NAC News – Edition 629 HMCS Brunswicker
Your weekly national and international naval news for the week of August 8, 2025
NAC News Edition 629 HMCS Brunswicker Quote: “What Putin has tried to do in retaking Ukraine is a massive blunder, a massive error. It’s going to be harder this time around to demilitarize the economy than it was with a collapse of the Soviet Union.” Fiona Hill, The New York Times, 22 July 2025
Rod Hughes: Editor NAC News rhughes@shaw.ca (Comments welcome to help improve this service.) The content of this bulletin includes articles from entities not subject to the Official Languages Act. Consequently, these articles may be provided by the institution in only one official language, including the links, as we do not have the copyright to modify or translate them. Links to keep in touch with the NAC and RCN can be found at the bottom of this email. Contact executivedirector@navalassoc.ca if you wish someone to be added to the NAC News email distribution. (Influencer, or good candidates to become a NAC member – note, the first year’s NAC/Branch membership dues are waived)
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NOTICES
26–27 September 2025 The Canadian Maritime Security Network (CMSN) will host a conference on the future Canadian Seapower 2025. Venue – University of Calgary. Today, Canada faces a more complex and dangerous security landscape than at any time since the Second World War. The country is at an inflection point, facing two great power competitors, a complicated ecosystem of malign non-state actors, persistent pressures eroding the rules based international order, and an uncertain partnership with the U.S. To register.
21–22 October 2025 ABCMI’s Business Opportunities Conference & Trade Show at the Vancouver Convention Centre, this flagship event brings together leading companies from across Canada in the marine and defence sectors. See the website for our draft Programme and list of Exhibitors. Tickets are selling quickly; exhibit spaces are sold out.
4 November 2025 7.30 – 18.30 Ottawa time Deep Blue Forum 6th Annual Conference. Theme: The Future of the Submarine Enterprise – People Harnessing Technology, in a System of Systems. The National Arts Centre, 1 Elgin Street, Ottawa Super Early Bird Registration is Open! Contact The ticket discount code for NAC members is DB25_NAC
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THIS WEEK’S SIGNIFICANT ARTICLES
Carney wants to spend an extra $9B on defence by April. Is that possible?
The nuclear arms race is heating up. Will it take another bomb to renew the push for disarmament? with Eighty years after Hiroshima, the big nuclear risks are in Asia
Japan’s Futuristic Mogami Frigate Will Be Australia’s Next Warship
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CANADA
Royal Canadian Navy to Enhance Maritime Operations with New Uncrewed Aircraft Systems & La Marine royale canadienne améliorera ses opérations maritimes grâce à de nouveaux systèmes d’aéronefs sans pilote (Editor – more details to follow when known)
New commander takes helm of West Coast navy operations at CFB Esquimalt
CANADA’S NEXT SUBMARINE? Spain Answers the Call (Editor – impressive boat in an 8:12 mi video)
Defining Canada’s threat landscape: Resetting for a new reality
Carney toured Canadian Navy facility as B.C. visit continued Monday
Seaspan Advances Canadian Coast Guard’s Multi-Purpose Icebreaker Program, Eyes U.S. Contract
Canada Eyes Arctic Ocean Port to Ship Gas, Commodities to Europe
The Canadian drone industry is spinning up — with lessons from Ukraine
Union launches campaign demanding ferries be built in Canada
Times Colonist Letters Aug. 2: Navy needs new ships; & Defence vessels are not useless
A Family Who Sails Together, Stays Together – Petty Officers, 1st Class Huber & Une famille qui navigue ensemble demeure ensemble – Maîtres de 1re classe Huber
Steel cut for first of two new electric ferries for Toronto
Uncharted shipwreck found in Sydney Bight area off Cape Breton
Canada’s first offshore wind energy areas designated
NAC Naval Affairs A Life-Cycle Costing Case Study by Howie Smith, Ian Parker, Griffin Cudmore-Keating, and Adam Lajeunesse (Editor – NAC Naval Affairs Papers, Briefing Notes, Niobe Papers, and much more. Please share with anyone you think may benefit from the knowledge, after all, that’s what our naval affairs programme is all about – enlightening Canadians)
