Vanguard Magazine

Rheinmetall Canada Keeping Canadian Innovation at the Forefront www.vanguardcanada.com OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2020 27 submarines A s a Canadian company that is a loyal partner of the Government of Canada and that proudly counts many veterans among its 375 em- ployees, Rheinmetall Canada strives to put national interests first. Over the last many months, our staff has been working tire- lessly to keep Canadian innovation at the forefront, taking major strides in projects that support homegrown skills and part- nerships. In the throes of a global pandemic, we have been maintaining our operations and carrying on with the crucial services re- quired by our customers. By weathering the storm, our company helps bolster an in-country workforce and supply chain, specifically through the Government of Canada's Industrial and Technological Benefits (ITB) Policy. To date, Rhein- metall Canada has achieved more than one billion dollars in ITB and IRB obligations. As one of the very few companies to have realized such an achievement, we have re- mained a powerful ally in equipping the Canadian Armed Forces and have forged time-honoured partnerships with national suppliers. Rheinmetall Canada remains optimistic about the future of Canada's defence in- dustry. Many procurement initiatives un- derlined in the Department of National Defence's Strong, Secure, Engaged (SSE) policy are on the horizon for the coming months. Our company will offer Canada competitive solutions for the Logistics Ve- hicle Modernization, Enhanced Recovery Capability, and Land Vehicle Crew Train- Stéphane Oehrli, President and CEO, Rheinmetall Canada ing System projects, among others. It is through such state-of-the-art initiatives that we continue to support the creation of good middle-class jobs in Canada while keeping our troops agile and safe. PersPective Sponsored Content A Decade of Initiatives Given the compounded situation facing the RAN, it took over a decade to success- fully recover from this state by implement- ing various initiatives. This included the establishment of a dedicated Submarine Capability Team to resolve the issues and deliver two 'fast track' submarines, which provided an interim operational subma- rine capability in 2001. The team was also given additional funds and authority, unfettered by the usual Defence Commit- tee structures. Through these efforts, the initial introduction into service issues were resolved but submarine availability contin- ued to languish. In 2008, The Submarine Workforce Sustainability Review brought a non-submariner's eye to the situation and provided a baseline for establishing a more sustainable manpower regime. And finally, a review undertaken by Mr. John Coles, an independent expert from BMT Defence Services in the UK, flagged the need to rebuild the relationships between Industry, Navy, and Defence, to establish a national enterprise to deliver operational subma- rines against international benchmarks. After the sustained efforts by the nation- al submarine enterprise members, the Fi- nal Report from John Coles in 2016 not- ed a dramatic improvement - better than the benchmark for submarine availability, significant cost reductions per operational day (albeit at increased overall cost), five crews and at least two operational subma- rines available for deployment in pursuit of government objectives. The Canadian Submarine Situation From recent comments by the Command- er of the Royal Canadian Navy, Vice Ad- miral Art McDonald, it seems that Canada today has no operational submarines, despite funding a force of four subma- rines that are split between the East and West coasts and manned by hard-working stressed crews. Both HMCS Chicoutimi and Windsor last underwent operational work programs in 2017, prior to opera- tional deployments in 2018. HMCS Cor- ner Brook has been sidelined since 2011, following a grounding incident, and work on HMCS Victoria and Windsor has been delayed due to COVID-19. One can see similarities between the RAN's earlier plight and that which the RCN is facing today. This article does not seek to tell Canada how to rectify what ap- pears to be a stop-start submarine situa- tion but to show that these similarities are worthy of consideration. Why Submarines? Submarines are technically very demand- ing and expensive to build, sustain, and safely operate (more like an underwater aircraft than a black frigate). It is worth re- flecting on why navies bother with them. The answer lies in their stealth, which allows them to operate in sensitive areas without escalating a tense situation, ob- serving, reporting, and where authorised, striking with great effect. Their possible presence injects great uncertainty into the calculation of an opponent, countering them is expensive and never guaranteed. As a result, they exert a significant deter-

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