and I expect the RCN can’t wait to use them!) And fittingly this week’s quote: “The amateurs discuss tactics: the professionals discuss logistics.” – Napoleon Bonaparte

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 Kevin Goheen 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

17/18 October 2023 ABCMI’s Annual Business Opportunities Conference & Trade Show – Vancouver Conference Centre ABCMI’s Annual Business Opportunities Conference & Trade Show.  See the website for developing Event Details including Exhibitor Spaces and Sponsorship Opportunities.

2 November 2023 The Deep Blue Forum 2023 Super Early Bird Registration is Open!  Venue – The Westin Ottawa, 11 Colonel By Drive.

13 November 2023 0900-1600 hrs Vancouver BC Day Sail event on warship for women and girls

6 December 2023 7:30 am – 6:30 pm Ottawa time.  Industrial Participation Association of Canada (IPAC) announced their first ever Industrial Participation Conference, titled The Changing Landscape of Industrial Participation in Canadian Federal Procurements Conference to be held at the National Arts Centre, Ottawa.

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THIS WEEK’S SIGNIFICANT ARTICLES

Japan Warns World Facing its Greatest Post-WWII Period of Crisis and Japan’s Army, Navy, & Air Force gear up as defence expenditure soars (Editor – for perspective Canadian military in 2023 is $36.7 billion or 1.29 per cent of GDP)

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CANADA

Harry DeWolf heading back to sea on Operation Nanook

Trudeau is striking a new National Security Council, but what will it do?

HaiSea Wamis, world’s first fully electric harbour tugboat, arrives in Vancouver (Editor – 1:48 min video) and First all-electric tugboat in Canada now plying the waters of B.C.

CGAI: Women, Peace, and Security (Editor –  1:01:44 hr podcast)

RCN Digital Leadership: Bob Mackay, Lieutenant(N)

Seaspan completes 190-tonne superstructure block lift for OOSV

2 minutes of MISSILES FIRING from Canadian Warship (Editor – RCN video)

Looking for a change?  #ytshorts (Editor – short RCN recruiting video)

Canada Dockworkers Renew Strike Threat With Rejection Of Contract with ILWU Canada Votes Down Second Labor Agreement, Negotiates Third then thankfully Breakthrough in B.C. port dispute as new tentative deal is reached but Canada’s largest railway says recovery from B.C port strike will take months

Changes to the baggage policy for members of military travelling on Air Canada flights (Editor – increase in free baggage for active and retired CAF members)

Marine Procurement Outlook (Editor – interesting info introduced in Public Services and Procurement Canada presentation slides from 12 June 2023 presentation at Halifax Convention Centre)

Iqaluit Deep Sea Port Officially Opens

DND will spend $1.1 billion on new Ottawa headquarters as employees move into $800M complex

External review found military’s COVID-19 vaccine policy violated Charter of Rights

National Association of Federal Retirees: President’s update on PSHCP transition to Canada Life

Join us part-time or full-time! / Joignez-vous à nous à temps partiel ou à temps plein!  #ytshorts (Editor – short RCN recruiting video)

Lookout:  Volume 68, Issue 30, July 31, 2023

NAC Naval Affairs Programme Briefing Note #19 Maritime Security Operations Centres (Editor – please share to anyone you think may benefit from the knowledge)

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USA & AMERICAS

USNI News Fleet and Marine Tracker: July 31, 2023

Two US Navy sailors charged with spying for China

USNI: Proceedings Podcast: The Navy Needs Tactical Nuclear Weapons . . . Again (Editor – a follow up podcast to last week’s article in a 38:59 min video)

Navy Awards Ingalls 6 Flight III Arleigh Burke Destroyers, Bath Iron Works 3 as Part of 5-Year Deal and importantly New Flight III Destroyer Deal Has Options for Up to 15 Hulls, Says Navy

CIMSEC: Sea Control 450 – Autonomous systems and military revolutions with Dr. Jacquelyn Schneider (Editor – 32:15 min podcast)

After 2-Year Overhaul, Navy Confirms USS Boxer Can’t Get Underway

Navy to Christen Guided-Missile Destroyer Harvey C. Barnum Jr. (DDG 124)

Coast Guard Modernization Faces Delays and Cost Overruns, Accountability Office Reports thus GAO: Polar Security Cutter Design Won’t Complete Until 2024, Delivery of First Hull Estimated in 2028

Raytheon secures $124.3M contract for Maritime Strike Tomahawk missiles

Report to Congress on Light Replenishment Oiler

CIMSEC: The Dreadnought after next (Editor – The following is the 1st Place, Gold Prize-winning essay of the First Sea Lord’s Essay Competition and is republished with permission.)

