So, the Prime Minister was in Halifax today to announce a refit program for Canada’s frigates. Starting in 2010. It will last 7 years. It’s important work that needs to be done, and I guess it satisfies the other objective of giving a reason to be in Halifax while at the same time not talking to Rodney Macdonald. It’s like that time in High School where I showed up to a friends birthday party, and specifically and visibly avoided talking to someone I was having a snit with.
Wait, that didn’t happen. Becuase I was not 6.
In any case, here are some interesting questions that the CBC article does not answer:
1) What does this mean for the Destroyers, which presently perform a command and control role in the Navy. They are getting close to 4 decades old, and were last modernized before most of the current crop of ships were commissioned. It would have been nice to see an announcement about replacing them as well. Will they be retired, meaning fewer ships in the navy, or will they be kept longer?
2) Why was the Prime Minister wasting his time with an announcement for upgrading something?
Fellow Travellers 
July 5th, 2007 
818 Comment from
1:54 pm 
Write a comment
The first question: There is no planned replacement for the IROQUOIS class destroyers until the 2020s when the Single Class Surface Combatant (SCSC) comes into service with the Canadian Forces. At most, you might see an IROQUOIS class destroyer in service until 2014; after that, the maintenance costs will be prohibitive.
2. The FELEX program which was announced today is old news. It’s been underway for a number of years now and has been fully funded through the DND internal budget. My guess is that Harper wants to make it look like his government is moving forward with their defence platform, which is not the case. To date, 90% of defence spending projects announced by Harper and his Government are from the era of the Martin government, and in some cases, the Chretien government. Harper’s government has actually done very little for the military, apart from announcing projects that were already funded by the federal budgets of past years.
Some links for further information relevant to SCSC and the “newly” announced FELEX (which I’ve been following for over two years now):
FELEX: http://www.cdnmilitary.ca/?p=22
SCSC: http://www.cdnmilitary.ca/?p=16