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USA & AMERICA
USNI News Fleet and Marine Tracker: August 4, 2025
Admiral Caudle Confirmed as Chief of Naval Operations
Drones on deck: US Coast Guard prepares for fleetwide UAS deployment
Coast Guard Offloads $88M in Illicit Drugs Interdicted in the Eastern Pacific
US Navy Orders Arleigh Burke Destroyer From General Dynamics
Trump orders movement of 2 nuclear subs after Russian official’s ‘inflammatory’ remarks
The Battle Tactics Of US Carrier Strike Group 8 (Editor – 48:51 min documentary video)
Australia won’t receive Aukus nuclear submarines unless US doubles shipbuilding, admiral warns and for perspective Building US Submarines in Secret Factory – Manufacturing process inside an American Shipyard (Editor – 22:34 min documentary video)
Chile launches ambitious naval policy to build a fully domestic fleet by 2030
Bollinger Shipyards Secures Full Funding for Troubled Polar Security Cutter Program
Austal awarded contract to build second Stage 2 Heritage-class OPC
L3Harris Successfully Tests New Power Plant System for Advanced Lightweight Torpedo
U.S. Navy Scraps P-8 Poseidon That Ran Off the Runway in Hawaii Two Years Ago
US Navy submarine Helena decommissioned after 38 years of service
Secret Submarine Mission Against Iran Revealed! (Editor – 9:03 min video)
Titan implosion that killed all five on board was ‘preventable’, says report
Panama Communities Challenge Canal Expansion Project in Supreme Court (Editor – a question Canadians need to ponder for large national projects, when do needs of the nation outweigh needs of the individual)
Panama Closes Ship Registry to Older Oil Tankers and Bulkers Amid Shadow Fleet Concerns
DALI Owner Sues Hyundai Heavy Industries Over Francis Scott Key Bridge Collapse
First Funnel Removed as SS United States Prepares to Become a Reef
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INDO-PACIFIC
Fujian aircraft carrier approaches commissioning as China demonstrates catapult launch capability
Exercise Talisman Sabre 2025 concludes with U.S., Allies Rehearse Simultaneous Amphibious Landings
U.S. Warships Join U.K., Japan for Big Deck Drills and British and Japanese carrier jets to operate together with US Navy steps in to support Royal Navy with solid stores replenishment
Japan reaches frigate deal with Australia (Editor – 3:02 min news video)
After Strike on Iran, Concerns Remain Over Diego Garcia’s Future
PLA showcases amphibious attacks on Taiwan in latest episode of documentary while PLA Navy’s fourth Type 075 amphibious assault ship makes official debut: media reports
Friends of steel? Russian and Chinese warships flex ‘no-limits’ partnership in Pacific drills and Chinese Submarine Makes First Visit to Russia for Joint Drills
India developing next-gen destroyer that can carry 144 missiles including Brahmos and track enemies 500 km away under Project 18 (Editor – Displacing 13,000 tonnes, and features 144 vertical launch tubes!)
Taiwan Modernises its Navy with the First Sea Trials of the Kang Ding Class of Ships
Brahmos loaded INS Himgiri joins the Indian Navy‘s combat fleet
Indian naval ships visit Philippines to bolster maritime cooperation
Philippines Unveils New ‘Kamikaze Drone’ Disguised as Civilian Boat
US Sanctions Force Vessels With Russian Oil to Divert From India, Sources Say then Indian Refiner Snaps Up US Oil After Trump’s Russia Threats but Tankers Deliver Russian Crude to India Despite US, EU Pressure
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EUROPE
Black Sea (renamed this item):
Ukraine Just OUTPLAYED Russia SO BADLY It’s Hard to Watch (Editor – can’t make this stuff up! 15:13 min video)
Romanian Navy commissions former Royal Navy minehunter
Ukraine Reopens Danube Canal After Explosion Closure
Baltic:
Editor – Nothing to report
General:
Newest nuclear-weapons carrier arrives in home base Gadzhievo
NATO sends warships to patrol Arctic waters
Russian Mediterranean “Flotilla” Sinks to a Single Submarine
French Navy’s second BRF ‘Jacques Stosskopf’ joins her new homeport
The History of the EXOCET Missile (Editor – 20:12 min video)
Inside NATO’s Secret Hunt for Enemy Submarines (Editor – 29:49 min video) and what they could hunt Russian Submarines NOW: the Good, The BAD and the UGLY! (Editor – 16:28 min video) specifically How Powerful Is Russia’s Newest Submarine? (Editor – Yasen-M class SSGN in a 25:56 min video)
Dreadnought vs Vanguard: A New Chapter in the UK’s Nuclear Deterrent (Editor – 17:03 min video)
