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This is a shame, though less of one than it seems. The carriers, it is true, would have been ideal for a mid-sized country like Canada, with our long shores and tradition of deploying troops abroad for battle, peacekeeping or humanitarian relief. The Mistrals are suited to all three roles and were available at a once-in-a-lifetime price. And yet there is little chance Canada could have made effective use of the ships, even if we did buy them. The Royal Canadian Navy is in a disastrous state, struggling to deal with what it has. It’s hard to imagine how it could have successfully integrated entirely new capabilities in this dark period of retraction.

The Royal Canadian Navy is in a disastrous state, struggling to deal with what it has.

There is the odd bright spot. Canada’s dozen Halifax-class frigates are in the midst of a mid-life refit and modernization. These are first-rate warships and will serve Canada well for decades. But that’s about it. Our destroyers once numbered four; only one remains, to be retired shortly, with no replacements on the horizon. Our supply ships have similarly rusted out, leaving the government scrambling to rent ships from other navies, just to enable us to conduct basic operations off our own shores. Infamously, the Sea King helicopters, slated for replacement 22 years ago, are still in service.

All of this is embarrassing, especially since none of it was unforeseen. The rapidly aging nature of our fleet has been a known issue for years, and yet successive governments, Liberal and Conservative, did nothing. Even when our destroyers were putting out to sea with advanced sensors and weapons powered down for lack of funds, or when our supply ships were struggling to operate at sea without breaking down, nothing was done. Now the ships are retired and the replacements are still years away.