NAC News – Edition K350 HMCS Cape Breton
Your weekly national and international naval news for the week of March 27th, 2020
Edition – K350 HMCS Cape Breton (WW2 River Class Frigate)
Rod Hughes – Editor NAC News rhughes@shaw.ca (comments welcome to help improve this service)
Contact David Soule executivedirector-nac@outlook.com if you wish someone (who may be a member or perhaps a good candidate to join) to be added to the NAC News email distribution.
★ Editor’s stars of the week
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NOTICES
- ★ 2020 NAC BOA Gala, conference and AGM (Editor – Postponed until further notice out of concern for the health and welfare of those we seek to honour, our loyal NAC members far and wide, those who loyally serve in the RCN, and those who support the NAC (we have some very generous corporate sponsors for these events), we have decided to postpone these activities to a later date. We are working on a plan to host a replacement dinner and conference in October along with other RCN activities which may be scheduled at that time. The AGM will be held via electronic means sometime in June. Details to follow.)
- Vanguard Launches First-Ever Canadian Submarine Event (Editor – The next big RCN procurement challenge! The Deep Blue 2020 Forum, a one-day event, will take place on 29 October 2020, details to follow)
- Two new NIOBE papers (and all others to date) are on-line at this link. “Sustainable force development” by Ian Flight and “Broad Area Maritime Surveillance” by Matt Fraser.
CANADA
- New ships raise issue of missile defence
- Naval Boarding Parties: A tactical revolution
- Prepare for multiple waves of COVID-19 over 12 months: military chief to troops
- Cadets in Saint-Jean and Kingston must now return home amid COVID-19 pandemic
- Coronavirus exposure stalls deployment of Royal Canadian Navy task group
- Clearance diver’s unique, and cold, deployment
- HMCS Victoria Camber Dive
- Federal Court rules in favour of injured veteran’s class-action suit
- Never too late, or too old, for recognition – Legion of Honour
- Corvus Energy Invests in Canadian Battery Production
- Royal Canadian Navy Selects RaceRocks as Digital Training Technology Solution
- Navy prepares for unmanned aircraft threats
USA & AMERICAS
- USNI News Fleet and Marine Tracker: March 23, 2020
- Nicolás Maduro: US charges Venezuelan president with ‘narco-terrorism’ (Editor – a story with maritime implacations, as the US turns up the heat)
- In Colombia, fleet of cartel narco-subs poses challenge for navy
- U.S. Navy Virginia-Class Submarine Future USS Vermont Completes Alpha Sea Trials
- USS Gerald Ford Flight Deck Now Certified; Can Conduct Carrier Qualifications
- USS Roosevelt Prepares for Homeport Shift to Rota
- Document: Marine Corps Force Design 2030
- U.S. Navy Tests Future Hypersonic Weapons System
- GAO Report Finds Navy Planning for Sustaining The Fleet Is Lacking
- Hydroid Delivers REMUS 300 UUV to U.S. Navy
- 30th anniversary: Exxon Valdez oil spill inflicted lasting wounds
- Ocean Infinity’s Hunt for the Submarine San Juan
- U.S.-Flag Great Lakes Shipping Season to Start Wednesday
- Modern-Day Mayflower Sets Sail Ahead of 400th Anniversary Voyage
INDO-PACIFIC
- Shots fired as Chinese boats ram coast guard ship
- China Sends Ships, Planes over Disputed Seas to Show Strength after COVID-19 Outbreak
- U.S. Navy Destroyer USS McCampbell Transits Taiwan Strait
- Project 955A Borei-A SSBN to Reinforce Russian Navy Pacific Fleet
- Protecting Australia’ Maritime Trade Report released (Editor – a Canadian report using this report’s format as a template would be very useful)
- JMSDF Commissions First-of-Class AEGIS Destroyer DDG-179 JS Maya まや (Editor – follow-up to last week’s article, an impressive 3:47 min video)
- Japan Commissions its 1st Li-Ion Battery Submarine SS-511 JS Ōryū おうりゅう JMSDF (Editor – follow-up to last week’s article, an impressive 2:58 min video)
- ROK Navy Busan Naval Base – ROKS Choi Young, ROKS Soyang, HMAS Hobart & ROKS Jung Ji (Editor – good ship eye-candy in this 7:16 min video)
- India fast-tracking purchase of 10 additional Ka-31 AEW&C helicopters
- India signs deal with Turkey’s TAIS Shipyards for five fleet support vessels
- China deployed 12 underwater drones ‘Sea Wing Glider’ in Indian Ocean
- A new beginning? Next-gen USVs and the future of naval combat
- Indian Navy Finally Gets Access to Strategic French Base near Mauritius
- Extended forward presence: China’s artificial islands
- Sydney dry dock continues to serve at 75 (Editor – there is much more to a Navy than just ships at sea)
- TAFE SA kick starts program to broaden naval shipbuilding workforce
EUROPE
- Exercise Joint Warrior begins
- NATO frigates enter Black Sea (Editor – note HMCS Fredericton)
- NATO forces exercise with French carrier strike group
- The UK’s new Type 26 frigate could be its most powerful type in many decades (Editor – useful refresher on the class similar to what Canada will build, only the first 6 min are useful)
- Royal Navy Shadows Russian Warships After ‘Unusually High Levels Of Activity’
- Sevmash Shipyard installs heavy equipment on Admiral Nakhimov cruiser (Editor – resurrection of an expensive ghost!)
