Vanguard Magazine

30 APRIL/MAY 2025 www.vanguardcanada.com R A P I D LY E V O LV I N G T E C H RICHARD GRAVEL: Q: Looking at things from the perspec- tive of the British Navy. Could you speak to the current and planned fleet mix, and how that might influence capability insertion and innovation? For example, is the British Navy moving toward plat- forms with greater modularity, increased mission flexibility, or designs that sup- port roles like acting as motherships for autonomous systems? RAdm STEVE McCARTHY: I have a fantastic drawing board, a national shipbuilding pipeline that looks out over the next 10 years that is driving the Royal Navy through its biggest modernization in generations. As we retire Type 23-frig- ates, we are updating the Type 45-destroy- ers. They're nearly through their midlife update, which improves the power system availability, but also installs an update to the combat system. The aircraft carriers are fifth generation, highly integrated platforms, which are really successful. In any future conflict any adversary would seek to punish the United Kingdom by concentrating on the maritime because it historically remains our greatest strength and our greatest vul- nerability. That means we need to protect it, and to protect it, the first part of that future fleet mix we'll look at is mine hunt- ing and sea-bed warfare capabilities that we've introduced in two new ships, includ- ing the RFA Stirling Castle. She is a host platform for an autonomous mine hunting capability, and by taking people out the minefield, we'll reduce their risk exposure. That takes us forward to modularity in the Type 26 City-class frigates, similar to your River-class destroyers. There's a huge mis- sion bay in there, and we've got a load of capabilities that come in. It can either be a second helicopter in there, or it can be humanitarian aid disaster relief, or it can be autonomous platforms, including things like a mine hunting capability that we can take forward with a task group, but if there is no other MCM vessel available, we can still take some route clearance capability with us in those ships. Looking further ahead, our future air defence strategy envisions a mix of crewed command platforms and uncrewed - or optionally crewed, as the Australians de- scribe them - vessels. These platforms will carry larger weapons arsenals and enable collaborative engagement capabilities to support theatre ballistic missile defence and anti-ship missile defence, particularly in the context of protecting the North Atlantic bastion. This opens up a much greater opportunity to rely on automated and autonomous systems to handle parts of the detect-and-find mission in the North Atlantic with far greater persistence, and without the need to feed people or worry about the comforts and care that come with having a crew onboard. So, it's about high-endurance autonomous capabilities, high levels of electrification to reduce the number of moving parts and to provide the opportunity for alternate power gen- erating sources to have great persistence, and enough in reserve to do what we need to do, should the time come. RICHARD GRAVEL: Q: David, you heard what Admiral McCarthy just shared, and some of it seemed particularly relevant to your role at Seaspan in Victoria, especially in Esquimalt harbour. Was there anything that resonated with you or that you'd like to comment on or add to? DAVID ST. CYR: The people part of the equation is a chal- lenge. That's definitely the case for the RCN and the shipyard. I think we're find- ing with the age of the fleets and competi- tion with the oil and gas industry that the old days of having union halls full of trades ready to work just don't exist anymore. And we're now in a very different paradigm in terms of managing the trades that we do have. I won't say layoffs are a thing of the past, but it's a very different environment than it was when I joined Seaspan five or six years ago. So, I think a very real real- ization that there is a definite and limited capacity, particularly with steel within the country. In addition, it's not just the Navy and Coast Guard dealing with aging vessels. We're seeing the same trend with BC Fer- ries and across the commercial sector on the West Coast—there are quite a few aging vessels in need of work. As a result, there's significant competition for the limited pool of skilled trades available to support them all. We seem to have a boom and bust echo cycle for the building of ships. If you look at the feet currently, the Kingston-class Maritime Coastal Defence Vessels are 30- plus, frigates are 30-plus, submarines are 30-plus years old. We have a few new Arctic and Offshore patrol ship vessels and that's great to see. I think once again, we're look- ing at a boom or bust situation where we build frigates, we build AOPVs we build Protecteur-class support ships and maybe even MCDV replacements. Thirty years from now, all these vessels will reach the same age at roughly the same time—and it will be my children and grandchildren dealing with a similar situation. They'll be facing significant steelwork demands across multiple fleets coming due simultaneously, and the reality is, we simply don't have the capacity to handle that kind of concentrated demand. So, I want to not only acknowl- edge, the Admiral's comments about when we procure a new class of ship, I also want HMCS MARGARET BROOKE. Photo : Corporal Connor Bennett, DND.

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