Ottawa Citizen - November 12, 2011
By Colin Kenny
Defence Minister Peter Mackay mused a few weeks ago that the government might well decide to scrap its fleet of wobbly submarines and get on with ordering new ones. Smart idea – much smarter than the navy’s repeated empty arguments that those four battered subs are worth saving.
Mackay also suggested that Canada might switch from diesel-electric subs to nuclear, so we can patrol under the ice in our northern waters. Dumb idea. No military threat to Canada is likely to come from the Arctic. So it makes no sense to play war games in fragile northern waters. Let diplomats and the courts settle disputes up there.
Submarines are essential to any adult country that takes a serious approach to protecting its land and waters. About 50 countries around the world have submarines, for very good reasons.
Canada needs at least six submarines to guard our coasts and advance our interests abroad. We thought we had four Victoria Class diesel-electric subs purchased from the British in 1998. They turned out to be lemons. So for far too long we have had no subs on Canadian waters or under Canadian waters, leaving our vast coastlines perilously underdefended.
I don’t like criticizing our navy – in fact I am a big booster. A strong navy will be essential to Canada’s security – both at home and in projecting force abroad – with special regard for the increasing importance of the Pacific theatre.
But the navy can be frustrating, I have had repeated assurances from a succession of commanders of Canada’s navy that after expenditures that are closing in on $3 billion, its submarine program is finally on the mend. Rational analysis says it isn’t. Rational analysis says good money is being thrown after bad on our dysfunctional fleet of occasionally active submarines.
Naval commanders, who should be scurrying to replace the British boats, are still pretending that the deal will pay off.
Vice-Admiral Paul A. Maddison, commander of the Royal Canadian Navy, has been trying to reassure the media that he will have two of the subs operational by 2013, and a third by 2014, although a letter from the Department of National Defence says that third boat won’t be up and running until 2016.
According to the Admiral’s latest reckoning: “Our submarines were purchased with 80 per cent of hull life remaining at one-quarter of the cost of a new build. They cost no more to run than other submarines of equivalent capability and will provide a solid return on investment well into the 2020s.”
I don’t think so. Canada bought the Chicoutimi, Corner Brook, Victoria and Windsor from the Brits for $750 million. Two huge mistakes were made right off the bat.
First, Jean Chrétien’s government dawdled over the purchase, so the boats sat stored with seawater in their fuel tanks for more than four years. That created rust issues and added to problems with dents and bad welds. That meant that they were only going to be partially operational for brief periods. It also meant huge repair bills.
Second, we sent our submariners to pick up the boats in the UK. We didn’t insist that the Brits deliver them with crews who could have subsequently provided training for our people.
Chicoutimi was seriously damaged in a fire on its delivery voyage. One sailor was killed and two were injured. Chicoutimi never sailed after the fire, and stands a good chance of ending its bleak life as a repository of spare parts. The other three subs were docked until 2005 as repair costs spiralled.
HMCS Victoria: spent the bulk of 2002 in dry dock with cracks in exhaust valves and a large dent in its hull; $195 million refit; set for trials this year; scheduled next year to be the first Canadian sub to fire a torpedo in this century; has been at sea for 100 days since delivery, averaging less than ten days a year.
HMCS Windsor: inoperative since 2007 when it began a refit; major problems with virtually all of its systems, including bad welds, broken torpedo tubes, a fault in the rudder and tiles that fall off. At sea for 332 days since delivery – about a month a year.
HMCS Corner Brook: in 2002 a malfunction with a torpedo tube hatch during sea trials forced an emergency surfacing; in 2011 hit the ocean floor during training; plans are to overhaul it and get it back to sea by 2016; 460 days at sea since delivery – about a month and a half a year.
HMCS Chicoutimi: Not at sea since the fire; underwent refit in 2010; parts were shared or went missing; if this boat sails again, so may the Bismarck.
The Royal Canadian Navy chooses to use Mk-48 torpedoes, which the British subs couldn’t fire; it will take another year’s training to certify just one of the boats to fire the Mk-48s, and longer for the remaining submarines (if nothing goes wrong). This will cost $125 million.
But past performance strongly suggests that things will go wrong. The years slip away; Canada’s coastlines remain underdefended.
Time is up. Canada should get a licence to build proven diesel-electric submarines currently available from countries like Germany, build them in Canada with guidance from their designers, and get them in the water. Insist upon two operational submarines during the construction period to maintain the skills of our submariners. Quit spending money on boats that don’t measure up to the harsh realities of underwater warfare.
Prime Minister Harper is obsessed with defending the Canadian North, where nobody is ever going to attack us. Thus Mackay’s musing about nuclear subs being the best way to go – only nuclear subs have the capacity to patrol at length under ice.
But purchasing nuclear submarines makes no sense. Are we really going to fire torpedoes at U.S., Russian, British or French subs armed with nuclear weaponry if they deign to pass through our northern waters? If we want to monitor use of the Northwest Passage, there are better and cheaper ways.
Not to mention that nuclear submarines are at least three times more expensive than diesel-electric. Plus Diesel-electric submarines are quieter and often more effective.
Less than 24 hours after Mackay suggested that nuclear subs were the best idea, he went on CBC radio’s The House to say that he must have somehow misspoke – it seems the government wasn’t considering going nuclear after all.
Thank God that somebody got to Mackay before he put his nuclear order in. Forget about nuclear subs. Forget about the lemons we bought from the Brits. Stop putting a brave face on a bad buy and stop obsessing about the North.
Stop dithering and wasting huge wads of money and get us some subs that will defend Canadians where they need to be defended.
{Colin Kenny is the former chair of the Senate Committee on National Security and Defence. kennyco@sen.parl.gc.ca]