Preserving capacity, General Tom Lawson, Chief of the Defence Staff, Keys to Canadian SAR
Issue link: http://vanguardcanada.uberflip.com/i/439940
"...the time has come to recapture Canadian prominence in this vital defence sector." battle groups and submarines into the North Atlantic. At that time, Canada provided re- sources for an integrated wide area strategic intelligence and warning system that included ship, shore and space-based assets, which all came to- gether to deliver world-class ASW capabil- ity. The ASW role was the operational founda- tion upon which the Royal Canadian Naval Task Group concept was based. Building upon well-aligned R&D investments, government, industry and the Canadian Forc- es built and sustained not only cutting-edge equipment, but also placed the navy at the forefront of evolving ASW tactics and pro- cedures within NATO. Canadian innovation supplied advanced ASW technologies to domestic programs under the Tribal Class Update and Mod- ernization Program, the Canadian Patrol Frigate Program, the Submarine Capability Life Extension Program, the Aurora In- cremental Modernization Project, and the Maritime Helicopter Project. In many ways, this work institutionalized innovation and collaboration across the navy and enabled Canadian expertise to be developed in acoustic processing and intelligence collection, mission system integration, and in-service support. As a result, many NATO allies turned to Canada for insight and informed opinions on how to move forward with their own ASW programs, which in turn benefi tted those Canadian indus- tries supplying the necessary high-technology expertise, and gave Canada a voice in a distinct and challenging defence sector. A period of stagnation However, the pendulum continued to shift. In the wake of the Cold War, and particularly post-2001 era, the focus of the Royal Cana- dian Navy (and navies throughout the world) shifted from open-ocean maritime defence to supporting a more diverse range of maritime security mis- sions. With the diminished threat of major state-on-state confl ict, maritime operations have instead been characterized by an intense level of activ- ity throughout the world. Facing a diverse array of surface and shore-based threats, Can- ada has operated in the Persian Gulf, the Arabian Sea, off the Somali Coast, and in support of the Libyan campaign – all the while continuing to sustain normal NATO operations in the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. Missions have ranged the gamut from UN interdiction and boarding operations, to counter-piracy and counter-narcotics roles, as well as routine maritime search and res- cue and defence diplomacy tasks across the world. While these missions have generally followed the migration of the world's global political and economic centers of gravity east- ward, and have made a positive contribution to the global mari- time security environment, that focus has gradually eroded ASW competence not only in Canada but worldwide. Within many na- vies, ASW equipment and competencies alike have been allowed to stagnate, as scarce resources were brought to bear to reinforce or support the evolution of other warfare areas. In parallel, the support for cooperative R&D efforts between m mARITImE www.vanguardcanada.com dECEMBER 2014/JanUaRy 2015 19