Latest news with #AngusTopshee
CTV News
7 hours ago
- General
- CTV News
Royal Canadian Navy names new Arctic patrol ship in honour of Robert Hampton Gray
Navy members take part in the naming ceremony of an Arctic patrol ship. (CTV/Hafsa Arif) The Royal Canadian Navy has officially named its sixth Arctic and offshore patrol ship the Robert Hampton Gray in a ceremony that leaders say honours history and collaboration. The vessel is named after a decorated Canadian naval aviator, the last Canadian to receive the Victoria Cross. 'The naming of the ship is an important moment that sort of gives the ship an identity,' said Vice-Admiral Angus Topshee from the Royal Canadian Navy. The ceremony was deliberately timed to coincide with the 80th anniversary of his death in action. This class of ships is dedicated to Canadian naval heroes, with names chosen through an extensive process. A ship's naming committee works under the deputy commander of the Navy, consulting widely before the minister of National Defence approves the final choice — usually years ahead of the official ceremony. This event also served as a reminder of the close partnership between the Royal Canadian Navy and the Royal Canadian Air Force. The Air Force's 12 Wing Shearwater provides maritime helicopter detachments for many of the Navy's ships — a relationship officials describe as integral to operations at sea. 'It's a real privilege to be able to actually be included in such a significant naval event and because of that connection with the naval aviator,' said the Canadian Armed Forces Lieutenant General Jamie Speiser Blanchet. 'It's just important to share in that history and be able to then focus on how that has translated into a very positive relationship that carry on to this day.' Military leaders say integrating air detachments into ship operations takes trust, training, and teamwork, and the strong ties between sailors and aircrew are a tradition worth celebrating.
CBC
25-07-2025
- Business
- CBC
Royal Canadian Navy to retire 8 warships before the end of the year
The Royal Canadian Navy plans to retire some of its older warships this fall. The navy confirmed Thursday that eight of its 12 Kingston-class vessels will be removed from service following "paying off" ceremonies in Halifax and Esquimalt, B.C. Officially known as Maritime Coastal Defence Vessels, these small ships were built and launched in the 1990s. Each is 55 metres long, weighs about 970 tonnes and has a crew of about 40. "There is no loss of capability for the (navy) as a result of the divestment of the Kingston-class," the Department of National Defence said in a statement. "Their missions and tasks will be redistributed to other existing ships and assets, and taken on by new systems being introduced." The ships, powered by diesel-electric motors, are primarily used for coastal patrols, search and rescue, law enforcement, mine detection, and training. They have been deployed to operations in the eastern Pacific, Caribbean, off West Africa and in European waters, as well as many missions across Canada's three oceans. Other vessels to take over duties Meanwhile, the Defence Department says the Kingston-class key mine-sweeping and counter-measures functions will be handled by the navy's fleet diving units and remote and autonomous systems operated from other navy vessels. As well, the navy's relatively new Arctic and offshore patrol vessels will take on Kingston-class roles, such as counter-narcotics operations. And the training role will be shifted to the navy's smaller Orca-class vessels. The navy is also moving ahead with replacing its retired Iroquois-class destroyers and its existing Halifax-class patrol frigates with 15 River-class destroyers. The new warships will be built by Halifax-based Irving Shipbuilding Inc. The federal government said in March the first three ships will cost a total of $22.2 billion. The project has been described as the largest and most complex shipbuilding initiative in Canada since the Second World War. Paying off ceremonies As for the "paying off" ceremony for the Kingston-class ships, that tradition comes from the British practice of paying a crew their wages once a ship has completed its voyage. In the Canadian navy, paying off refers to the formal ceremony where the ship's flags and commissioning pennant are removed and the crew departs the ship for the last time. Ceremonies will be held in Halifax this fall for HMCS Shawinigan, HMCS Summerside, HMCS Goose Bay, HMCS Glace Bay and HMCS Kingston. Ceremonies will also be held in Esquimalt for HMCS Saskatoon, HMCS Whitehorse and HMCS Brandon. The navy's four remaining operational Kingston-class vessels — HMCS Moncton, HMCS Yellowknife, HMCS Edmonton and HMCS Nanaimo — will operate out of Halifax. They will be retired over the next three years. "Kingston-class vessels have provided the Royal Canadian Navy with a significant capability throughout their many years of service," Vice-Admiral Angus Topshee, commander Royal Canadian Navy, said in a statement. "As we move towards the future of the Royal Canadian Navy, I want to recognize the service of these ships and extend my tremendous gratitude to all who have sailed within them."
