SUBMARINES
CDR: "Canada currently has four Victoria-class submarines. What do you feel is the optimum number of submarines that Canada needs under the Canadian Patrol Submarine Project?"
VAdm Topshee: "It typically takes four submarines to ensure one of them is always available. The Victoria-class has never actually met that metric for a variety of reasons. The Air Force describes this as a line of task, so we have a similar philosophy with this and we're basically saying its four submarines for a single line of task. If we want to be able to guarantee submarine availability in the Atlantic or the Pacific, then you need to have four submarines based in Esquimalt and four in Halifax. So, the minimum for Canada we think is eight - that allows us to be able to continuously operate a submarine in the Atlantic and the Pacific, and that allows us to get up to the Western and Eastern approaches to the Arctic. If you really want to be sure of being able to have a submarine presence in the Arctic, and on each of our oceans, then you need twelve. That's a lot, it's expensive, and it's a challenge to get there from the point of view of personnel because right now we're at four submarines and about two and a half crews for those submarines. If we buy a submarine that's in service with other Navies, we can accelerate the production of submariners because we'd have more sea days, and more opportunity to create submariners on the submarine that's in service and like the one that we would be acquiring. We don't have to get to twelve submarines tomorrow, that's something we can do over the course of 20 years. The key is, it's a government decision - what does the government want us to be able to do, or what is the risk they're willing to take in terms of the operation of subs because these are all expensive things that come at the expense of other programs that Canadians care about like other military capabilities and other government of Canada capabilities. My job is simply to explain that - I really feel that eight is the minimum number of submarines that Canada should have, but it is the government's job to make those decisions."
montrealgazette.com
