What a sad state of affairs does the Canadian military find itself in.
In 1998, it decided it would be a good idea to purchase four diesel-powered submarines from the British Royal Navy, which no longer needed them since they had gone nuclear. The Canadians acquired all four for the meager purchase price of three quarters of a billion dollars. And since the Brits had shut them down, we then had to spend an additional 150 million on starting them up and getting them ship shape and ready for service.
It is now near the end of 2004, six years after the purchase, and none of the four ships is ready for service. The most recently acquired sub, just shortly after it's departure from Faslane, Scotland, experienced an electrical fire on board that sent three of her seamen to hospital in Ireland, one of whom is now dead. Allegedly, his heart stopped in transit on the helicoptor from complications arising from smoke inhalation.
This incident was initially described as a minor electrical fire, causing some minor discomfort to a few of the sailors. The sub has now been floundering in the hazardous North Sea waters off the coast of Ireland for a couple of days, one of her crew has died and rescue efforts to tow the foundered vessel back to Scotland are being stymied by rough waters.
Watching the news last night (and I have learned to be cautious about what is spoon-fed me by the media), it was even speculated that one of the deciding factors in Canada having purchased the subs in the first place might have been that since the U.S. naval complement of submarines is nuclear, it would benefit the Americans to engage in war games with Canadian subs that are diesel powered, much like those of some of the potential threats to Americans across the Atlantic such as the North Koreans.
Keeping up friendly relations with our neighbours to the south is all well and good. But to think that a billion dollar expenditure was influenced by what might benefit those neighbours more than, or at least on par with, the benefit realized directly at home, is a sad thought.
This brings to mind the similarly sad state of affairs represented by Canada’s Sea King helicoptors. Having been in service in Canada since the early 1960s, they were initially impressive in their role of submarine hunters. More recently relegated to search and rescue operations over the ocean or remote northern muskeg, it is not too great a hyperbole to state that they have benefitted from more rescue operations than they have actually performed. I’m sure the pilots, knowing they are flying what has been colloquially dubbed a ‘Flying Coffin,’ have not been easy behind the stick. Several pilots have died from mechanical failure resulting in crashes.
Both of these examples should serve to warn the Canadian military that further decades of neglect will make us an even greater laughing stock in international peacekeeping circles. If we can’t maintain what we have at an acceptable level, let’s at least reduce our forces to the point where we can be proud of them.
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