The Royal Canadian Navy will have to grow by as much as 40 per cent in terms of personnel in order to meet the demands of a growing fleet, says its new commander.
Vice-Admiral Dan Charlebois assumed the post of top sailor in a ceremony on Tuesday set against the backdrop of the country’s naval history — HMCS Haida, the Second World War corvette that serves as the navy’s ceremonial flagship.
The retired warship is berthed in Hamilton and serves as a heritage site.
Like much of the rest of the Canadian military, the navy has suffered through a significant shortfall in personnel that is only just beginning to turn around.
The Canadian Armed Forces overall enrolled 7,310 regular force members in the most recent fiscal year, hitting a 30-year high and surpassing their recruiting target.
The navy has benefited from the modest turnaround. The Department of National Defence, however, does not publish the breakdown of which service recruits have joined.
At the moment, the navy maintains a total authorized strength of roughly 8,500 full-time sailors and 3,000 reservists.
“We need to grow that significantly, and that’s just what we need to crew our future fleet with a bit of resilience and robustness,” Charlebois said following the ceremony, which was attended by both his predecessor, Vice-Admiral Angus Topshee, and the country’s top military commander, Gen. Jennie Carignan.
He said he hopes to meet the goal by putting more emphasis on naval reserve divisions and depots that are spread across the country.
With the navy based on both coasts, he acknowledged it’s hard for Canadians to keep his branch top of mind.
“A lot of Canadians don’t see much of our navy because our navy exists largely in Halifax and in Esquimalt in British Columbia, but we do have our naval reserve divisions and key city centres,” said Charlebois.
“So, we are attracting and recruiting directly at our NRDs across our country.”
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The navy is currently undergoing its largest peacetime renewal and expansion since the Second World War.
The strategy includes the construction of 15 new, high-tech River-class destroyers to replace the current fleet of 12 Halifax-class frigates that have been in service since the mid-1990s.
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government has signalled it’s prepared to fund the acquisition of 12 conventionally powered submarines to replace the navy’s current four Victoria-class boats.
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Bidding on that project has narrowed to major international contenders: South Korea’s Hanwha Ocean and Germany’s ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS).
Two Protecteur-class joint support ships are also nearing completion, along with a fleet of naval tugs.
As part of his long-term strategic plan, Topshee had floated the idea of also building ice-capable corvettes and an amphibious landing ship to move troops and equipment around the country’s Arctic — and perhaps elsewhere.
