National Defence Committee on Oct. 21st, 2014

[The Chair, Conservative, Peter Kent]

Colleagues, welcome to this meeting. Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2), today's business before the committee is a briefing on Canada's role in NATO Operation Reassurance.

Just as a heads-up to all, we do have some committee business to see to in camera at the end of the meeting. With that in mind, we will adjourn some 15 minutes or so before the scheduled end of the committee meeting to discuss that committee business.

For now, welcome to our witnesses. We have Major General Michael Hood, the director of staff, strategic joint staff, and Rear Admiral Gilles Couturier, director general, international security policy.

Gentlemen, welcome to this committee, and please give your opening statements.

[MGen Michael Hood, Director of Staff, Strategic Joint Staff, Department of National Defence]

Mr. Chair, members of the committee, thank you for this opportunity to brief you on Operation Reassurance.

Operation Reassurance refers to the military activities undertaken by the Canadian Armed Forces to support NATO through the provision of military capabilities for training, exercises, and assigned NATO tasks in the context of the challenge presented by an increasingly belligerent Russia and, in particular, its aggression against Ukraine earlier this year.

Before you is a map that outlines the Canadian Armed Forces' involvement in NATO assurance measures. I would like to walk you through our present contributions to the mission.

I would be pleased to answer your questions after the presentation.

The map is actually located in the back of my remarks, which you have.

On April 16, 2014, NATO allies agreed upon and began to implement a series of military measures to reinforce NATO's collective defence, demonstrating the strength of allied solidarity in response to Russian aggression and provocation in eastern Europe. The next day, at the request of our allies, the Government of Canada offered Canadian armed forces assets to NATO as part of allied assurance measures to promote security in central and eastern Europe.

On April 29, the Royal Canadian Air Force deployed six CF-18 Hornets from 425 Tactical Fighter Squadron, based at 3 Wing Bagotville. From May to August our fighters conducted interoperability training with NATO allies in Câmpia Turzii, Romania, and then from September through to December this year re-based to Siauliai, Lithuania to contribute to NATO's Baltic air policing alongside other allies. Four fighters and about 130 personnel are currently based in Lithuania with a mission to preserve the integrity of the airspace of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania and to react to any intrusions. They are expected to return to Canada at the beginning of January.

On April 30, HMCS Regina, with an embarked Sea King helicopter, was transferred to NATO control as part of Standing NATO Maritime Group Two, conducting exercises and patrols in the Mediterranean until she was relieved by HMCS Toronto on August 3. While serving with the standing NATO maritime group and ensuring a NATO presence in the eastern Mediterranean, our ships are tasked with locating, tracking, reporting, and boarding suspicious vessels.

At sea, from September 6 to 27, HMCS Toronto completed participation in joint NATO training exercises and maritime situational awareness operations in the Black Sea. The first exercise, Exercise Sea Breeze, took place from September 8 to 10 and involved naval vessels from Canada, Bulgaria, Georgia, Romania, Spain, Turkey, Ukraine, and the United States.

Further interoperability exercises involved Toronto training with Bulgarian, Romanian, and Turkish ships from September 13 to 24. While operating in the Black Sea, HMCS Toronto also conducted port visits to enhance diplomatic and defence relations with allies and partners. Of note, this is the first time that a Canadian warship has operated in the Black Sea since HMCS Gatineau did in 1992. Now back in the Mediterranean, HMCS Toronto is scheduled to be relieved by HMCS Fredericton in January 2015.

On May 3, the first of about 120 soldiers from the 3rd Battalion of Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry arrived in Poland to participate in a series of training events conducted across Eastern Europe. They exercised airborne operations and infantry skills alongside Polish, American, and other NATO allies with a view to enhancing alliance interoperability and readiness. ln July the Patricias were replaced by soldiers from the 3rd Battalion of The Royal Canadian Regiment who are there now. As we speak they are beginning Exercise Combined Resolve Ill, which will involve some 4,000 troops from 15 nations training in Germany and Poland until the end of November.

Finally, 23 Canadian Armed Forces operational planners were sent, at the request of NATO, to Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) in Belgium and to Headquarters Joint Task Force Naples in Italy.

While there, they reinforced NATO planners working on developments in Europe and monitoring events in the region. Having completed their tasks, those personnel have recently returned to Canada.

At the Wales Summit held on the 4th and 5th of September, NATO allies agreed on a readiness action plan that will strengthen NATO's collective defence and ensure that the alliance is ready to respond to any future security challenge. The elements of the plan include measures that address both the continuing need for assurance of allies and the adaptation of the alliance's military strategic posture. The assurance measures include continuous air, land, and maritime presence and meaningful military activity in the eastern part of the alliance on a rotational basis, such as those to which Canada has contributed under Op Reassurance.