USS Vermont Arrives at New Homeport in Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam

Interceptor 006 Has Tackled Over 850,000 KG of Trash in Guatemala So Far

Panama Canal Authority Defies Drought Challenges with Transit of Biggest Containership

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INDO-PACIFIC

North Korea Unveils “Nuclear-Capable” Drone Torpedo (Editor – OMG)

Foreign Ships, Aircraft In East And South China Seas Escalating Tensions – China’s Defense Ministry

Xi Jinping replaces leaders of China’s elite nuclear force

PLA Chinese Navy Shandong aircraft carrier demonstrating new breakthroughs in latest exercises

China’s carrier forces strengthened as navy shifts assets, US report says

French, Chinese Missiles Sink Indonesian Frigate in Sea Trial

First Edition: ASEAN Maritime Outlook (Editor – this is something new and positive!)

Talisman Sabre 2023 Underway (Editor – HMCS Montreal is a participant…luck crew)

Sketch released of Japan’s largest warship since WW2 (Editor – 8 min video)

Australia to Host Rotational U.S. Army, Navy Presence Following SecDef, Deputy Prime Minister Meeting

India launches Neerakshi Autonomous Underwater Vehicle for mine detection

‘Unreported’ US-China military encounters cloud risk assessment: analyst

China’s Fourth Type 075 LHD Taking Shape In Shanghai

U.S. Coast Guard to search, board for PNG, in stepped up Pacific role

Four Philippine Coast Guard Servicemembers Disappear on Rescue Mission

Indian Navy ends ‘Colonial Practice’ of Carrying Batons with Immediate Effect

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EUROPE

Ukraine:

Russian ship hit in Novorossiysk, Black Sea drone attack, Ukraine sources say and a 4 min news video Ukraine War: Russian warship ‘successfully’ damaged in drone attack

‘Faster than anything else in the Black Sea’: See Ukraine’s latest sea drone (Editor – a good look during the first 3:14 min of 5:15 news video) and finally Ukraine says it launched July attack on bridge to Crimea

Russia: Project 22160 Sergey Kotov Survived Drone Attack

Russian Navy Claims to Have Thwarted Bomb-Boat Attack on Two Patrol Ships yet the truth is obscured Ukraine Magura V5 USV strikes two Russia Navy’s patrol ships

Russia’s new tactic for cutting off Ukraine’s grain and Ukraine war: Drones target Odesa grain stores near Romania border then Russia Strikes Ukraine’s Danube Port, Sending Global Grain Prices Higher and further Romania Bids to Clear Danube Logjam after Ukraine Attack plus Are Blockade Runners Challenging Russia’s Grain Gauntlet?

Report: China Helps Russia Ship, Insure and Sell its Oil

General:

Russia Fears Pro-Ukrainian Drone Attack on Major Navy Parade during the “parade” Putin Says Russian Navy To Receive 30 New Ships This Year

German Navy frigate FGS Mecklenburg-Vorpommern hands over to FGS Hessen as SNMG1 Flagship

Northrop Grumman to deliver E-2D Advanced Hawkeye aircraft to France

HMS Duncan leads NATO drill to counter minefield threats

New leadership for RN Maritime Reserves

Türkiye in talks to export drone carrier ship to Gulf nation

Third American nuclear sub visits Scotland in two weeks

USS Woody Williams Completes Maiden Overhaul in Malta

Saab offers proposes C718 Expeditionary Submarines to replace current Netherlands subs

IDEF 2023: MKE unveils Uça air launched smart underwater mine

IDEF 2023: Turkish Companies Unveil RAM-Like Point Defence Missile Systems

Dutch Salvors Begin Tow of Fire-Ravaged Car Carrier and Burnt-Out Fremantle Highway Arrives in Dutch Port

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MIDDLE EAST

US Trains Navy Sailors, Marines for Possible Boarding to Help Ships Near Iran

Iraq’s Ambitious Al Faw Port Project Inches Closer to Completion

Task Force 57 Welcomes New Commander during Ceremony in Bahrain

INS Visakhapatnam Reaches Muscat to Enhance Indian-Oman Maritime Partnership

U.S. and Israel Kick Off Naval Exercise in Haifa

Elbit Completes The Sea Trials Of DESEAVER MK-4 ECM System

Video: First Third of Crude Oil Successfully Transferred from FSO Safer

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard runs drill on disputed islands as US military presence in region grows and Iran’s navy unveils new vessels equipped with 600-kilometer-range missiles, Tasnim reports

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GLOBAL INTERESTS

A Record $90 Billion in Ship Orders Loom Over the Shipping Industry

Angola receives first tank landing craft from CMN; inaugurates refurbished Soyo naval base

The successful righting of sailing barque Europa

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SCUTTLEBUTT

The Wreck of USS Hornet – Doolittle Raider Rediscovered, Remarkably Preserved (Editor – 15:31 min video)

USS Truxtun and USS Pollux Historic Wreck Sites

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THIS WEEK IN RCN/MARITIME HISTORY

5 August 1914  Two submarines, later designated CC-1 and CC-2, are purchased for the RCN by the Premier of British Columbia in Seattle, Washington.  Commissioned into the RCN 7 August.