Vancouver Sun
19-06-2025
- Business
- Vancouver Sun
Lack of working Cyclones frustrates Canada's top sailor: 'The helicopter has been letting us down'
Canada's top sailor is so fed up with the dearth of Cyclone helicopters available to fly off this country's warships, he'll replace them with drones if he must. The fleet of 26 CH-148 helicopters was grounded for most of last month due to spare parts problems. And, as of Thursday, only three of the choppers were available to fly off the country's warships as the problems persist. 'Am I satisfied? No, not at all,' Vice-Admiral Angus Topshee said in Halifax on Thursday. Start your day with a roundup of B.C.-focused news and opinion. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Sunrise will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. Naval officers often say maritime helicopters are the eyes and ears of a warship. 'This is why we're going all-in on drones right now,' Topshee said. 'The Royal Canadian Navy is working to get into contract for an uncrewed aerial vehicle that we can operate. It was meant to supplement the helicopter, but the reality is, if the helicopter can't be more reliable, then we are going to have to rely even more on other systems.' As a stopgap, the navy is employing Hammerhead target drones — remote-control speedboats it normally uses to mimic small boat attacks — to launch sonobuoys ahead of a fleet so ships can detect submarines. 'One of the things a helicopter can do for us is it can drop sonobuoys to help detect submarines. Now we've got the ability to do that in other ways,' Topshee said. 'Whenever we've been forced to innovate, we will innovate. We will find a way to get the job done. So, the helicopter has been letting us down, but we will find a way to achieve the effect.' The navy is hoping to have purpose-built aerial drones in operation by next summer, he said, noting the project went out to tender. 'We're in the process of awarding it.' Topshee — who was in Halifax to celebrate the start of Fleet Week, where the public can tour warships and meet the folks who crew them — doesn't want to rely on unmanned drones over helicopters. 'A helicopter is a far better platform,' he said. 'A helicopter can do everything. So, what we're going to need to do is take all of the things that we need a helicopter to be able to do and do them individually' in other ways. To that end, the navy's experimenting with large drones that can transport equipment between ships, Topshee said. 'That's not a task that we need a well-armed (anti-submarine warfare) helicopter to do,' he said. 'If it can be done by a drone very simply without people involved in the process of actually flying it back and forth, that's ideal for us.' Topshee is adamant he's not replacing the Cyclones. 'We're not,' he said. 'We want the Cyclone helicopter to be an effective part of the force.' The admiral points out that, even when the helicopters are in top shape, they can only operate for 12 hours a day. 'Even if it's perfectly operational, there's 12 hours where you don't have it available,' Topshee said. 'Which means we need to be experimenting and ready to operate all of the time.' Canada has 26 of the ship-borne maritime helicopters, with a final one slated for delivery this year. The $5.8-billion fleet is normally used to provide air support for the navy. Their missions include surface and subsurface surveillance, search and rescue, and anti-submarine warfare. The Cyclones didn't fly at all for 27 days in May as the military struggled with spare parts problems with certain components. The Department of National Defence indicated last month that it was working with the military and Sikorsky, which manufactured the helicopters, 'to identify potential parts of concern. This includes components of the Cyclone's landing gear, tail rotor driveshaft flange and auxiliary power unit, as well as engine parts.' The problems persist, according to Topshee. 'It's a parts issue that's keeping them grounded.' Another 'messy problem' plaguing the helicopters, he said, is replacing the Cyclones' ageing datalinks — used to communicate digital information such as radar images to other aircraft, warships and shore bases. 'It is a technology from the 1980s,' Topshee said. The admiral places the blame for old tech aboard relatively new helicopters, ordered in November 2004, squarely on former prime minister Jean Chretien's 1993 decision to cancel the contract to buy AgustaWestland's EH-101 maritime helicopters to replace Canada's geriatric fleet of Sea Kings, which went out of service in 2018 after flying off navy ships for more than half a century. 'One of the accusations at the time, as we were coming out of the Cold War, was that we had gold-plated the requirement,' Topshee said. 'That we were asking for far more than we needed out of a maritime helicopter. The interesting thing is if you were to go back to our initial requirement, it is almost exactly the helicopter we need today because … we're in a period of great power competition. We need a war-fighting helicopter.' The military 'listened to the complaints,' and watered down the requirements as much as it could, he said. 'We specified exactly the systems that we wanted as opposed to saying we need the helicopter to have modern link, modern communications and up-to-date combat systems. We said we needed to have this Link 11 system, which was the state-of-the-art at the time we set that requirement.' The datalink is 'critical' for the Cyclones, he said. 'It's what tells the rest of the force where the helicopter is. It tells the rest of the force everything the helicopter is seeing. So, when it finds a submarine, it uses that link to communicate the position of the submarine to the rest of the force so that we can either target that submarine or avoid the submarine. It also tells us that that's our friendly helicopter right there so we don't accidentally shoot it down.' Canada is negotiating with Sikorsky to get the datalinks updated, Topshee said. 'The timeline is unacceptably long. We're in negotiations with the company for them to try and deliver it as quickly as possible but right now it's not quick enough.' Sikorsky is saying it will take 'more than two' years to upgrade datalinks aboard all of the Cyclones, according to Topshee, who wants the choppers upgraded from datalink 11 to datalink 16 and datalink 22. The Cyclones 'can still use the old link … but it doesn't provide all the functionality that we need,' he said. 'A lot of countries are stopping using it.' The old datalinks could put Cyclone crews in jeopardy. 'Without the most modern link system, we don't know exactly where the helicopter is all the time because that system does not provide the same level of positional fidelity that we would expect,' Topshee said. 'The helicopter knows where it is. We just don't know whether it's friendly or not all of the time. Can that put them in danger? Yes. In an operational environment where we're starting to shoot, that could be a problem.' Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here .
