Our submarine fleet has gone to hell. The rest of our military may not be far behind.
It seemed like a brilliant idea at the time. The British fleet was going all nuclear, and it had four surplus, nearly new diesel-electric subs to sell. Canada needed a new sub fleet, and purchases the four boats for a fairly decent price, complete with maintenance and retrofitting.
Now, they all turn out to be lemons, and one has caused the death of a Canadian sailor.
But can we truly make a judgement call at this point? Is there really someone to blame? The design of the subs was a proven commodity, the intentions were good, and the repair work was done by technicians who have been doing this job for years at a shipyard that has been doing the job for decades. There was never any indication that, once the subs set sail from drydock, anything out of the ordinary would occur.
So what went wrong? I don’t know…but I do think we need to make a thorough investigation before we start throwing around condemnations and accusations. It could well be that this fleet has simply suffered from the most hideous bad luck in living memory. I doubt the British, of all people, would sell us lemons they themselves were willing to to sail on, and they’re not exactly at the bottom of the naval experience ladder.
Perhaps it’s our own fault. We neglect our military for decades, force them to fly in dangerous Sea Kings, squabble over contracts for new equipment, cut budgets to the bone, then expect them to serve in peacekeeping duties they can barely handle…while politicians snack on the carcass of our reputation, which these days is pretty pathetic compared to our glory years of the 50s and 60s.
Whatever is discovered, whatever post-mortem is conducted on the state of affairs of our military, I hope it brings some comfort to the family of the late Lieutenant Chris Saunders. His death on board HMCS Chicoutimi was tragic…and (so my gut tells me) preventable. I’ve always believed it takes death to force governments into action. I really hate being proven right.
