As intimated by Vice-Admiral Robertson, the Naval Association of Canada feels it is important to affirm that it is very difficult to examine the state of the Royal Canadian Navy solely from the perspective of the defence of North America, as the Royal Canadian Navy has an important and complementary role to play beyond the 12 nautical miles of territorial seas that surround North America.
The Naval Association of Canada also feels it is important to provide you with a quick perspective on the kind of navy Canada needs. Like our country and its ocean estate, the underlying issues are vast. These scene-setting remarks will only skim the surface of many considerations. To save time, I will read only the portions highlighted in grey in the 15-page document I submitted to the clerk last Friday.
The Naval Association of Canada believes the Canadian Armed Forces and the Royal Canadian Navy must be combat-capable. If military forces are adequately combat-capable, they normally have little difficulty performing less demanding tasks.
Canada's peace and security contributions to the United Nations, to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and to other defence and security arrangements, especially those with the United States, must be meaningful.
Without the establishment and continuous maintenance of ready to deploy, ready to act, capable, and effective Canadian naval and maritime air forces, purposely designed to operate against current and future threats in Canadian, international, and far-away waters, Canada's intertwined national interests of peace and security and economic prosperity will be at risk.
The number of naval platforms and crews, and their characteristics are principally a function of five factors: the threat or risk to the nation's defence, security and economic prosperity; the maritime defence and security outputs desired by the government; the maintenance requirements of the platforms and their equipment; the quality of life considerations of the platforms' crews; and the financial resources available for the acquisition of equipment, operations, training and maintenance.
The Naval Association of Canada agrees with the North American threat assessment that was captured in the committee's September report on “NORAD and Aerial Readiness”. The most important threat to assess is the future one. Unfortunately, it is also the most difficult to predict. An unclear or debatable assessment of future threats does not facilitate difficult military capability and equipment choices. Optimum military forces, which take years to design and procure—and in some instances decades—can only be properly identified if the future threat has been correctly predicted.
Nowadays, threat weapons are faster, stealthier, longer-range and more effective. The proliferation and improvements of submarines, mines, anti-ship torpedoes, anti-ship missiles, and cruise and ballistic missiles, in particular, represent increasing potential to do harm, directly or indirectly, to North America. Such evolving threats should not be discounted, and preventive and/or protective measures need to be considered and implemented.
The Naval Association of Canada believes the Royal Canadian Navy, subject to difficult equipment choices, has an important role to play against all of these threats.
The need to conduct maintenance, trials, and individual and collective training adds to the overall number of platforms required to generate a given set of naval outputs. Given the difficulty of correctly predicting the future, acquiring and maintaining balanced, multi-purpose, flexible, and combat-capable military capabilities on land, on and below the seas, and in the air, seems prudent.
Combat-capable naval ships and submarines, and maritime aircraft and their sophisticated sensors, weapons, and communications equipment, are not inexpensive. Spending on defence and on the Royal Canadian Navy is like buying insurance: you have to pay for it up front, you don't know when you will ever need to use it to its full capacity, and you can't readily acquire some or more when a crisis suddenly emerges.
The Royal Canadian Navy is principally responsible for: monitoring Canada's ocean estate and approaches; when necessary, asserting and defending Canada's maritime sovereignty; and, as directed by the government, contributing to international peace and security.
In order to exercise sovereignty, a nation must first know what is going on in, near and, at times, far away from its sovereign territory, be it on a land, on and below the seas, and in the air. This is normally achieved through surveillance. Moreover, it must be able to respond, normally with mobile assets, to incidents or challenges, potential or actual, in a timely fashion.
The purpose, nature, cost and effectiveness of the surveillance technologies vary widely. It is not easy to optimize a single solution for multiple purposes.
At sea, above-water surveillance technologies are mostly electro-magnetic in nature, whereas below water, surveillance technologies are mostly acoustic in nature.
Beyond the increasing potential threat posed by missiles, among other weapons, which can be launched from submerged submarines, the need to conduct undersea surveillance must not be overlooked.
Once an actionable surveillance picture has been generated, a mobile response asset or assets can be deployed—if not already deployed—to further refine the picture and/or to take whatever action might be warranted. Ships and submarines can deploy with no or little support to faraway places and remain on site for significant periods of time. Response can take one of two forms. Either the assets are called into action from their home base or they are already at sea and therefore are able to respond more quickly.
The Canadian Armed Forces and the Royal Canadian Navy need to be able to exercise a reasonable degree of sea control on, above, and below the ocean surface wherever they are tasked to operate. Ideally, the Canadian Armed Forces and the RCN should be able to exercise sea control without the assistance of allies when operating in Canadian waters. Because it's difficult to predict future threats and situations, care must be taken to acquire and maintain the right number, mix, and quality of seagoing platforms and supporting services.
So that future governments will continue to be able to make meaningful contributions in times of tension, crisis or war, the Naval Association of Canada believes it is in the national interest to acquire and maintain a modern, balanced, multi-purpose, flexible and combat-capable maritime fleet.
Oceans and navies have played key roles in the prosperity, security, and defence of most, if not all, states, especially coastal ones. Going forward, the oceans will continue to play an important role in Canada's prosperity, security, and defence. Canada will continue to need a balanced, multi-purpose, flexible, combat-capable navy. A capable and effective navy cannot be easily and quickly created when a need arises. For it to be of use when needed, it must exist before difficult situations manifest themselves.
Thank you.