The new submarines Canada plans to buy will not arrive with all the necessary equipment to operate under Arctic ice, meaning they will require modifications after delivery, the head of the navy says. This is under the Canadian Patrol Submarine Project (CPSP).
Vice-Admiral Angus Topshee said Canada will need to add under-ice gear to the boats after
they arrive, such as upward-facing sonar that can detect and map overhead ice
and areas of open water.
“Rather than
only being worried about the bottom below us, we’re going to be worried about
the ice above us, because the ice is actually less predictable,” Topshee said in an interview.
Topshee also said
under-ice operations will not be a significant component of the submarines’
tasks. Instead, their biggest task will be monitoring approaches to the Arctic
and other chokepoints.
Canada is
seeking up to 12 new submarines and has narrowed the search to two models: one
from South Korea and another from a joint German-Norwegian partnership. Ottawa
is expected to pick one of these vessels this year.
This would be
the largest submarine purchase in Canadian history. It’s being made at a time
of heightened anxiety over the country’s sovereignty in the Arctic, as world
powers, including the United States, increasingly look north for resources and
shipping lanes. Canada is also under pressure to increase its military
expenditures in order to hit a new, higher NATO spending target.
Topshee called the needed under-ice operation modifications “relatively simple”
to accomplish, but said Canada will proceed carefully on developing its
capability in the Arctic environment.
“That’s what
we’re going to be targeting: to be able to come up to the surface in basically
a crack of open water if we want to,” Topshee said. “Part of ability to
operate under there is to be able to return safely to the surface when it’s
possible.”
Topshee said the majority of the effort by the new submarine fleet will be
monitoring the chokepoints in the Bering Strait, the Gulf of St. Lawrence and
the transit between Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, as well as the Juan de Fuca
Strait between British Columbia and Washington State, the entrance to the Puget
Sound and the approaches to northern Vancouver Island, Prince Rupert, B.C., and
Kitimat, B.C.
Topshee said after
taking delivery of the submarines, Canada will “start to work toward going
under-ice, up into the Arctic, and then developing an actual under-ice
capability.”
Topshee said Canada will also have to verify whether any other modifications are
necessary because of the frigid temperatures of Arctic waters.