Another $100 billion to assist the US empire without parliamentary challenge.
In what will be a major expansion in Canadian sea fighting capacity, Mark Carney recently announced the purchase of a dozen German submarines set to be equipped with cruise missiles. Over the past three decades Canada has had four of these covert vessels with only one usually in operation.
Despite limited capacity, Canadian submarines have acted as a force multiplier for the US Navy. Currently Canada’s sole operational sub, HMCS Corner Brook, is participating in the Rim of the Pacific exercise near Hawaii. RIMPAC is a month-long US-led war game partly targeting China. In recent years Canadian submarines have also participated in US-led missions in the Mediterranean and Caribbean.
The RCN is deeply integrated with its US counterparts. According to a 2024 Naval Association of Canada briefing note on “Naval Interoperability”, “of the three services of the CAF – the Army, Air Force, and Navy – the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) arguably enjoys the highest level of interoperability with its American equivalent. Since its founding in 1910, the RCN has worked alongside larger navies, initially with the Royal Navy and, since the Second World War, increasingly with the US Navy (USN).”
In Canadian Gunboat Diplomacy, Fred Crickard and Gregory Witol contrast the difference in thinking between the leaderships of five navies with historic connections to Britain. While the Indians, Argentinians and South African saw themselves “as hegemons or would-be hegemons of regional sea power,” write Crickard and Witol, “the Australian and Canadian navies left the mantle of the British Empire and donned that of the US Navy. The leadership in both countries see their navies as part of great armadas led by a major naval power prepared to fight anywhere on the globe.”
The background of the head of the RCN highlights the navy’s ties to the US empire. Vice admiral Dan Charlebois attended the US Naval War College’s Staff College, which “is a graduate level professional development program designed for midcareer officers representing navies from around the world.”
During his career Charlebois has sailed in US-spurred deployments to the Persian Gulf, North Arabian Sea, Indian Ocean, Mediterranean and Horn of Africa. He deployed as part of Operation APOLLO, which was Canada’s contribution to the early 2000s US-led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. In 2020 Charlebois commanded Combined Task Force 150, which is based with the US fifth fleet in Bahrain.
The previous commander of the RCN, Angus Topshee, also attended the Naval War College in Rhode Island. Currently Vice-Chief of Canada’s Defence Staff, Topshee has also assisted the US military around the world.
At the corporate and operational level, the German-Norwegian conglomerate producing Canada’s new submarines — no US firm produces conventional subs — partners with Raytheon, L3 Harris and other US companies. The HDW Class 212CD sub Carney has selected is highly interoperable with the US navy. In fact, “Canadian submarines will not operate independently of US naval activity in the Arctic and North Atlantic”, notes Meng Kit Tang in the Geopolitical Monitor. Unlike US nuclear subs, they won’t be able to operate under the deepest polar ice. But, notes Canadian Press, quoting former navy commander Mark Norman, “that’s not really a problem since the Canadian subs would work in tandem with the United States’ fleet of nuclear submarines.”
It should be noted that the US doesn’t recognize Canada’s claim over the Northwest Passage (Russia does) while the two countries also have a significant territorial dispute in the Beaufort Sea.
Notwithstanding the hullabaloo about Arctic sovereignty, the new Canadian subs will likely engage in belligerent international operations instigated by the US empire. Could they be used in or around the Strait of Hormuz? On March 4 a US submarine torpedoed an Iranian warship near Sri Lanka that had just participated in an Indian naval exercise, killing 90 Iranian sailors.
Despite how the submarines are likely to be used and a hundred-billion-dollar lifecycle price tag, there’s been little political pushback. The NDP and Greens have stayed mum on the odious submarine purchase. It’s remarkable.
Join some two thousand who have emailed NDP leader Avi Lewis and Green leader Elizabeth May asking them to oppose Carney’s costly submarine purchase.
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