Tag Archive for: Canada

The Royal Canadian Navy in the Pacific – a look at capabilities

PEARL HARBOR (Jul. 29, 2010) - The Canadian navy Iroquios-class guided missile destroyer HMAS Algonquin (DDG 283) returns to Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam after participating in Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) 2010 exercises. RIMPAC is a biennial, multinational exercise designed to strengthen regional partnerships and improve multinational interoperability.Canada could benefit from expanding its military presence in the Asia-Pacific. As I described in a previous Strategist post, the government faces certain budgetary constraints likely to limit the size of its future naval presence and capacity for maritime diplomacy. Yet such a challenge isn’t insurmountable. To ensure sufficient fleet funding, Canada has the option of placing greater priority on the capital portion of the defence budget—even if it comes at the expense of personnel and operations/maintenance spending.

Such a move would offer Ottawa some leverage to join the ASEAN Defence Ministers Meeting Plus. More importantly, Canada would have a means to help augment America’s naval power in the region, which is expected to be under increasing strain as a result of defence cutbacks—at a time when China is expanding its own naval fleet and showing greater assertiveness in its maritime disputes with its neighbours. Read more

Canada and the limits of maritime diplomacy

PACIFIC OCEAN (Aug. 27, 2012) - Canadian Navy Lt. Lois Lane assists with lookout duties in the pilothouse of Military Sealift Command hospital ship USNS Mercy (T-AH 19) as Mercy transits back to San Diego after completing a four and a half month mission. Pacific Partnership, an annual U.S. Pacific Fleet humanitarian and civic assistance mission now in its seventh year, brings together U.S. military personnel, host and partner nations, non-government organizations and international agencies to build stronger relationships and develop disaster response capabilities throughout the Asia-Pacific region. (U.S. Navy photo by MC2 Roadell Hickman)

Canada has begun to play a more visible role at the Shangri-La Dialogue, and this year’s summit was no exception. Defence Minister Peter MacKay even very publicly broached the issue of participating in the ASEAN Defence Ministers Meeting Plus (ADMM-Plus). In some ways, Canada’s request is understandable. Regular, high-level participation at Shangri-La is often seen as necessary for joining ADMM-Plus. As Peter Jennings noted in his recent Strategist post on Canada in the Asia–Pacific, this request was also politely rejected, a reminder that what might be necessary is not necessarily sufficient.

Part of this rejection arose from Canada’s often fleeting attention to the Asia–Pacific region itself. A good case in point is Prime Minister Brian Mulroney’s North Pacific Cooperative Security Dialogue, quickly shelved after only a few short years and raising well-placed concerns about Canada’s staying power (PDF). One can also add Canada’s equally brief funding for the track-two South China Sea Dialogue in the 1990s. Read more

Australia and Canada: the kangamoose wakes

The kangamoose wakes

Canada played an unexpectedly large role at this year’s Shangri La dialogue, and in a way that shows the challenges of building closer defence ties in the region. Minister of National Defence Peter MacKay has attended the last three dialogues, each time bringing with him impressively senior teams of officials. MacKay’s message on this occasion was unambiguous: Canada wants to be regarded as a player in Asia-Pacific security.

In his speech MacKay twice pitched the case for Ottawa to join the ASEAN Defence Minister Meeting Plus (ADMM+), the current eight ‘plus countries being the US, China, Australia, New Zealand, Russia, India and Japan:

The ADMM+, for instance, is becoming a locus for consultation – a gathering that fosters real trust and cooperation and one that Canada would very much like to join.

In answering a question MacKay elaborated his thinking on Canada’s interest:

What I do see is the ADMM to a large degree replicating in this region the role that NATO plays for the Atlantic and bringing countries together around the table to have very detailed and dynamic discussions about the security of this region. That is why, as clearly stated, Canada wants to be a part, wants to be at that table, wants to be able to contribute. Read more

Australia’s air combat capability – the next step?

The Super Hornet, A44-203, sets the scene on a cold winter's morning, at Naval Air Station, Lemoore, California, USA.

Last week the Defence Ministers announced that the government would approach the United States to get cost and availability information for a second tranche of 24 Super Hornets. It doesn’t commit Australia to such a move but it shows that, at the very least, there is some lingering doubt in government circles regarding the feasibility of maintaining the RAAF’s air combat capability until the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is able to enter service.

The announcement followed the development of an ‘Air Combat Capability Transition Plan’ recently delivered to the government. In fact, the government has had a lot of advice this year. The National Audit Office delivered a pair of reports in September on the maintainability of the existing fleet and of Australia’s participation in the F-35 program. As I noted in a previous post, the Audit Office reiterated some known challenges in keeping a credible capability intact through what is now shaping up to be a critical transition at the end of the decade.

We don’t know what the government was told by Defence on delivery of the Transition Plan, but evidently it didn’t completely allay their concerns—otherwise there’d be no need to continue collecting data on the alternatives. And Australia isn’t alone in being worried—the Canadian government has ‘reset’ its acquisition process, which until recently had been a sole-source buy of F-35s. Like Australia, Canada is heading off to the world market to get price and availability data.

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