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29 June 2022

Canada’s naval presence in the Indo-Pacific: incremental growth

James Hackett

On 14 June, Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) frigates HMCS Winnipeg and HMCS Vancouver left their berths at Esquimalt naval base in British Columbia, bound for the US-led Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) 2022 exercise, due to take place from 29 June to 4 August. The ships will then set a westerly course for a five-month deployment in the Indo-Pacific, principally to support Canada’s Operation Projection. This is the first twin deployment of its kind since 2017 and heralds a bolstering of Canada’s defence contribution in the region, with new naval investments on the way to help sustain it, but will they be enough?
Rules of the roadThe deployment was highlighted by Canada’s defence minister, Anita Anand, speaking at the 19th IISS Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore from 10–12 June 2022. Anand underlined Ottawa’s increasing political and military focus on the region. Canada would, she said, ‘continue to work with likeminded partners like the Five Eyes and other states in the region to strengthen international rules’. Canada was concerned by China’s ‘increasingly assertive behaviour’, she continued, and its actions which had ‘undermined the rules-based international order’.

Notably, Anand called on the armed forces of ‘all nations’ to operate in a safe and professional manner and ‘to recognise that unsafe and unprofessional conduct, particularly during multinational surveillance missions in international airspace, not only puts personnel in harm’s way but also undercuts international rules’. This may have been a reference to recent reports that a Chinese aircraft had in late May 2022 released chaff into the path of an Australian Boeing P-8A Poseidon aircraft, and that this was ingested by the aircraft’s engines.

But it may also have reflected concerns closer to home. In June 2021 Canada deployed a detachment of P-3 Orion (CP-140M Aurora) aircraft to Kadena Air Base in Japan, as part of Operation Neon, under which ships and aircraft are deployed to support the implementation of UN Security Council sanctions on North Korea. On 1 June 2022, the Canadian Department of National Defence released a statement claiming that several ‘interactions’ occurred between Chinese aircraft and its CP-140Ms in which the Chinese aircraft ‘did not adhere to international air safety norms’.

Ottawa’s focus on the regionIn Singapore, Anand outlined Canada’s regional military tasks. Canadian forces fought in the 1950–53 Korean War. Since then, the country has contributed troops to the UN Command in Korea, monitoring the armistice. This was, Anand said, ‘a perfect example of Canada’s belief in rules, norms and responsibility in state behaviour’. Added to this are Operation Neon and the Operation Projection deployment with the latter intended to, as the minister put it, ‘responsibly engage with our allies and partners through joint missions and exercises’.

While deployed in the region, Canadian vessels engage with partners in port visits, training and exercises. Meanwhile, Canada is also looking to deepen partnerships with the Association of the Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and its members. In 2022 Canada applied for full strategic partner status, is still seeking membership of the ASEAN Defence Ministers Meeting-Plus (ADMM-Plus) and has also applied for observer status of some ADMM-Plus Expert Working Groups. The government is also looking to secure bilateral agreements, such as the Canada-Singapore Defence Cooperation Agreement, which was signed in the week of the Shangri-La Dialogue. To underscore its enhanced focus, the government is also developing an Indo-Pacific strategy, intended to integrate diplomatic, military and economic activity. The strategy may be released later in 2022.

Enabling maritime projectionHowever, a number of the building blocks to help sustain Canada’s regional defence ambitions are still being put in place. In 2016 the RCN retired the last of its Protecteur-class oiler and replenishment vessels and, for a time, resorted to hiring Chilean and Spanish ships to maintain replenishment capability amid delays in the project to replace the class. In 2018, as an interim measure it introduced the converted German container vessel MV Asterix into the role of an at-sea replenishment vessel and oiler.

The first of two new Joint Support Ships (JSSs) will be delivered in 2023. Also called the Protecteur-class, these ships are being built in Vancouver. They form a key part of Canada’s ambitious National Shipbuilding Strategy, alongside new class of surface combatants and Arctic patrol vessels. Based on the German Brandenburg-class design, the JSSs are intended to be compatible with Canada’s afloat combat platforms, boasting combat systems, tactical data links and defensive weapons systems. What role Canada’s submarine flotilla might play in an enhanced Indo-Pacific posture is uncertain, although one submarine, HMCS Chicoutimi, undertook an unusual deployment into the region in 2017/18.

Whether two JSSs will be enough in terms of naval logistic support at sea also remains an open question and there has even been talk of extending the lease on MV Asterix. The RCN will, nonetheless, have regenerated its sovereign at-sea replenishment capability once the new ships are in service. Alongside the other planned capability enhancements, the future RCN should be a more capable force than it is today. With the two new Protecteur-class vessels in service, the RCN should be more operationally sustainable and also better able to offer some of the broader non-combat defence assistance that may be required on the engagement and training tasks seen in missions like Operation Projection.

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