Before it’s too late: Former RN commander calls for urgent action on depleted RFA
Norway Joins Neighbors Targeting Shadow Tankers with Insurance Checks
Chinese Companies Dispatch Multiple Container Ships Along Arctic Route For Faster Europe Trade
Italy gives final approval for world’s longest suspension bridge to Sicily
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MIDDLE EAST
Red Sea:
At Least 54 Die As Boat Sinks Off Yemen, Dozens Missing
Red Sea Risk Widens as Houthis Vow to Target Carriers Tied to Israel
General:
SeaLead Terminates Charters on Sanctioned Ships Linked to Iran
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GLOBAL INTERESTS
China Deploys Five Icebreakers Near Alaska in Unprecedented Arctic Move
Russian Navy training ship Smolny back in Cape Town
Only 0.5% of 90,000 oil slicks reported over five-year period, analysis finds
Countries gather to thrash out deal on ‘plastic crisis’
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SCUTTLEBUTT
Nuclear Titans: The Unhinged Soviet Submarines That Terrified the West (Editor – 30:36 min video) and Typhoon Inside Russia’s Typhoon Submarine in the Early 2000s I SLICE HISTORY | FULL DOCUMENTARY (Editor – 53:07 min video)
Episode 2 – Wolf Rock Lighthouse maintenance visit and tour (Editor – 25:13 min video)
HMS Warspite in World War II (Editor – impressive 2 min video)
The 7 WWII SUBMARINES that sank the most WARSHIPS (Editor – 9:20 min video)
Nazi Seaplane That Refueled From a U-Boat: Blohm & Voss Bv 138 (Editor – 2 min video)
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THIS WEEK IN RCN/MARITIME HISTORY
9 August 1945 Temporary Lt (RCNVR) Robert Hampton Gray VC, DSC was shot down and killed in a dive-bombing raid at Onagawa Bay as he attacked and sank a Japanese destroyer. Gray was serving with the Royal Navy as a Corsair pilot aboard HMS Formidable. For his actions Gray 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 who along with VC, and DSC, he was extraordinarily well-travelled earning 1939-45 Star, Atlantic Star, Africa Star, Pacific Star, Defence Medal, Canadian Volunteer Service Medal with clasp, War Medal 1939-45 with Oak Leaf (Mentioned-in-Despatches). This history is 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. The RCN’s sixth and final Arctic and Offshore Patrol Vessel (AOPV) HMCS Robert Hampton Gray is named in his honour and was commissioned 9 August 2025 on the 80th anniversary.
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 lead
12 August 1814 Capt (RN) Alexander Hobbs, commanding 70 seamen and marines, attacks three U.S. armed schooners supporting Major General Jacob Brown’s Fort Erie campaign; masquerading as American supply boats, the British board and seize USS Somers and USS Ohio while USS Porcupine escapes; the vessels are renamed Huron and Sauk; last naval engagement on Lake Erie in the war.
12 August 1917 HMCS Shearwater and submarines CC-1 and CC-2 are the first Canadian warships to pass through the Panama Canal. They arrive in Halifax 14 Oct but are deemed unfit for transatlantic crossing and remain in Halifax.
12 August 1919 Born Winnipeg Manitoba and subsequently Captain(N) Godfrey Harry Hayes, OMM, DSC, CD went to HMS Conway, Liverpool, England and nominated for a commission in Royal Naval Reserve on leaving Conway summer 1938. Appointed to HMS King Orry (former passenger ferry) as Navigation Officer (rank of Midshipman) from 25 April 1940 to 29 May 1940. His ship was sunk at Dunkirk on 29 May 1940 on its second trip to Dunkirk. Joined HMS Gatinais (a former transport ship) as Navigation Officer from July 1940 to June 1941 and operated a Mobile Balloon Barrage in English Channel. He was awarded the DSC for bravery in manning the mobile balloon barrage which were constantly attacked by aircraft and German ‘E’ Boats. He shot down an attacking aircraft one night. Transferred to RCNR in June 1941 and served in HMCS Trillium, HMCS Kenogami, Sea Training Staff, and HMCS Guelph as CVO during the remainder of WW2. Served in many ships commanded HMCS St. Stephen (Frigate), HMCS Crescent (Destroyer), commissioned HMCS Saguenay as CO, 2nd Canadian Escort Squadron. Chief of Staff to Flag Officer Pacific Coast from August 1969 to summer of 1972. Base Commander, CFB Esquimalt from Summer of 1972 until retirement on 55th birthday 12 August 1974. Two-year term as President N.O.A.C. now NAC, and Western Representative of Canadian Naval Memorial Trust.
