The Canadian Navy and Expeditionary Operations

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The Canadian Navy and Expeditionary Operations

• Commander Ken Hansen, Military Co-chair
• Maritime Studies Programme
• Canadian Forces College, Toronto

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Playing in the Big Leagues.
If we want to keep playing the national security
game, were going to have to play in the big
leagues. It wont always be easy and it wont
always be pretty, but thats the world we live
in. The sooner we get used to it, the better.
Source Paule Gauthier, Chair of the Security and
Intelligence Review Committee, Keynote Address,
Making National Security Accountable,
Conference, Carleton University, 18 May 2005.
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Expeditionary Warfare in the Littorals
Images U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings/Reel
Time www2.reel-time.com
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One Definition of Transformation
"Transformation is a journey.  It is not a
destination.  And transformation is not
synonymous with modernization.  It is not only
done in the material dimension of the process. 
It involves doctrine.  It involves organization. 
It involves training.  It involves the way we
develop our leaders.  It involves the way we
structure our installations the way we train,
equip, and raise our soldiers and how we treat
our families."
Source General Peter J. Schoomaker, Chief of
Staff, U.S. Army, 11 April 2005
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Naval Power Doctrine

• A navy performs one or more of four functions
  and no others
• - At sea, it(1) assures that our own goods and
  services are safe, and (2) that the enemys are
  not.
• From the sea, it(3) guarantees safe delivery
  of goods and services ashore, and
• (4) prevents delivery ashore by an enemy navy.

Source Uhlig, How Navies Fight, 1993.
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Naval Functional Roles in Expeditionary Warfare
Far from emphasizing the extreme case of
amphibious assault against defended beachheads,
traditional naval support roles in expeditionary
warfare most commonly involve cover,
administrative support, and supply operations.
Source Milan Vego, Naval Strategy and Operations
in Narrow Seas (London Frank Cass, 2003), 269.
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Responding to Chaos in the Littorals.
France the most radical change in its defence
structure since the mid-nineteenth
century. Great Britain RN and British Army
being reconfigured into formations optimized for
rapid deployment for expeditionary
warfare. Spain and France have created a
standing, self-contained, and self-transporting
expeditionary formation.
Source Schultz Paltzgraff Jr., eds., The Role
of Naval Forces in Twenty-First Century
Operations (Washington, 2000), 156.
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Responding to Chaos in the Littorals.

• Netherlands
• acquiring four large frigates (7,000 tonnes)
• acquiring second LHD
• replacing AORs
• reducing number and size of small (3,000 tonnes)
  frigates
• reducing force by 12,000 (military MoD
  employees)
• reducing submarine and minesweeper force by half
• eliminating all MPAs, transferring MHAs to army
• closing all naval air stations

Source Presentation to CSC32 Maritime Component
Program by LCol. Jan-Leendert Voetelick, RNlAF,
Defence Attache to Canada, 3 March 2005.
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The New Medium-Power Dilemma
Formerly How to resolve the competition for
resources between domestic sovereignty (simple)
tasks and alliance Blue Water (complex)
tasks? Today How to control the littorals in
home waters and overseas?
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Superior Simple Ship Concepts
A Superior Ship must obviously and generally
be recognizable as such capable of outfacing
another warship or overawing a foreign port,
which usually means there must be more than
one. A Simple Ship must have enough speed,
endurance, armament and seaworthiness to
intercept merchant vessels on the high seas or to
reach and enter the territorial waters of another
state.
Source James Cable, Gunboat Diplomacy, 3rd ed.
(New York, 1994), 101, 103, 105.
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U.S.C.G. Superior/Simple Ship Model.
Superior Ship cruising cutters first class,
large (up to 2000 tons) for their type, sea
kindly (habitable for long periods), economical
to run, of moderate speed, exceptionally
reliable, strong and easy to maintain capable of
search and rescue, towing, salvage, a good
stable platform for boarding parties. Simple
Ship offshore patrol boats cruising cutters
second class, sea kindly, economical cruisers,
capable of bursts of speed, a stable platform for
coast guard work, cost effective for closer,
shorter duration tasks.
SourceCharles Koburger, Jr., Narrow Seas, Small
Navies, and Fat Merchantmen (New York, 1990),
23-24.
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RCN Superior/Simple Ship Precedent
During a secret interview held on 6 August 1936,
before the used C-class destroyers were acquired,
the First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir Ernle Chatfield,
advised Prime Minister King that the C-class
destroyers were getting older and were not what
Canada needed. Admiral Chatfield emphasized that
sloops, supported by cruisers, were the ideal
solution to both Canadas local defence and trade
protection roles.
Source Nicholas Tracy, The Collective Naval
Defence of the Empire, (London, 1997),
536537.
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Sloops
A small, relatively long endurance, steam
warship with, initially, sail as auxiliary
propulsion, which was extensively employed on
distant stations to supplement the small cruisers
operated there the smaller version of the type
enjoyed the even more evocative term of
gunboat. The second half of the 19th Century
history of the Royal Navy contains innumerable
examples of the employment of these vessels
overseas where they provided reasonable economic
examples of sea power in the colonial era.
Source Arnold Hague, Sloops, 1926-1946,
(Kendal, 1993), 9.
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Superior Simple Ship Characteristics

• Long endurance
• Seaworthy and seakindly
• Integrated into Information Sharing Network
• Air capable
• Troop capable (or OGD/NGO/TRG/DIP)
• Administration capable (working deck, boats,
  cranes)
• Intership support capable (all two-way RAS
  capable)

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Superior Ship Characteristics

• Few in number
• Large, sophisticated, expensive
• Overtly aggressive in appearance
• Long-range (deep water) sensors and weapons
• Capable of operating manned air vehicles
• Few close-range defensive weapons
• Indirect fire-support weapons
• Capable of moderate speed

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Simple Ship Characteristics

• Many in number
• Small, limited sophistication, inexpensive,
  robust
• Covertly aggressive in appearance
• Short-range (shallow water) sensors and weapons
• Capable of operating remotely piloted vehicles
  of several types
• Many short-range weapons with devastating
  firepower
• Direct fire-support weapons
• Capable of somewhat higher speed, reliable

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The Tough News

• Counter Insurgency Warfare requires large
  numbers (of ships and people)
• Precision naval artillery is the naval
  equivalent of precision-guided air weapons
• The navy is a essential support service
• Expeditionary warfare duties are most often
  boring but are occasionally deadly
  historically, most engagements fought have been
  within sight of land.

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HMS TYNE (P281) a River-class patrol vessel
1,700 tonnes, 80 metres, crew 30 Royal Marines
Image www.armedforces.co.uk/navy