- Which Future Destroyer For The Russian Navy ? – Part 2
- HMS Defender returns home after 7 months at sea
- Peek Inside Russian Cruise Missile Sub That US Media Have Called ‘a Threat to the Homeland’
- We Give You: Dreadnought Class Trident Nuclear Submarines
- German Naval Yards’ legal battle over MKS 180 decision moves forward
- ★ European Bank Could Help Russia Lift Sunken Nuclear Submarines (Editor – why can’t Russia clean up its own mess by using the billions they are making from the gas industry in their north, rather than spending it on their current submarine buildup?)
- Royal Navy to moor hospital ship on the River Thames in coronavirus plan to increase beds (Editor – an example of the versatility of a honking big ship)
- Pyotr Morgunov landing ship to be commissioned in late May
- Black Sea Fleet’s Admiral Essen frigate conducts exercises in Mediterranean
- French Navy to Evacuate COVID-19 Patients From Corsica (Editor – another capability included in a large aviation ship)
- Divers and Mine Warfare memorial unveiled in Portsmouth
MIDDLE EAST
- Does the US need two carriers in the Arabian sea? Part 1: Deterring Iran
- Does the US need two carriers in the Arabian Sea? Part 2: Are they needed Elsewhwere?
- Australia Hands Over Command of CTF 150 to France
- The Russian Navy’s Bosphorus Relay Resupplying Syria Continues
- AC-130w Stinger II gunship, P-8a Poseidon & Cyclone patrol boats take on small boats in exercise! (Editor – 10:27 min video)
- HMAS Toowoomba, FS Guépratte exercise in Gulf of Aden
GLOBAL INTERESTS
- How the pandemic could start inflaming wars around the world
- Naval News Monthly Recap – February 2020 (Editor – a mix in this 5:10 min video)
- ★ IN THE KNOW Podcast 14: The Impact of COVID-19 on Global Shipping (Editor – there is an informative 43:58 min Podcast included, just click on the “sound bar” arrow)
- Op-Ed: COVID-19 Reveals the Risks of the Just-in-Time Supply Chain
- Western Supply Chains Buckle as Coronavirus Lockdowns Spread
- New Sanitizing Technology Makes Quick Work of COVID-19 (Editor – I can’t confirm the science, but if the tech is valid it has great potential)
- ★ How noise pollution threatens ocean life | The Economist (Editor – acoustic impact explored in this 10:01 min video. I wonder what IUSS thinks of this data gathering)
- MSC vessel attacked by pirates off Gabon
- NYK Starts World’s First Large-Scale Survey of Ocean Microplastics
SCUTTLEBUTT
- Naval Guns (1400 to 1650) – Things that make you go Boom (Editor – first in a historical series, a 33:07 min video!)
- Russia’s Foxtrot-Class: The Submarine That Nearly Started World War III
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SIGNIFICANT RCN DATES – MARCH
(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”, and Roger Litwiller’s excellent web site http://www.rogerlitwiller.com)
- 1 March 1928 HMC Ships Champlain and Vancouver are commissioned into the RCN, replacing HMC Ships Patriot and Patrician.
- 3 March 1921 HMC Submarines CH-14 and CH-15 are commissioned into the RCN.
- 4 March 1943 HMC Ships Shediac and St. Croix sink the German submarine U-87 in the North Atlantic.
- 6 March 1944 HMC Ships St. Catharines, Chilliwack, Gatineau, Fennel and Chaudiere assist Royal Naval warships in the sinking of the German submarine U-744 in the North Atlantic.
- 7 March 1945 HMC Ships La Hulloise, Strathadam and Thetford Mines sink the German submarine U-1302 in St. George’s Channel.
- 9 March 1945 HMCS Uganda arrives in Sydney, Australia, to join the British Pacific Fleet.
- 10 March 1944 HMC Ships St. Laurent, Owen Sound and Swansea assist Royal Navy warships sink the German submarine U-845 in the North Atlantic.
- 12 March 1918 Lieutenant (RCN) William McKinstry Heriot-Maitland-Dougall (RCNC 1911–1914) at age of 23 years of age was in command of HMS D3 and was killed with his submarine’s crew of 29 off Le Havre, France. HMS D3 was sunk in error by French dirigible AT-9, which could not see D3’s insignia because of the sub’s reflection off the waves and took her to be a U-boat firing upon it. The French hadn’t been informed that D3 was assigned to their waters in the English Channel and were not aware that British submarines were identifying themselves with rockets as opposed to flashing lights.
- 13 March 1943 HMCS Prescott sink U163 off Cape Finisterre, the kill was originally credited to a USS Herring a USN submarine.
- 17 March 1945 HMCS Guysborough is torpedoed and sunk by U878 off Ushant. 51 of her crew were lost.
- 20 March 1943 – World War II – UK destroyer commissioned into RCN as HMCS Griffin; 3 weeks later, renamed HMCS Ottawa; second of name. Halifax, Nova Scotia
- 21 March 1945 HMCS New Glasgow (frigate) rammed and fatally damages U-Boat 1003 off Lough Foyle, Northern Ireland .
- 23 March 1965 Fifteen RCAF aviators are killed when their Argus patrol plane goes down in a night exercise off Puerto Rico.
- 24 March 1941 The Rush-Bagot Agreement of 1817, which restricted the number of naval vessels allowed on the Great Lakes, is modified to allow both American and Canadian naval vessels to operate on the Great Lakes in greater numbers.
- 26 March 1941 – World War II – Disaster – RCN armed yacht HMCS Otter destroyed by an accidental explosion and fire, off Halifax; two Officers and 17 men lost.
- 29 March 1945 HMCS TEME (frigate) is torpedoed by U Boat 246 in the English Channel off Falmouth and declared a total loss.
- 31 March 1945 HMCS Conestoga, the Women’s Royal Canadian Naval Service training establishment, is paid off.
- 31 March 1991 The Gulf War between Iraq and the United Nations coalition ends.