12 August 2010 HMCS Winnipeg intercepts a Thai ship, the MV Sun Sea carrying Tamil refugees from Sri Lanka, off the coast of British Columbia. BC.
13 August 1813 British schooner HMS Nancy discovered and trapped by a US squadron at the Nottawasaga River; Capt Lt Miller Worsley of the Royal Navy, warned of a close American presence, had the Nancy towed two miles up the river, where he built a blockhouse armed with two 24-pounder carronades and a 6-pounder gun from the schooner; his force consisted of 21 sailors, 23 Ojibwa and 9 French-Canadian voyageurs; the following day, 14 August, some American wood-cutting parties discovered the schooner’s hiding place, and Worsley was forced to scuttle the ship. Wasaga Beach, Ontario.
13 August 2010 The MV Sun Sea, carrying 490 Tamil migrants from Sri Lanka, is towed to the docks at CFB Esquimalt; the Thai cargo ship was intercepted off Vancouver Island on 12 August; the Tamils are moved to detention centres in the Vancouver area to await processing of their refugee claims.
14 August 1944 HMCS Iroquois commanded by CDR James C. Hibbard, DSC, RCN during a mixed melee ran German minesweeper M-385 aground.
14 August 1945 Japan offers its unconditional surrender.
14 August 1946 11 Naval Reserve Air Squadrons authorized to be formed. Not all were ever established.
14 Aug 2008 Leading Seaman Robert Teodor Binder MB, of Mississauga was a member of the Canadian Forces Naval Reserve who was posthumously awarded the Medal of Bravery on 26 November 2010. The citation to his award notes that on the night of 14 August 2008, at the age of nineteen, he and two others repeatedly dove and performed CPR to rescue the occupants of a sinking car.
15 August 1827 Captain (RN) John Franklin lands at the entrance of the Rideau Canal, on his return down the Ottawa River from the Arctic, welcomed by Colonel By, he is escorted up to Barracks Hill (what is now Parliament Hill), then the encampment of the 71st Regiment. The following day, 16 August, he will lay the foundation stone of the Ottawa Locks being built by Thomas Mackay. A reporter from the Montreal Herald witnessed the event: “I have this evening to communicate to you one of the most important events that ever occurred in the Canadas — an event which will doubtless form an era in the history of this country for ages to come. It was no less than the depositing of the first stone of the locks of the Rideau Canal… to the tap of MacKay’s trowel young Capt. Franklin put the one-and-one-quarter ton stone to bed while the garrison band played and loud “huzzas” went up from the excavation in a strange and wild setting.”
15 August 1914 The Panama Canal was opened to traffic. During WW1, Canada’s first submarines CC-1 and CC-2 spent the first three years of the war patrolling the Pacific; however, the lack of German threat saw them reposted to Halifax in 1917. With their tender, HMCS Shearwater, they became the first warships to transit the Panama Canal flying the White Ensign (the RCN’s service flag). Arriving in Halifax on 17 October 1917.
15 August 1940 Convoy SC1 sailed. SC series of convoys were introduced to provide a system of protection for slow merchant ships (7.5 knots minimum, often not achieved) which had previously been sailing independently, with disastrous consequences. Sydney, Cape Breton, was chosen as the western terminus to help ease congestion on the port of Halifax. During the winters of 41 and 42 the SC convoys were shifted to Halifax, due to ice in Sydney harbour and its approaches. In Aug 42, when the terminus for the HX series of convoys was shifted to New York City, the SC convoys were moved to Halifax, with an interval originating from New York between Sep 42 and Mar 43. Of the 177 SC convoys, only three failed to reach their destination. SC52 lost 4 of its 34 ships to U-boats in Oct 41 and with the prospects for continued heavy opposition, was returned to Sydney by a tortuous circumnavigation of Newfoundland. SC62 and 63 were scattered by bad weather in Jan 42 and completed their voyages as independently routed ships. In all, only 29 of the 177 SC convoys were attacked, mainly made possible by signals intelligence and evasive routing, and only 145 ships were lost from the total of 6,806 (2.1%). This number is somewhat misleading as many ‘stragglers’ were sunk when they dropped out of convoy that were not counted against convoy losses. Likewise, a few ‘rompers’, ships that detached from the convoy to move ahead independently, were lost, and not counted.
15 August 1944 HMC Ships Prince David and Prince Henry participate in the Allied landing in southern France, codenamed Operation Dragoon.
15 August 1945 VJ-Day ends WWII.
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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