October 19, 2020 | Local, Naval, C4ISR
More than Just a Ship
With the release of Canada's defence policy Strong, Secure, Engaged in 2017, the Government of Canada signaled its commitment to renewing the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) fleet.
As part of an effort to deliver a Blue Water Navy built around the ability to sustain two naval task groups of up to four combatants and a joint support ship, supplemented when warranted by a submarine and maritime air assets, the government committed to the acquisition of 15 Canadian Surface Combatants (CSC).
The effort to procure these vessels represents the centrepiece of the National Shipbuilding Strategy - the largest procurement in Canadian history - and certainly one of its most complex, spanning over three decades
Lockheed Martin Canada, the successful bidder in a lengthy but fair, open and transparent bid process, proposed a CSC concept design based on the United Kingdom's (UK) Type-26 Global Combat Ship, currently under construction. With this selection, Canada joins the UK and Australia who are leveraging the Type-26 Global Combat Ship design into their future fleets.
The CSC is Canada's next generation warship, which will eventually replace both the recently retired Iroquois-class and today's modernized Halifax-class. Capabilities from both classes will be modernized and future-proofed to ensure not only that systems stay relevant for years to come, but more importantly that tomorrow's sailors have the equipment they need when sent into harm's way. It forms part of a broad vision of defence capabilities that will serve Canada's defence interests well into the latter half of the century.
A Warship at its Core
At its core, the CSC is being designed to be combat capable through the marriage of high-tech equipment and highly trained RCN sailors - able to conduct air, surface, sub-surface and information warfare missions simultaneously. The crews will be trained and organized to be capable of conducting warfare operations 24/7 and to both fight the ship and respond to any damage sustained simultaneously.
Survivability, a key principle that shaped CSC requirements from the outset, refers to the ability to protect the crew onboard, maintain combat effectiveness under fire, and bring our sailors home safely on completion of the mission. This principle is reflected in ship requirements that include the military design standards for critical shipboard systems, levels of protection from blast and fragmentation, reduced signatures, a battle damage control system and, of course, the full suite of sensors and weapons the ship carries to defeat threats.
The Operational Capability of CSC, or its ability to deliver credible and relevant effect, was also top of mind to ensure that the ship could deliver on the mission set outlined in Canada's defence policy Strong, Secure, Engaged.
The design and capability fit aims to deliver a highly versatile ship that is multi-role in nature, and that affords the greatest range of capability. This outcome translates directly into agility and responsiveness for the RCN, including re-rolling a deployed ship from one mission to another, without returning to port.
The ship will be able to a perform a broad range of missions with North American Aerospace Defence Command (NORAD), 5-Eyes nations, NATO, coalition partners, and here in Canada with other government departments and agencies.
CSC will have decisive combat power for operations at sea, and in support of joint-force operations ashore. The versatility of the design will also ensure the RCN is well enabled to support missions for counter-piracy, counter-terrorism, intelligence and surveillance, interdiction and embargo operations, as well as provide support for humanitarian assistance, Search and Rescue, and law/sovereignty enforcement.
The ship's capability suite includes:
A Node in a System of Systems
More broadly speaking, the CSC will also serve as a node in a broader system of systems, all of which are geared to ensuring that Canada is strong at home, secure in North America and engaged in the world. This system includes space-based assets, intelligence networks, advanced Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) collection platforms, and shore-based command and control facilities.
As part of this approach, the RCN will also take interoperability to the next level, enabling systems integration both with other Canadian Armed Forces capabilities and our closest allies.
Designed with a communications and information systems architecture that will enable it to share significant amounts of data, it will contribute to a modernized North American Aerospace Defence Command (NORAD), and better enable the RCN to leverage and support its closest allies on operations abroad.
With its sensor-netting capability, which is also employed in the United States and Royal Australian navies, the CSC will have a significantly greater ability to defend itself against highly sophisticated threats.
Finally, the ship will be digitally integrated with the RCN/CAF/DND enterprise ashore, in keeping with the RCN's Digital Navy strategy. It is being carefully designed from the outset with digital requirements in mind, with a view to leveraging new technologies in maintenance and materiel management, supply chain management, logistics, training, operational support, as well as operations.
A Workplace and Home for Tomorrow's Sailors
Ships are only as good as the sailors who sail them and going to sea has always involved some level of hardship, whether from the effects of the sea, the lack of privacy or simply the separation from family and loved ones.
In keeping with an intent to ensure the Navy affords a safe, welcoming and inclusive workplace to all its members, the RCN is looking at the hardships of going to sea and aiming to lighten them in the CSC.
Over the past several months a small team, comprised mostly of junior-level sailors, looked at the CSC design through a habitability lens and provided advice on those areas that sailors felt were most important to them.
