Canadian Navy Moves to Improve Coastal Security, Boost Information Sharing

By DAVID PUGLIESE, Special Correspondent

Canada’s Navy is in the midst of a post-9/11 push to better secure the world’s longest coastline and ensure it is pulling its weight in monitoring the continent’s maritime frontiers.

In the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, the Canadian Navy went on a war footing for more than two years. Of the 18 main surface combatants in its fleet, 16 were used in ongoing missions in support of operations against the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and the Middle East. Ninety-six percent of Navy personnel serving in seagoing postings deployed on those operations, the largest international effort the service had made since the Korean War.

But with that major mission having wound down, the Navy has turned its attention to improving how it contributes to the maritime security of North America. Canadian Defence Minister Bill Graham noted that the country saw how “permeable” its maritime approaches were in 1999 when several boatloads of Chinese refugees arrived unannounced on its west coast.

But it was the Sept. 11 attacks that proved to be the real wake-up call about the continent’s vulnerability and prompted much soul-searching in Canadian government and military circles. In addition, a Canadian Senate report issued in October 2003 warned that the nation’s coastlines, and even inland waterways, were open to potential attack since federal agencies were not properly equipped to deal with such a scenario.

The Canadian government has responded with a plan to significantly improve port security while at the same time looking for new ways to secure its shores. For that it has turned to the Navy. “I think there is an expanded role for the Navy in terms of domestic protection that people had not foreseen in any detail prior to 9/11,” Graham said.

As part of that expanded role, the Navy is leading a major effort to improve how Canadian government agencies share coastal surveillance and maritime intelligence information with each other and their U.S. counterparts.

In an Oct. 20 presentation to the House of Commons Defence committee, the head of Canada’s Navy, Vice Adm. Bruce MacLean, noted the proposed creation of data fusion centers on the east and west coasts to handle the collection and transmission of maritime intelligence information. Work is already under way to expand the Navy’s existing Maritime Security Operations Centers at Canadian Forces Base Esquimalt, British Columbia, and Halifax, Nova Scotia, to include personnel from agencies such as the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Coast Guard and the Canada Border Services Agency.

By the end of the decade, further expansion will see the creation of the larger operations/data fusion centers on each coast and the establishment of a computer network to move intelligence data among Canadian government agencies and to U.S. security organizations as well.

While the Navy sees the country’s maritime intelligence-gathering capabilities as excellent, the main drawback is that various government agencies do not communicate well with each other in transmitting the data they have collected, according to Capt. Kelly Williams, the Navy’s director of Maritime Strategy.

The creation of the expanded centers, plus the installation of the computer network and the data fusion capabilities noted by MacLean, will change that, said Williams. In the end, it is hoped that all federal agencies with an interest in maritime security will be able to share one common maritime operating intelligence picture.

Related to the establishment of a new intelligence network is the installation of a unique coastal radar system that can provide around-the-clock surveillance of maritime and air activity out to 200 nautical miles. Canada is committed to installing up to seven of the new radars on its east and west coasts over the next five years.

Called High-Frequency Surface-Wave Radar (HFSWR), the system can track objects at much greater ranges than conventional line-of-sight microwave radars, which tend to be limited to around 30 nautical miles. HFSWR, which has already attracted interest in U.S. security circles, transmits high-frequency waves that follow the curvature of the earth to detect and track ships and aircraft well beyond the horizon.

The Navy plans to use the system, designed by the Canadian military’s science agency, Defence Research and Development Canada, in collaboration with Raytheon Canada Ltd., to monitor shipping and air traffic off the coasts. In the case of suspicious activity, once HFSWR identifies a target of interest a maritime patrol vessel or aircraft could be sent out to conduct on-station surveillance.

HFSWR also offers great potential in monitoring the flights of small aircraft. Depending on the weather conditions, a small twin-engine passenger plane could be monitored out to 120 nautical miles.

How maritime homeland defense of the continent will be coordinated between Canada and the United States also will be determined in the next several years. In 2002, the two countries created the Binational Planning Group whose job is to coordinate a response to an attack or natural disaster affecting either nation. But U.S. and Canadian officers see the eventual expansion of the North American Aerospace Defense Command to handle maritime missions as one of the key ways the two countries will monitor and coordinate a response to threats approaching the continent’s coastlines.

Potentially rounding out Canada’s maritime homeland defense package could be the introduction of a new class of ships. The Navy is examining the purchase of Offshore Patrol Vessels (OPVs) in the 1,500-ton range and about 80 meters in length. Each ship would have a crew of about 60, compared to the 235 sailors on board the Navy’s Halifax-class frigates, according to Williams.

That aspect is especially attractive to the Navy as it is facing challenges recruiting and retaining enough sailors for its fleet. Lack of personnel has already resulted in one of Canada’s destroyers, HMCS Huron, being permanently withdrawn from service. At this point, Navy estimates indicate the need for about 10 OPVs to perform sovereignty and coastal patrols, but officials point out that no final decision has yet been made on how many vessels will be purchased.

Graham sees the ongoing efforts in bolstering maritime security as important, not only to send a message to the United States that Canada is pulling its weight in continental security, but to protect Canadian citizens. Since the two countries are so closely aligned, both geographically and economically, a maritime attack on one would have serious ramifications on the other. “We’re all in this together,” he said.

David Pugliese is a staff reporter for the Ottawa Citizen and author of Shadow Wars: Special Forces in the New Battle Against Terrorism.