Second hand subs leave us with far too many questions!

Up until today I had been working on a piece about the misadventures of our newly purchased Submarine fleet. That collection of four subs, which were having their problems staying afloat, keeping on a budgetary track or actually taking to sea. A project that has been beset by many problems, my little blog item was destined to be a rather light hearted look at the travails of taking mothballed subs and turning them into a major ingredient of our naval forces.

But with the tragic death of submariner Lt. Chris Saunders there is no desire, let alone need, for frivolity, instead perhaps a serious investigation of just what has gone on is in order. It’s something that should have been done six years ago when this project first came up on the Canadian radar.

The death of Lt. Saunders involved that most harrowing of at sea scenarios, the on board fire in a confined space. There is not much that can make a sailor fear for his safety than a fire on board, there’s no fire department on the way, no bucket brigade, just you and your ship mates on your own, battling to save your ship. You train and train over and over again to cover just such a scenario, but in reality the real thing can only bring fear up to your throat from its deepest hiding place. It’s a testimony to the skills of the Chicoutimi crew that an even larger scale disaster did not take place.

By all accounts the fire onboard HMCS Chicoutimi was far more serious than we were led to believe by the early reports of this week. With an emergency airlift of sailors to a hospital in Ireland and a crippled submarine bobbing around the North Atlantic off the coast of Ireland something has gone terribly wrong with this program.

The Chicoutimi is the fourth and final of the Victoria class diesel electric boats, leased by the Canadian Navy from the Royal Navy. Having only taken possession on Sunday the Chicoutimi was on its way to CFB Halifax at the time of its on board emergency. The history of these boats leaves many to wonder if Canada has not perhaps taken on more trouble than it knew at the time of purchase.

Reports from England suggest a litany of glitches on the subs while they were part of the Royal Navy Fleet, eventually mothballed when the UK went to a nuclear Submarine program the four subs sat in dry dock for years while a buyer was sought. Along came Canada suggesting at the time that the deal was a once in a lifetime chance to instantly create a submarine squadron.

However, the changeover has not gone smoothly all four of these subs have had some kind of malfunction or problem since taking on a Canadian commissioning pennant, the most serious of course Tuesday’s tragedy. The British claim there is nothing wrong with their boats, in fact a rather defensive looking Royal Navy representative seemed quite taken aback at the line of questioning about the former British subs.

But one can’t help but wonder if these are such gems, why were they tied up for so long? Why have there been so many reported problems (and one wonders how many unreported ones)? The simple fact that the actual use of these subs in a military role has yet to be fully taken on, gives one cause to think about just what is happening in Halifax.

The program is over budget and far behind schedule. The “Canadianization” of the subs taking much longer to achieve and leaving our sailors with far more questions than answers about the boats they serve on. In fact the trouble that the Chicoutimi has found itself in highlights a major problem with the Armed Forces, we have had to rely on the British and Irish Navy, merchant and fishing vessels to come to the aid of our stricken submarine. So short are we in resources that if we had to launch a rescue mission of our own we would be in dire straits. Without the support vessels and aircraft in place, we are playing a dangerous game with people’s lives.

Canada being a rather parsimonious nation in its defence spending decided to take the cheaper route of acquiring used subs, rather than purchasing new models or developing its own program. It’s a constant theme of late in our Armed Forces, trying to take short cuts in procurement of resources. We bang on about our soldiers, sailors and airmen and the jobs they have to do, yet we seem to short change them in the most important aspect of their work, their equipment.

The fact is we try to do defence on the cheap and that is just not worth the eventual cost. While there is probably no turning back on this program now and most Defence officials believe these subs will eventually prove their worth, we need to find out all that is required about this program and other military projects.

We’re presently wasting millions of dollars on a dog and pony show about questionable spending in the advertising world of Quebec. We already have a pretty clear idea about the waste and less than honest activity of our political representatives and their minions in the civil service. And as distasteful as their actions have been, in the big picture its nothing that the police can’t handle with a dedicated investigative procedure. Redirecting that money to a more sensible cause might make for a good faith gesture.

I’d much rather find out if these four subs are indeed safe to set sail, we owe that much to the folks that serve on the Victoria class boats. Even more importantly we probably owe at least that to Lt. Saunders and his family. A son, father and husband is not coming home, we should be able to tell the family why.

Whenever our military head out on a mission they are aware of the risk and prepared for what may come their way. The job at hand is dangerous enough without sending them to work with substandard equipment. No one should die serving his country because we wanted to do a job as frugally as possible. A government that sanctions that idea is worthy of nothing but contempt!