Our speaker for our partnered May RKUSI/RCMI gathering was excellent. We had one of our best turnouts and it was great to see some RCMI members from Toronto join us along with good representation from our RMC officer and naval cadets. It was a pleasure working with Robert Hamilton for this successful evening. Unfortunately, at the eleventh hour, we lost Vice Admiral Topshee but the Admiral gave us one of his best, Rear Admiral David Patchell, Commander Maritime Pacific to speak in his stead. Rear Admiral Patchell gave us an inspirational presentation on our Canadian Navy’s mission, capabilities and focus for the next ten years. Our current navy’s readiness is challenged by an old fleet, smaller naval force and lack of submarine capability. On the positive side the Navy is going to be a priority for the Canadian Armed Forces in the coming years and will be receiving new River Class destroyers, new submarines, and likely corvettes. They will be far better prepared to support our Navy’s mission of defending our sovereignty on all three oceans as well as supporting NATO. The Navy has a very good plan for mobilizing their force in the coming years so that they can effectively man this new larger more capable fleet of the future. As noted, we are going to need to be patient as these new naval capabilities will not be fully realized until 2035.
On the defence front our news has been pleasantly full of articles discussing the upcoming decision on Canada buying these 12 new submarines. The competition appears to be very close between the German/Norwegian and South Korean submarines and Vice Admiral Topshee has been quoted saying both the submarines are viable options for our navy. The decision hopefully will be made by the end of June and no doubt economic benefits to Canada will be a key consideration. Thankfully as well we are also seeing more discussions on the review of our future fighter requirement which is long overdue. Some of these discussions included a mixed fleet of 70-88 F35s alongside 72 Gripens totaling more than 140 fighters. A major factor here continues to be CUSMA discussions, and our PM needs to make some major decisions very soon. Canada also just announced the purchase of 26 HIMARS rocket launchers which is a significant modernization effort for the Canadian Army.
Next week we will receive a presentation on Cyprus which will include a brand new fifty minute film called “Caught in The Crossfire” followed by a question period. LGen (Retired) Marc Caron, former Army Commander, MGen (Retired) Clive Milner, and LCol (Retired) Ron Bragdon will form a panel and lead the evening’s discussion.
This will end our speakers as we pause for the summer. We will resume in September to discuss procurement which will be presented by one of own, Leona Alleslev.
Finally, we will host a joint RKUSI/RCMI Sundowner mixed social event at the mess on Wednesday, 29 July. With Robert Hamilton as the lead planner, I am confident that this will be a very enjoyable event on the patio at Fort Frontenac!
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