Vanguard Magazine

Oct/Nov 2014

Preserving capacity, General Tom Lawson, Chief of the Defence Staff, Keys to Canadian SAR

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"[AopS] is a capability that will not only serve the navy, it will serve science and technology, it will serve government packages, sea to shore connections. We are about to embark on a whole new era of operations." A ARCTIC pAtrol www.vanguardcanada.com octoBer/noVeMBer 2014 27 the Arctic makes its own unique demands. "It's often beach work and outcrops, so the AOPS has designed into it the lessons of the Coast Guard and the type of con- nectors needed to work from the ship to the shore," Newton said. "Those lessons get reinforced every year." However, of all the new capabilities, range and endurance remain the most critical. "Everybody harps on about speed and icebreaking but fundamentally the ships must be able to range freely and not worry about where they are getting their next load of gas from," he explained. "One of the biggest lessons of working in the North over the last decade is that while fuel sources ashore are well known, you can't be held to a schedule for point- to-point transits. The North conspires against schedules. You've got to be able to hold for a week if necessary or move 500 kilometres north instead of west because you need to rearrange a program in a hur- ry. That 6,000-mile range is one of AOPS' key qualities as is the logistical capacity of the ship to support that." Understanding the nuances of the North will also play a vital role in the pa- trol ships' future. In that vein, the RCN is working with Canadian Joint Opera- tions Command as it expands its footprint through support hubs. "It's about knowl- edge, not necessary about going in and building a whole bunch of capabilities," Newton said. "It's about understanding where the airfi elds are, were the safe an- chorages are, where hospitals and clinics and bed down for forces are. A lot of it is building a knowledge base about what is in the North that can be employed for military purpose. "Our aircrews have to learn about those landing strips built out of the sides of mountains and on the water's edge, about a fl ying environment that is typically over- cast and with low ceilings, that is inher- ently dangerous and skill based. There are not many anchorages in the North where ships can anchor safely in a storm. We'll have to educate the rest of the CAF where those natural naval sites are, but we are just learning that ourselves." Newton points to an array of techno- logical requirements that will have to be addressed in the coming years, from un- derwater seabed intervention capability to surveillance assets and sonars tuned the cold weather environment, as well as communications and bandwidth that can work with existing satellite infrastructure and still meet the ship's range. As an example, he notes the Northern Watch technology demonstration project near Gascoyne Inlet on Devon Island, which is trialing a multifaceted surveil- lance capability, remotely controlled from DRDC Atlantic in Halifax that involves underwater radar, electronic intercept, satellite uplink and the navy's fusion cen- tre, known as Trinity. "All that is being built into the ship," he said. "We have to make sure we pick the best technology and look forward to what is being deliv- ered with Polar Epsilon and RADARSAT II, as well as products being used by the Coast Guard to successfully operate their icebreakers." In terms of skills, Operation Nunalivut has provided the navy's diving fl eet with opportunities to work on diving through ice, but it's a skill they will have to con- tinue to hone, Newton said. "Their tech- nology is good and their skills are excep- tional, but they have to make sure they are tuned to the Arctic environment. They brought home a number of lessons on div- ing and using robotics. We are looking for some new equipment. We have to be able to dive in high currents, ice cover and that technology has to adapt to the North." The AOPS has been subject to much criticism about its Arctic capability but Newton is quick to point out that today the Kingston-class "operate in a body of water that 20 years ago critics would have said that ship was never designed to oper- ate. So can you imagine what we are going to get as we build AOPS, which we have taken the time to design as we learn fi rst- hand about their operational missions." In an address to DEFSEC Atlantic in September, Newton urged his audience to see the patrol ships not as simply a new class of ships, but as a new capability. "We are going to lead the navy in a new era of Arctic operations – sovereignty operations in our own northern waters. Through this class of ships we are going to be able to develop external relation- ships with our key allies. [AOPS] is a ca- pability that will not only serve the navy, it will serve science and technology, it will serve government packages, sea to shore connections. We are about to embark on a whole new era of operations and one of my jobs under warfare competency is to develop that plan for the people, equip- ment and operational tactics that will bring that ship and her crews to life the moment we start taking delivery in the 2018 timeframe."

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