The Canadian Navy’s commander has released a new video warning that the Royal Canadian Navy is in a “crisis state” with ships beyond their lifecycles and a critical shortage of sailors to operate them.
Vice Admiral Angus Topsey said in a video posted on the Navy’s YouTube page that the Navy may not be able to meet its readiness commitments beyond next year, but the Navy’s “very positive outlook” He tried to strike an optimistic tone about the future.
“Historically, we’ve overcome all sorts of challenges, so I’m confident that we’ll find a way to get through this,” Topsey said in the video.
The video was played at last week’s Defense Leadership Symposium, where Mr. Topsey also addressed it in person.
The Pentagon said in a statement that the plan aims to “highlight (the Navy’s) priorities while providing a fair and honest assessment of the current state of the Royal Canadian Navy.”
The video includes a graph of Navy occupations and their current staffing levels, showing that vacancy rates for many occupations exceed 20 percent.
Topsey said this is because the Canadian Armed Forces’ recruitment arm has not met its targets for more than a decade.
He said the Air Force and Army are in a similar situation.
Topsey said the West Coast fleet is suffering due to a lack of qualified personnel to maintain and operate the ships, forcing the Navy to prioritize the Halifax class instead. said.
A shortage of engineers also means that only one new Arctic and ocean patrol vessel can be used at a time, even though four are ready.
He said it would be difficult to prepare enough personnel to staff the ships currently being built under the National Shipbuilding Strategy.
“The top priority for the Royal Canadian Navy is to attract, recruit and train sailors to their professional functional point in order to maintain the current level of trained and effective force,” Topsey said. See you next year, he said, adding that the Navy may not and will not meet that goal this year.
1.2,000 people needed to be hired every year
The video states that 98 people are participating in a recent pilot project that allows recruits to contract with the Navy for a year, and that 400 more are in the process of being recruited.
Mr Topsey said the program was also helping to improve recruitment of Indigenous peoples and other ethnic minorities.
According to the video, the Navy needs to enroll 1,200 new soldiers each year to address staffing issues.
The Canadian Armed Forces has announced that it is short about 16,000 troops across all its regular and reserve forces, and that an additional 10,000 soldiers do not have the training they need to deploy.
In an October 2022 memo, Secretary of Defense Gen. Wayne Eyre ordered all non-essential activities to cease to focus on promoting recruitment and retention.
More than a year later, Defense Minister Bill Blair told the House of Commons defense committee last week that recruitment problems persist.
The minister acknowledged on Wednesday that the government was simultaneously calling on the military to take further action.
“We’re deploying in the Indo-Pacific, and there are significant challenges in both our NORAD and NATO responsibilities, but I think we’re meeting those challenges,” he said.
Prime Minister Tony Blair told reporters that Canada’s new fleet “absolutely” will have enough sailors, noting that militaries and police forces around the world are struggling to fill them.
But Liberal MP John MacKay, chairman of the House of Commons defense committee, didn’t mince words Tuesday when he accused the media and Canadians of not caring enough about the military to prioritize it.
“The threat environment has changed dramatically over the past two years, and we are not prepared to respond to it on a talent basis or on an equipment basis,” he told reporters outside the weekly Liberal caucus meeting. ” he said. .
“I am frustrated that we are under-investing in defense, development, diplomacy and ourselves.”
As for equipment, Topsey said the Navy needs to extend the life of the Halifax-class ships by at least another 15 years until new surface combatants are ready to replace them.
The first of these ships are expected to be delivered in the early 2030s, but each will require two to three years of trials and testing before it can be used.
Keeping the Halifax-class at sea until at least 2040 will be a “huge challenge,” many years beyond the 30-year service life it has already reached, Topsey said.