National Post
19-06-2025
- Politics
- National Post
Lack of working Cyclones frustrates Canada's top sailor: 'The helicopter has been letting us down'
Canada's top sailor is so fed up with the dearth of Cyclone helicopters available to fly off this country's warships, he'll replace them with drones if he must. Article content The fleet of 26 CH-148 helicopters was grounded for most of last month due to spare parts problems. And, as of Thursday, only three of the choppers were available to fly off the country's warships as the problems persist. Article content Article content Article content 'Am I satisfied? No, not at all,' Vice-Admiral Angus Topshee said in Halifax on Thursday. Naval officers often say maritime helicopters are the eyes and ears of a warship. Article content 'This is why we're going all-in on drones right now,' Topshee said. 'The Royal Canadian Navy is working to get into contract for an uncrewed aerial vehicle that we can operate. It was meant to supplement the helicopter, but the reality is, if the helicopter can't be more reliable, then we are going to have to rely even more on other systems.' Article content As a stopgap, the navy is employing Hammerhead target drones — remote-control speedboats it normally uses to mimic small boat attacks — to launch sonobuoys ahead of a fleet so ships can detect submarines. Article content 'One of the things a helicopter can do for us is it can drop sonobuoys to help detect submarines. Now we've got the ability to do that in other ways,' Topshee said. Article content Article content Article content Topshee — who was in Halifax to celebrate the start of Fleet Week, where the public can tour warships and meet the folks who crew them — doesn't want to rely on unmanned drones over helicopters. Article content 'A helicopter is a far better platform,' he said. 'A helicopter can do everything. So, what we're going to need to do is take all of the things that we need a helicopter to be able to do and do them individually' in other ways. Article content To that end, the navy's experimenting with large drones that can transport equipment between ships, Topshee said. 'That's not a task that we need a well-armed (anti-submarine warfare) helicopter to do,' he said. 'If it can be done by a drone very simply without people involved in the process of actually flying it back and forth, that's ideal for us.'
CTV News
19-06-2025
- Entertainment
- CTV News
Celebration of navy, armed forces comes to Halifax this week
The HMCS Montreal is pictured in the background. (Source: Jesse Thomas/CTV News Atlantic) Halifax will host a celebration of the Royal Canadian Navy and the Canadian Armed Forces this weekend. Halifax International Fleet Week runs from Thursday to Sunday, offering ship tours, concerts and a drone light show along the harbourfront. The event kicked off with the ringing of the bell at 11 a.m. on Thursday. It was followed by a pop-up concert with the Stadacona Band at the Queen's Marque Courtyard. Announcement Vice-Admiral Angus Topshee, the commander of the Royal Canadian Navy, along with Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston and Halifax Mayor Andy Fillmore, officially announced the opening of Halifax International Fleet Week 2025. (Source: Jesse Thomas/CTV News Atlantic) Highlights of the weekend include: dragon boat race at Graham's Grove Park in Dartmouth at 8:30 a.m. on Friday Navy Bike Ride at 10 a.m. on Saturday presentation on the First World War at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday Halifax Wanderers home game at the Wanderers Grounds at 3 p.m. on Saturday a drone light show over the Halifax Harbour at 9:30 p.m. on Saturday the Fleet Week Run at the CFB Stadacona at 9 a.m. on Sunday Last Post ceremony at the Last Steps Memorial Arch at 11 a.m. on Sunday a street party on Portland Street in Dartmouth from noon to 4 p.m. on Sunday Fleet Week will also offer daily tours of the HDMS Vaedderen at Pier 23, the HMCS Charlottetown at Pier 20 and the HMCS Margaret Brooke at Pier 19. HMCS Montreal The HMCS Montreal is pictured in the background. (Source: Jesse Thomas/CTV News Atlantic) For more Nova Scotia news, visit our dedicated provincial page
