Maybe We Just Shouldn’t Have Submarines?
August 3rd, 2006 | by MadHacktress |Our luck with submarines just doesn’t seem to be worth the bother, I think.
Today, outgoing East Coast fleet (!) commander, Rear Admiral Dan McNeil, expressed his frustration that the HMCS Chicoutimi, pride of the Canadian fleet, will not start being repaired until 2010.
Imagine that, being frustrated that an already 23 year old diesel submarine will languish another 3.5+ years in some drydock queue before technicians get to it. It will then take them about two years to repair it, putting the launch date somewhere around 2012.
For a little bit of comparison - NASA will have finished building a space station in ORBIT of the planet by then. Not to mention the new Crew Exploration Vehicle will likely be well established as the way to travel. But I digress.
So, while other nations are merrily blasting off in to low Earth orbit, and cruising around the oceans in their nuclear (or nucular, if you prefer) submarines, Canada will be working hard to get its twenty-some year old, second hand, diesel-electric powered submarines to function.
Why do we even need these boats? Does the Canadian Navy actually use them to sneak up on people? Can you sneak up on someone with a diesel submarine?
The outgoing admiral indicated that he thought that the Navy cannot adequately patrol Canada’s three oceans. I ask you: what is it that these magical submarines can do (besides, y’know, the obvious) that other ships cannot?
Tell me, oh great Blogosphere (which I imagine embodied as a great glowing crystal containing the shimmering visage of the like of Wilfred Laurier or somesuch) why do we need submarines in the first place? What grand purpose do they serve?
And why, oh why, can’t we at least have decent submarines? Something that includes cool radioactive bits.
Entry Filed under: General, In The News, Pure Opinion
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You mean, besides go underwater? :)
Submarines give the ability to patrol under Artic ice and can patrol off the east and west coasts far better than surface vessels or other technology in some instances.
For example, submarines have been used very effectively to track drug smugglers.
in the Arctic they are infinitely more useful than any other means of patrolling, especially since the most likely naval visits to the north are other submarines.
The only thing we are missing in that respect would be nuclear powered submarines; ours are diesel/electric and have some serious limitations for under ice work.