The team surveyed close to 3,000 members of the RCN and looked at everything from privacy, personal storage, sleeping quarters, mixed messing, mess occupancy, heads and wash-places, laundry facilities, digital connectivity, fitness facilities, recreation lounges and dining.
The three most significant priorities highlighted were in the areas of privacy, the ability to digitally connect with families ashore and improved fitness facilities. The RCN is now working to see how this feedback might be incorporated into the design of CSC, to produce a ship that can better accommodate tomorrow's sailors and ensure that we remain committed to People First, Mission Always.
A Significant Opportunity for Canadian Industry
What lies ahead for a world-class industry team, led by Irving Shipbuilding Incorporated, Lockheed Martin Canada and BAE Systems, truly represents an immense opportunity. It all begins with ensuring the best equipment and right level of integration to enable and protect sailors in the future, so they can deliver on their mission.
Next is the opportunity that comes within each line of effort related to the overall program: naval design, systems integration, shipbuilding, training development, and shore-based infrastructure.
In each area, industry partners have a chance to adapt world-leading best practices, introduce new innovative approaches in their respective areas and leverage the best in modern technologies to make value-chain improvements.
For example, the RCN is already involved with the CSC industry team in using a model-based systems engineering approach that will establish the foundation for the eventual creation of a digital twin of the ship, as well as a baseline digital thread that will facilitate the Navy's ability to capitalize on a variety of digital technologies in the future.
The last area of opportunity lies in capitalizing on the benefits that come with three nations all building a surface combatant using the same baseline design.
Examples include pursuing supply chain economies of scale, cooperating on design and engineering packages, sharing lessons learned in design and build practices, and collaborating on the development of training products.
These areas of opportunity were spurred by Canada's National Shipbuilding Strategy, which aims to not only deliver Canada's Navy and Coast Guard the ships they need, but also to create a sustainable marine sector in Canada, and contribute economic benefits and highly skilled jobs to Canada's economy.
Conclusion
The CSC is more than just a ship - it represents a national endeavour to safeguard Canada's defence needs.
It is being designed from the keel up to be multi-purpose in its capabilities, affording Canada the ability to deploy it across a broad spectrum of mission sets, and agility to adapt to a new mission, in hours not days or weeks.
It is a significant component in a much broader system of systems, where interoperability is being elevated to integration, and digital technologies and data are leveraged as capabilities.
It offers a floating environment that balances hard steel and high tech against the habitability needs and desires of today's young sailors - a home away from home.
And finally, it offers a tremendous opportunity for Canadian industry to take on a complex challenge and deliver in a world-class and innovative way.
The Canadian Surface Combatant - the right ship for the RCN and Canada.
October 8, 2023 | Local, Land, C4ISR
Military chaplains are seeing an increasing number of soldiers, sailors and aircrew who — squeezed by the soaring cost of living and stuck in a system that forces them to relocate — are in financial distress and seeking assistance.
January 2, 2019 | Local, Naval
By EMANUELE SCIMIA Calgary academic believes Beijing will conduct naval operations in the Arctic soon and that China's next-generation nuclear subs will have 'under-ice' capabilities China's growing focus on the Arctic Ocean has drawn the eye of circumpolar nations, including Canada, which lays claim to the waters of the Northwest Passage. The Canadian government tends to downplay the military threat posed by Beijing, but at the same time has voiced concern about its disrespect for international rules in dealing with territorial disputes in the China seas, and the possibility that it could replicate its intimidatory tactics in the High North. The Chinese rolled out their Arctic policy last January. The Asian giant considers itself a “near-Arctic” state, and wants a stake in the region's development as ice melting is creating new business opportunities – a concept reiterated by Gao Feng, China's special representative for Arctic Affairs, at the Arctic Circle Conference in Seoul on December 8. Beijing aims to set up the polar leg of its Belt and Road Initiative for better connectivity across Eurasia and beyond. The Chinese are keen to utilize new Arctic sea routes to narrow the distance and cut transport time with Europe for their cargo ships, besides exploiting the region's natural resources and investing in infrastructure projects. Canada's Department of National Defense spokesperson Jessica Lamirande told Asia Times that her country was committed to cooperation with other states in the Arctic, provided they abide by international law, including environmental, navigation and other standards. Against this backdrop, “Canada welcomes continued discussions with China on Arctic issues,” she said. Arctic militarization Militarization of the Arctic is becoming reality. Russia is busy reinforcing military positions in its polar territory and will require foreign warships that want to sail through its Arctic waters to give prior notification to the Defense Ministry starting from next year. The USS Harry S Truman sailed beyond the Arctic Circle in October, the first time a US aircraft carrier has operated in these latitudes since the early 1990s. The warship then joined the Northern Atlantic