These continuing events will provide the fundamental baseline requirement for assurance and deterrence, adapted as may be needed in response to the evolving security situation. In this context, DND is examining options for a renewal in 2015 of the measures we have taken under Op Reassurance as well as those we have contributed to in the past, such as NATO air policing of its northern flank and Iceland.

In the medium term, NATO adaptation measures will include the components required to ensure that the alliance can fully address the security challenges it might face. In the next year, NATO will develop plans to significantly enhance the responsiveness of our NATO response forces by developing force packages that are able to move rapidly and respond to potential challenges and threats.

As part of it, NATO will establish a very high readiness joint task force that will be able to respond quickly to challenges that arise, particularly at the periphery of NATO's territory. NATO will also establish an appropriate command and control presence and infrastructure on the territories of eastern allies at all times, with contributions from allies on a rotational basis, focusing on planning and exercising collective defence scenarios.

Canada will be fully engaged with our allies in the development of these measures and in carrying its share of the burden of collective defence.

As you can see, along with our allies, Canada has contributed to a number of military measures designed to reinforce our collective defence and demonstrate the strength of allied solidarity in NATO states in eastern and central Europe.

The participation of Canadian Armed Forces personnel in NATO exercises and training activities provides them with an excellent opportunity to exercise their skills and reinforce their ability to operate with our NATO allies while building cohesion within the alliance.

Thank you very much for your time. We're certainly ready to answer any questions you may have.

[The Chair, Conservative, Peter Kent]

Thank you very much, General.

We will proceed now to our opening round of questions, seven minutes each.

Mr. Chisu, please.

[Corneliu Chisu, Conservative, Pickering—Scarborough East, ON]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Thank you very much, General, for your presentation.

I have a couple of questions for you, if you don't mind. In your view, what are the most serious threats and security challenges for Canada and NATO resulting from Russia's aggression in the Ukraine in recent months?

[MGen Michael Hood]

That's an excellent question, sir. I think that if we look at Europe since the end of the Cold War, a certain stability had arisen whereby there was excellent cooperation amongst all parties, both within NATO and the former Eastern Bloc.

I think anytime you have an aggression that we've seen in Crimea and in eastern Ukraine, it has a very destabilizing effect. Certainly for our good NATO allies that are in the Baltics and on, essentially, the eastern flank of NATO, those concerns are seen in a historical context that certainly provides them pause to consider next steps. So, I would certainly say that we've seen a fundamental shift in the geostrategic security construct that Europe has enjoyed for some time.

[Corneliu Chisu, Conservative, Pickering—Scarborough East, ON]

How concerned should Canada and NATO be with Russia at this point? Russia is continuing aggression and flexing muscles, both a little bit in the Arctic and the eastern part of Russia. I am also going to Kalingrad in a bit because my next question will be related to the CF-18s policing approach.

[MGen Michael Hood]

I think, as we've reported in the department, we've seen increased Russian aviation activity off NORAD's northern flank, both Alaska and the approaches to Canada. Taken in concert with what we just spoke about in eastern Europe, it certainly speaks to a change in approach, or a change in strategy, by Russia that is of concern to not only the Department of National Defence Canada but allies as well. I think this is something that needs to be closely monitored and considered carefully as we think about Canadian military strategy moving forward.

[Corneliu Chisu, Conservative, Pickering—Scarborough East, ON]

So, as has been reported, the CF-18s are part of the air policing mission in the Baltics, and they have recently intercepted some Russian aircraft, which have flown over the Baltic Sea. What sort of aircraft do the Russians have, which usually fly over the Arctic—the MiG-29 or MiG-31 or something like that?

[MGen Michael Hood]

With respect to the Baltic air policing, I think it's important to recognize that the territory of Russia is not contiguous, but that there is a small island of territory called Kaliningrad, located astride the Baltic states. In flying between its territory Russia flies along the boundaries within the Baltic and does so quite regularly. So the interception of Russian aircraft in the Baltic context is quite normal activity that NATO has seen and, I think, and is treated as such when Russian aircraft travel between two different areas that aren't contiguous. We see mostly transport aircraft.

If you were asking about NORAD's concern, we've seen a mixture. But those are typically Bear-H aircraft, their front-line bomber aircraft, that have traditionally approached Canada's northern area and NORAD. That's the main concern.

[Corneliu Chisu, Conservative, Pickering—Scarborough East, ON]

Did they discern any fighter jets in the Baltic from Russia or elsewhere?

[MGen Michael Hood]

We have not intercepted any fighter aircraft in the Baltic up to this point, sir.