5 August 1944  HMCS Iroquois commanded by Cdr James C. Hibbard, DSC, RCN, with HMCS Haida commanded by Cdr Harry G. DeWolf, DSO, RCN, and other allied forces, sank German minesweepers M-263 and M-486.

6 August 1942  RCN destroyer HMCS Assiniboine commanded by A/LCDR John H. Stubbs,  RCN, pursues and rams German submarine U-210 in the fog, finally sinking her with a 4.7 inch shell.  While Assiniboine was maneuvering to ram the U-Boat A/CPO RCNVR Max Bernays, Assiniboine’s Coxswain ordered his telegraph operators who were giving orders to the engine room to leave, as the fire began to surround the wheelhouse.  Bernays manned the helm and did the work of the two telegraph operators while the CO gave orders to ram U-210.  As the gun battle grew in intensity Assiniboine rammed U-210 abaft of her conning tower, crippling the submarine.  38 of the 48 German crew were rescued.  Assiniboine’s losses were minimal, with one killed and 13 wounded.  Bernays, although nominated for the Victoria Cross, was awarded the Conspicuous Gallantry Medal for his heroic actions.  HMCS Max Bernays is named in his honour.

7 August 1975  Pierre Trudeau announces that Canada will seek agreement to set up 370 km (200-mile) economic coastal zone.

8 August 1813  US Commodore Isaac Chauncey’s ships Hamilton and Scourge capsize in minutes in a heavy gale off Forty Mile Creek on Lake Ontario, and 53 sailors drown; the ships were putting on extra sail to escape British Captain James Yeo’s fleet, and sank from a shift in weight of the guns; largest loss of life suffered by the United States Navy in the war.  Yeo did not see the disaster happen and did not press his advantage.

8 August 1944  German U-boat U-667 torpedoes and sinks RCN Flower Class corvette HMCS Regina off Trevose Head, Cornwall, UK; thirty of her ship’s company are lost.  Between 1939 and 1945, 36 Flower-Class corvettes were lost between the four navies operating them, of which 22 were torpedoed by enemy U-boats.  They accounted for 51 enemy submarines sunk (47 German boats plus 4 Italian).

9 August 1945  Temporary Lt (RCNVR) Robert Hampton Gray VC, DSC was shot down and killed in a dive-bombing raid at Onagawa Wan as he attacked and sank a Japanese destroyer; serving with the Royal Navy as a Corsair pilot aboard HMS Formidable Gray; he was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross.  As Gray’s remains were never found, he was listed as missing in action and presumed dead.  In 1989, in Sakiyami Park, Japan, Gray became the first member of the Allied Forces honoured by the Japanese with a memorial and it is the only memorial dedicated to a foreign soldier on Japanese soil.  Of Canadian VC recipients, although they were all serving in or with the RN, Lt Gray was the only actual member of the RCN and one of the two Canadian born Naval personnel to receive the VC during the Second World War.  Lt Gray was tragically one of the last Canadians to die during World War II and was the second to last Canadian to ever be awarded the Victoria Cross.  Lt Gray is the most highly decorated pilot from BC, a history now recognized at North Saanich’s BC Aviation Museum with a three-piece monument following a campaign led by a group of former navy members and members of the Naval Association of Canada.  It is fitting that among Canadian men and women who acquired 1,677 British and 64 foreign decorations, that this highest recognition should have gone to one of the many Canadians who spent much or all the war apart from the main body of the RCN.  Altogether some 4,000 men and women served for varying periods “on loan” to the Royal Navy.  HMCS Robert Hampton Gray is named in his honour.

9 August 1941  HMC Ships Assiniboine and Restigouche escort HMS Prince of Wales, with Prime Minister Winston Churchill aboard, into Placentia Bay, Newfoundland.

10 August 1813  Sir James Yeo’s forces capture American schooners USS Julia and USS Growler in an engagement near Twelve Mile Creek on Lake Ontario; the British rename the schooners Confiance and Hamilton and will use them as troop transports until Isaac Chauncey recaptures them near False Ducks Islands on 5 October. New York State.

10 August 1941  US President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill have their second meeting at Placentia, Newfoundland, aboard the USS Augusta; four days later they will issue the Atlantic Charter setting forth eight goals for the world; a document that will serve as the basis for the United Nations Charter.

11 August 1954  HMCS Venture is commissioned in Esquimalt, British Columbia, as a naval cadet training establishment.  It would go forward in one form or another until today’s HMCS Venture is the home for most of the naval elements of the Naval Warfare and Technical Officers’ training as well as an expanded role as the home of all leadership training for the RCN.  Current Venture motto: To learn, To serve, To leadEdition: 523 Quote: “That [invasion of Europe] would require a million ground troops, a quarter million air force crewmen, and another quarter million personnel in supply and services.  But the delivery of that eventual invasion depended on first winning the Battle of the Atlantic.  Secure the sea, military strategists said, and you may hope to win on land.” Battle of the Atlantic – Gauntlet to Victory, page 10, Ted Barris, 2022

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, a special thanks to 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)

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