Treaty Organization in Norway for its largest military exercises after the fall of the Soviet Union. Still, it is worth noting that the British-led Joint Expeditionary Force also includes circumpolar states such as Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Finland, which are all concerned with Russia's military build-up in the High North. But Lamirande said the Canadian armed forces had not seen an increase in Chinese military presence in the country's Arctic region. “While there is no immediate military threat in Canada's Arctic, our military carefully monitors the changing security environment in the polar areas and is focused on exercising surveillance and control there,” she insisted. “All of the waterways that are commonly referred to as the Northwest Passage are internal waters of Canada and we have an unfettered right to regulate them.” Underestimating China's challenge Not everyone shares Canada's optimistic view of the Chinese commitment to the Arctic. Robert Huebert, a senior fellow at the University of Calgary's Center for Military and Strategic Studies, thinks it is naive on the Canadian government's part to believe that China will not conduct naval operations in the Arctic in the future. “The Chinese have expanded their overall naval capability from 1994 on to the point of becoming the real world's second-largest navy,” he said. “Not to mention that China's naval shipbuilding currently surpasses that of any other country, including the United States.” Huebert noted that Beijing had shown its interest in having Arctic and near-Arctic operations in 2016 when it sent a five-vessel taskforce to the Bering Sea, and later deployed naval units to visit some Nordic countries and hold drills with the Russian navy in the Baltic Sea. “All of this points to a Chinese desire to have vessels that will be able to operate globally,” the Canadian scholar said. “Given the activities of both American and Russian submarines in the Arctic, and given the Chinese intention to become a challenger to both of these navies, it is inevitable that China will soon have an Arctic capability for its naval forces.” Cooperation with the US Canada is trying to beef up its military potential in the High North, but it may not be up to the task of coping with a serious external threat in the region. The Royal Canadian Navy will have six new Arctic and offshore patrol ships down the line. Lamirande explained that jetty infrastructure was being upgraded at Esquimalt and Halifax dockyards to berth these vessels. She said that a new jetty was under construction at Halifax, Canada's naval base on the Atlantic coast, and would be ready for use in the spring of 2019. Similar work is also underway for two new jetties at the naval facility in Esquimalt, which hosts the country's Pacific fleet, with this project expected to be completed in the late 2020s. “Work to establish a docking, replenishing and refueling facility in Nanisivik [in Canada's northern Nunavut territory] is well advanced and expected to be operational in 2019,” she added. According to Huebert, the new Arctic and offshore patrol ships are not designed to respond to an expanding Chinese (and Russian) submarine threat in the Arctic. “The vessels are important in providing Canada's navy with the opportunity to learn how to operate in the Arctic region,” he pointed out. However, to be able to counter the Chinese and the Russians in the Arctic waters, he said Canada would have to work closely with the United States to improve the underwater mission of NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command). “It was agreed in 2005 that NORAD would have a maritime detection mission, but there have been limited efforts to actually operationalize this requirement,” Huebert admitted, adding that prospects of any improvement in the immediate future were not that great, given the strained relations between US President Donald Trump's administration and the Canadian government. To complicate the issue, Washington asserts that the Northwest Passage is an international strait, and not Canadian territorial waters. “Nevertheless there will be a requirement to improve underwater detection systems, and those that can in fact operate at a distance from the northern section of North America,” Huebert said. “Given the range of new weapon systems that are now coming online, this will be an increasingly complicated challenge for the two North American countries.” Submarine deployment China launched its first home-built polar icebreaking vessel in September and is said to be working on a nuclear-powered icebreaking cargo vessel. A Chinese icebreaker made its way into the Canadian Arctic in August 2017. Professor Huebert noted that the Chinese navy actually has more icebreakers operational today than either the American or Canadian naval forces. More importantly, it has been reported that the Chinese are studying submarine technology for deployment in the Arctic waters. For Huebert, an increase in China's submarine activities in the polar region is a plausible scenario, and Ottawa should not underestimate it. “As the emerging naval challenger to the United States, China will inevitably develop a submarine capability to enter the Arctic,” he warned. In his view, China's new Type 094 and next-generation Type 096 nuclear-powered missile submarines will likely have “under-ice” capacities, posing a great threat to both Canada and the US. http://www.atimes.com/article/chinas-advances-in-arctic-may-pose-security-threat-to-canada/amp/
April 8, 2022 | Local, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security
Observers in the national security sector — accustomed to hearing cabinet ministers talk in circumspect terms about Canada's war-fighting abilities — say they were surprised by the unambiguous language about Russia's war on Ukraine in Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland's budget speech.