Although Canada doesn’t ‘do’ strategy, it seems
inevitable that Canada will
acknowledge the growing importance of the Pacific Rim to Canada’s interests.
One factor that will drive Canada in this direction is that the U.S. has
recently announced a “Pacific Pivot”. A strategy change which essentially
announces that they see their future challenges as mainly arising in the Pacific Rim area. The military part of this strategy is
described in the “Air-Sea Battle” concept. Air-Sea battle is an amorphous
concept which can mean almost anything to anybody but in this context means the
Air Force and the Navy will work together to contain any military threats from
China.
As well as accepting that many of Canada’s economic interests are bound up in the
Pacific, we will be forced to acknowledge the new direction the United States
is taking militarily. Traditionally Canadian political and military elites have
tended to follow the U.S.
lead in military matters. Usually the unintended consequences of these
decisions are only discovered later.
The U.S. military
strategy is, for the time being, based largely on the use of aircraft
carriers. The following notes,
originally entitled “How to kill an Aircraft Carrier” relate directly to this
policy.
Aircraft Carriers operate in a box. The
front edge of the box is the one most commonly considered. It’s the edge
closest to possible targets. It has to be at least close enough for aircraft
operating from the carriers to get to their targets (and back). The size of the
box is dictated by the need for the carriers to hide. They need a fair size
area to maneuver in so as to deny possible enemies certain knowledge of where
they are at any given time. The back end of the box is where re-supply can take
place. Carriers can’t function without constant support which effectively comes
by sea from the homeland. As can be seen in this brief description, the size of
the box is necessarily malleable. The range of the carrier borne aircraft, the
reconnaissance assets available to opponents as well as the physical
constraints imposed by shorelines, islands and even continents can all affect
the size of the box.
When trying to kill an aircraft carrier
most opponents consider only the box. The main considerations are about how to
track down and target the ship itself with suitable weaponry. What many forget
about is the logistic lifeline to the box from the carrier’s homeland. An
Aircraft Carrier, not to mention its escorting warships, must have a regular
and reliable supply of fuel, food, and munitions to operate. Re-supply ships
operating from the homeland to the area of operations (the box) are the
Achilles heel of any naval operation, most particularly those involving the
sustained use of air-power. Support vessels are seldom armed nor do they
usually travel in convoy. The defensive efforts necessary to protect them from
targeted and persistent attack would use up the resources necessary for
offensive action.
During peacetime most navies devote their
submarine resources to surveillance and reconnaissance. Training for war is
usually predicated on the assumption that the enemy’s naval warships will be
the targets. In fact historical wartime experience has been that the best use
of submarines is actually to sink the merchant shipping of ones opponents.
Navies that persist in using there submarine forces to attack warships to the
exclusion of other targets lose wars. Similarly, when one is at war with an
enemy equipped with Aircraft Carriers the best way to neutralize them is to
destroy the means necessary to support them. It may be that the best way to do
this is with submarines. Rather than practice torpedoing carriers, something
submariners love to do; it would be better to practice destroying re-supply
ships. Not as glamorous, but a whole lot more practical.
Canadian politicians and admirals need to
understand what a Pacific strategy entails. We understand that the Atlantic Ocean is a gateway, not a moat. We have to look
at the Pacific Ocean and our Pacific coast in
the same way. Military adventures can not be confined to the far edge of that
ocean, “on the other side of the world”. The Pacific opens the world to us and
it opens us to the world.
