Vanguard Magazine

sailing. Fears abound regarding the safety of the vessels, stem- ming from a deadly fire on board the HMCS Chicoutimi in 2004 and an incident in 2012 during which the HMCS Corner Brook struck the ocean floor. The controversy has been compounded by the knowledge that the formerly British submarines were commis- sioned in the 1980s and will likely need replacing in the mid to late 2020s. But how are they performing now? Though currently in what the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) re- fers to as Extended Docking Work Period (EDWP), the HMCS Corner Brook deployed in 2008 and again in 2011 as part of Op CARIBBE, earning the crew the first operational service med- als awarded for service in Victoria-class submarines. The HMCS Victoria itself followed suit in 2014. Working with the United States in joint exercises, Canadian submarines have received praise for their contributions as simulated enemy vessels. Though not as sleek or as swift as their nuclear cousins, the diesel-electric boats are quieter and more manoeuvrable, providing excellent cover- age in the shallow coastal waters known as the littoral zone. In fact, according to Phil Webster, a retired naval Captain and former Commanding Officer of conventional submarines, a towed array DDH and the RCN East Coast mine warfare and submarine forc- es, the RCN has recently upgraded the sensors on board the ves- sels to bring them in line with state of the art modern standards. Instead of monostatic sonar devices where the signal is both sent and received from the same point, the modern BQQ-10 bow so- nar combined with the submarine towed array (SUBTASS) act as a bi-static system. However, for Canada to truly play a part in the future of Underwater Warfare, this is only the beginning. Though UWW has always been collaborative, the extent and speed of that collaboration is increasing. According to Rick Ger- brecht, the President of ATLAS ELEKTRONIK Canada, sensors on board surface ships, submarines and aircraft are increasingly becoming part of a broader network including unmanned under- water vehicles (UUVs), extended endurance unmanned aerial ve- hicles (UAVs) and land-based facilities. This means that modern low frequency sonar is increasingly being used in multi-static con- figurations. The increased detection ranges of low frequency so- nar enable a wider area to be actively monitored. Additionally, any platforms equipped with passive sensing equipment can make use of the active low frequency sonar pulses emitted by allied surface ships and aircraft equipped with dipping sonar to detect targets while they themselves remain undetected. For Canada, the recent sensor upgrade to the CP 140 Aurora fleet and the replacement of the aging Sea King with the Cyclone maritime helicopter is a good start, but according to Webster, the CANTASS towed sonar array and the SQR 510 medium frequency sonar system onboard the Halifax-class frigates are also scheduled for an upgrade. In a networked world, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Much has been made of the strategic benefits in being a card carrying member of the "sub club." In this day and age, gaining privileged access to intelligence reports and other shared data is becoming increasingly important. Even public data is beginning to be of interest. In August 2014, Matthew Braga wrote an ar- ticle for The Atlantic about NEPTUNE, an underwater obser- vatory operated by Ocean Networks Canada in the North-East Pacific. NEPTUNE consists of a network of sensors, cameras and hydrophones designed to monitor ocean activity. In the interest of scientific advancement and academic openness, the raw data captured by the various recording devices is published online. In addition to whale songs and signs of seismic and volcanic activity, NEPTUNE's hydrophones also occasionally capture the telltale sounds of Canadian and American submarines attempting to ne- gotiate the Strait of Juan de Fuca. As a result, the RCN sometimes diverts the data collected by these sensors to a military server for processing prior to distribution. This is done often enough and at random enough intervals that the diversion of data itself does not divulge the presence of naval exercises. NEPTUNE is just one I INNOVATION www.vanguardcanada.com OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2015 29 Once the Halifax-class mid-life retrofit is complete, the frigates will join the RCN's newly upgraded Victoria-class submarines and the RCAF's Aurora and Cyclone fleets as part of a world-class UWW package. USNS Concord (T-AFS-5) is used as a target vessel for HMCS Victoria (SSK 876) during a sink exercise (SINKEX) at the Pacific Missile Range Facility Barking Sands, in Kauai County, Ha- waii, on July 17 2012. Credit: 407 Long Range Patrol Squadron

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