Writing in his authoritative study “Cruisers of World War Two: an international
encyclopedia” author Michael J Whitley points out that “The cruiser can be
considered as the logical successor to the frigate of the age of sail. Both
warships had similar tasks, i.e. to act as the eyes of the fleet and to patrol
the ocean sea lanes to protect mercantile trade.”
He goes on to observe that “By the end of WWII the
cruiser’s scout role had been assumed by radar and air power, leaving trade
protection task as arguably its main role.”
The modern frigate is the descendant of the WWII
frigate which was essentially an anti-submarine vessel; it filled a role as an intermediate,
and economical, platform between the corvette and the destroyer. Since that
time it has grown, both in size and abilities, from its original role to one
which more closely meets Whitley’s definition of a cruiser.
The government of Canada has determined that the
Royal Canadian Navy needs up to fifteen of these cruiser equivalents. It is not clear how this number of ships was
arrived at or what kind of navy the government envisions it will need in the
future.
The size of the RCN has been in a constant state of
change since its founding in 1910. Conceived as a method of managing domestic
and imperial politics as they related to the Royal Navy it languished, even
during WWI, until the Second World War. By the end of that conflict it had
transformed itself into the fourth or fifth largest Navy in the world.
This state could not of course be maintained, but in
1960, on its fiftieth
anniversary, the RCN had a fleet consisting
of some 50 warships made up of a
carrier, 14 St. Laurent–class destroyer-escorts, 23 converted wartime
destroyers and frigates as well as 10 minesweepers crewed by a total of 21,500 sailors.
By 1985, in the seventy-fifth year of its existence,
Maritime Command maintained a force of 4 Iroquois class destroyers, 6 St.
Laurent class helicopter carrying destroyer-escorts, 11 other St. Laurent class
frigates, 3 support ships and 3 submarines,
In 2010,
the Navy’s centennial year, the fleet consisted of 3 Iroquois class air defence
/ anti-submarine destroyers, 12 Halifax class multi-purpose frigates, 4
Victoria class submarines, 12 Kingston class Maritime Coastal Defence Vessels
and 2 Protecteur class Replenishment Vessels
Currently
the Navy operates twelve frigates, four patrol submarines, twelve
coastal-defence vessels and eight unarmed patrol/training vessels crewed by
approximately 9,000 regular sailors and
5,000 reservists. There is also a civilian freighter, modified to act as a resupply
vessel, leased for seven years that is shortly to join the fleet.
Naval forces can be ranked on a nine-point scale called the Todd/Lindberg
classification system. For example, at Rank 1 is the United States Navy which is
capable of “global-reach power projection”.
In its planning document “Leadmark: The Navy’s Strategy
for 2020” the Navy makes it plain that it wishes to maintain itself at Rank 3, described
as “navies that may not possess the full range of capabilities, but have a
credible capacity in certain of them, and consistently demonstrate a
determination to exercise them at some distance from home waters.”
In fact, without the ability to
provide command and control, previously supplied by the Iroquois class air
defence/anti-submarine destroyers, and resupply, previously supplied by the Protecteur
class Replenishment Vessels, the RCN no longer meets this description. It is no
longer a blue-water navy; it is now a Rank 5-Regional offshore coastal defence
force, capable of “Coastal defence within and slightly beyond the EEZ”
According to the government the National Shipbuilding Strategy is a long-term project to
renew Canada's federal fleet of combat and non-combat vessels.
Shipbuilding projects to equip the Royal Canadian
Navy currently consist of a plan to construct 5 to 6 Arctic and Offshore Patrol
Vessels, whose role is to conduct armed sea-borne surveillance in Canada's
waters, including in the Arctic, with the first currently slated to be
delivered in 2018.
There is also
a plan to build 15 Canadian Surface Combatants, which are designed to replace
the Navy's Iroquois-class destroyers and Halifax-class frigates, with the build
contract to be awarded in the “early 2020s”.
The only other program of record is one listed under
“Non-Combat Vessels” for 2 Joint Support Ships, with an option for 1 more; the
first of which the government still pretends to believe will be delivered in
2021.
Given that these are the only naval building
programs currently underway and given the nature and timescales of Canadian
procurement programs it is possible to accurately forecast the size and type of
navy Canada will have in 2035, the one hundred and twenty-fifth anniversary of the Royal
Canadian Navy.
It will be a navy made up of approximately 15 destroyer/frigates, 5 to 6 large, lightly armed, cold weather capable patrol vessels,
and 2 joint support vessels.
It is not clear how the current government and the
Department of National Defence envision this force being used.
The Canadian Navy’s future roles will be dictated largely
by the nature of the assets it possesses. It seems unlikely that the world of
the immediate future will be much kinder or gentler. What does seem likely is that that navies will be still be
needed to protect and monitor our coasts as well as to travel across the world’s oceans ameliorating conditions of hardship and
maintaining the peace. It seems less likely that Canada’s navy will be of much
use in these missions.
Royal
Canadian Navy
Canada's
Navy: A Wings Magazine Commemorative Issue. Pp 52
Current
Canadian Ship Listing 2009
Royal
Canadian Navy
Blue-water
navy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue-water_navy
“Leadmark:
The Navy’s Strategy for 2020,”
National
Shipbuilding Strategy
