Canada’s ‘shoestring’ navy needs drastic changes to buy the new submarine fleet it wants
Canada has the world’s largest coastline, and subs could be crucial to defending it
If Canada has difficulty operating four submarines, how easy will it be to operate 12 more?
That’s one of the questions overhanging Canada’s ambitious new plan to build up to a dozen new subs that would boost the desperately understrength Royal Canadian Navy, and give Canada a larger sub fleet than Britain, Germany and most other NATO nations.
The plan also faces numerous obstacles that could render it a pipe dream. At the least, it would require revitalizing Canada’s neglected submarine force, which consists of just four aging and troubled Victoria-class diesel-electric attack subs, only one of which is fully operational at any moment.
“Everything is done on a shoestring, the results of which are evident,” Paul Mitchell, a professor of defense studies at Canadian Forces College, told Business Insider.
