National Security ... Uncertain Times

"This is what happens when  you exclude Canadian companies: You find yourself potentially being held hostage."

"We don't control the [combat management] system; the Americans do."

"Who knows what they are going to demand from us?"

Alan Williams, former procurement chief, Department of National Defence 

"The primary thing is during the life of a warship there is the need to modify certain tactics or add certain sensors and the navy didn't want to be restricted to having to ask permission [from the U.S.] for that."

Don McClure, past president, business development, Lockheed Martin Canada

Artist drawing of the Canadian Surface Combatant warship (Source: Canada.ca)

American President Donald Trump's rumblings about forcing Canada through pressure he believes he can apply to Canada's economic well-being, to assent to becoming part of the United States, as the American 51st state, his executive orders that threaten a 25% tariff on Canadian exports to the U.S. focusing primarily on steel and aluminum, his musings about annexing Canada's far North and threats to increase tariffs even further should Canada decide to impose its own counter-tariffs on American exports to Canada, have made for some very tense times. Not that Canada is alone in this; Mexico too has been put on notice, as have Panama and Greenland.

 

Mr. Trump has not endeared himself to his allies since re-assuming the American presidency. His strident demands and threats are beyond reasonable, threatening to upturn the global economy, after putting Europe on notice that they're next. Tariffs he has threatened on Chinese imports are strangely minimal at 10%, in comparison to what America's closest neighbours and trading partners are facing. As for America's traditional role as peacekeeper in Europe and elsewhere as the most powerful country on Earth, one that has supervised the global order, in adherence to the inviolability of sovereign borders, that too has changed.

 

Suddenly NATO and the G7 have been put on notice that their greatest sponsor and originator may withdraw. And Russia suddenly has a new partner in the new world order. President Trump is moving to make good on his election promise that he intended to end the conflict in Ukraine. Whereas the United States, over the past three years, has been as supportive of Kyiv's defiance of Moscow's expansionism as Europe has been, suddenly that is no longer the case. The U.S.  seems prepared to usher peace into this conflict, but it will cost Ukraine a significant portion of its territory while leaving Europe on edge over Russia's territorial ambitions.

A very nervous Canada, a country that could write a best-seller about what it's like to sleep next to a restless elephant, is now considering its options. And re-assessing its former relaxed attitude about its reliance on a mattress, deep and soft enough to prevent serious injury when the restless elephant capriciously turns and tosses, Canada is beginning to assess its various vulnerabilities. Among them is its own defence capabilities, one too long overlooked, yet reawakened as a result of this new posturing from Canada's largest trading partner, the one Canada shares the longest undefended border in the world with.

 

Reawakening to the reality that the United States now has control of many key systems onboard Canada's new warships; the U.S. is potentially capable of holding Canada 'hostage' over future military upgrades, even the provision of spare parts, according to warnings emanating from defence industry officials. The new fleet of Canadian Surface Combatant vessels under construction at Irving Shipbuilding have at their heart the command management system controlling weapons, radars and other intelligent-gathering equipment, produced in the United States. 

The high tech system was originally  meant to be Canadian-made, under full control of the government of Canada. That was changed, however, for made-in-the-U.S. technology named Aegis which allows full control and oversight over the supply of parts, modifications or future upgrades to the Americans, confirmed by industry officials. As it is, the U.S. government currently controls much of the technology in use by the Canadian military, not formerly recognized as an issue, as long as the Americans were considered close allies.

 

Canada is facing an entirely altered situation, one that arrived as out of nowhere, with the ascension of  Donald Trump back to the White House. Canada is awaiting, with  bated breath, the outcome of President Trump's vow to punish Canada economically with heavy tariffs. His threats to annex Canada, to transform it into America's 51st state, was first taken as a joke in bad taste, and then the realization sank in as Trump persevered and returned time and again to musing how it would benefit both countries should Canada fold itself willingly into the arms of the U.S., accepting its manifest destiny.

 

 

Five years earlier, Canadian industry officials had warned the Department of National Defence and Public Service and Procurement Canada bureaucrats of potential dangers inherent in US.controlled technology and the total absence of Canadian on-board content on the new warships. Fifteen years earlier when their current Halifax-class frigates were being modernized, DND insisted on the installation of newly developed Command Management System 330. Financing by Canada gave it total control over the technology. At that time, government stipulated other key systems on the Halifax-class ships originate from companies in Canada, Sweden, Israel, Germany and the Netherlands.

 

When Lockheed Martin Canada, a subsidiary of the U.S. defence company, indicated its proposal included the CMS-330, pointing out maximum focus for Canadian content -- once the contract was won, Lockheed Martin abandoned the CMS-330 to substitute Aegis in its place. The design team on the new warships, led by Lockheed Martin Canada, pointed out the Aegis system was being used on the surface combatants combined with a tactical interface derived from the CMS-330. 

"[The move is a] real and serious risk."

"Even if everything was rosy and there was no risk, we’ve given up any down-stream autonomy in pursuit of a less capable system. Someone needs to answer for this."

"Of all of my laments about this, the shift away from Canadian IP [CMS 330] to AEGIS CCS bothers me the most…"

Retired Vice-Admiral Mark Norman

(Top) BAE Systems rendering from 2018. (Bottom) the much-refined design – RCN rendering, June 2024.