[Corneliu Chisu, Conservative, Pickering—Scarborough East, ON]

Going on to the fighter jets, I understand that HMCS Toronto was buzzed over by Russian aircraft. What kind of aircraft was it, in the Black Sea?

[MGen Michael Hood]

That's right. As was reported in the press, HMCS Toronto was overflown by two MiG-31s, I would say. I'd have to refer to my notes, but it was a Russian fighter aircraft. It was not seen as a threatening posture. The aircraft wasn't armed. It's not unusual to investigate when in close proximity to someone's shores. It was reported as a provocative step. From a military perspective I think the CO of the HMCS Toronto never felt under any threat. There was no targeting of his ship with radars or anything like that. It was a gentle reminder that we're in close proximity to Russian territory.

[Corneliu Chisu, Conservative, Pickering—Scarborough East, ON]

Do you feel that our eastern European allies in NATO whose air space we are policing are concerned about Russian intrusions or Russia's intent? I'm speaking also about Romania. I think that Canada was doing some joint exercises with the Romanian air force, which has Russian aircraft, I think.

[MGen Michael Hood]

That's right. Romania does fly former Russian aircraft as their front-line fighter.

Undoubtedly, if you're on the borders of Russia, our new NATO allies—Romania, Hungary, Poland, the Baltic states—have very long memories of history. So there are traditional existential concerns within those countries. As you might expect at NATO tables, they're rightly seeing this as their central concern and, certainly, the alliance accepts this, that all NATO members are equal and that we take that threat—certainly that's their view of it—very seriously.

[The Chair, Conservative, Peter Kent]

Thank you, Mr. Chisu.

Mr. Harris, please.

[Jack Harris, NDP, St. John's East, NL]

Thank you for coming today, and thank you for your presentation.

I wonder if I could just refer to the remarks of the American ambassador to NATO, Mr. Douglas Lute, who gave a press briefing in June where he talked about what he had seen of the international reaction to the events in Crimea and Ukraine. He talked about the international support for the government in Ukraine as one aspect of it. The second was the condemnation of, and imposition of costs on, Russia for its actions. The third was the reassurance of NATO allies. He summarized some of the things that we're talking about here today. He said that in an effort to reassure allies who might feel threatened by the instability in the east, these reassurance measures had been takes. He used the same words as we have in Operation Reassurance, and the same things that have been used by Anders Fogh Rasmussen on behalf of NATO, that the actions were about defence, deterrence, and de-escalation.

Are you satisfied that those three measures are the ones, and the ones that we were involved in in Operation Reassurance was the NATO-led mission?

[MGen Michael Hood]

Yes, sir, absolutely.

[Jack Harris, NDP, St. John's East, NL]

I get the deterrence, I get the presence and all of that, and the reassurance of particularly the close neighbours. I was in Riga in the last year and visited the museum on the occupation of Latvia by Germany and the Soviet Union, which only ended in 1991, so we can understand how they feel. We talked to officials there.

But where does the de-escalation come in? How would that have been part of this mission? I hadn't heard much about that in terms of what NATO is doing.

[MGen Michael Hood]

Certainly from my perspective there's a fine line between deterrence and de-escalation.

NATO had a couple of objectives. One was to reassure those Central European members of NATO that we've been discussing, but the second part was actually to also show the agility and flexibility of NATO across a wide spectrum. That's why you've seen responses in increased numbers in the air policing missions, our deployment to Romania, and the Toronto and the increase in the Standing NATO Maritime Group. In showing that agility, it would certainly hope to offer food for thought to belligerent nations within there that NATO retains the capability. That's where I draw the line: to a de-escalation theme within that.

[Jack Harris, NDP, St. John's East, NL]

And the hope that would occur as de-escalation on the other side?

[MGen Michael Hood]

Yes.

[Jack Harris, NDP, St. John's East, NL]

You have talked about, and I know the government has talked about, the presence of the Toronto in the Black Sea. I note you say that it's a 21-day mission that coincides with the Montreux convention going back to 1936. In terms of participation and military activities in the Black Sea by Canada, there was nothing going beyond what was agreed to in this convention. You're only allowed in there for 21 days if you are not a littoral state, which is part of the normal rules. We weren't going beyond any of that by being provocative towards them.

[MGen Michael Hood]

No, absolutely. It all respected the terms of the Montreux convention, which speaks to the tonnage of a ship allowed into the Black Sea and the length of time and all of that.

[Jack Harris, NDP, St. John's East, NL]

Mr. Chisu asked about an incident involving the Russian plane. You used the word “overflown”. The press from time to time is using the word “buzz”. The notion of “buzz” has connotations of flying down very close to a ship and threatening the ship itself. Is “buzz” an appropriate word for what happened there?