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Arctic/Offshore Patrol Ship AOPS

Just sounds like it's been heavily massaged by a PAO. But yes I am glad to see them operational.

This bit sounded particularly insincere:

“It’s a daunting task, sailing that farup North. I’m not too sure how to prepare myself emotionally, psychologically, operationally for this,”

If taken seriously, somewhat disappointing and uninspiring coming from the ship's CO...

I assume it was just meant to play up the excitement for the "unknown".
 
This bit sounded particularly insincere:



If taken seriously, somewhat disappointing and uninspiring coming from the ship's CO...

I assume it was just meant to play up the excitement for the "unknown".
It's completely honest and in my mind refreshing. It is daunting. And it is difficult. This isn't a walk in the park. You are really very very far away from help if something goes wrong in a badly charted land. It's a lot more risk then sailing pretty much anywhere else in the world for a CO to undertake.

Just getting fresh groceries is a massive chore. GPS doesn't work properly, there are no SATCOM's to call for help, you have to rely on HF for your beyond visual horizon coms. And the ships though proven still have much of the new car smell so have more risk.

It's completely reasonable for a new CO to have concerns, and voicing them to his crew is likely a sign of his leadership style.
 
This bit sounded particularly insincere:



If taken seriously, somewhat disappointing and uninspiring coming from the ship's CO...

I assume it was just meant to play up the excitement for the "unknown".
Agreed, it reads like an insincere attempt to play up the risks.

If it's not that, it would decrease my confidence as a sailor. I don't expect my leaders to be inhuman, but I expect them to use the tools they have acquired over years of service to prepare themselves for jobs with an elevated risk, and be confident that they are mentally and psychologically prepared for it.
 
First steel was cut for AOPS #7 or CCG AOPS #1 today. Strangely still no naming scheme announced for either.




Renewing the Canadian Coast Guard’s fleet ensures our personnel can continue carrying out critical work with modern and safe equipment, while creating good skilled jobs in our shipbuilding and marine industries across the country.

Today, Mike Kelloway, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard was joined by the Honourable Sean Fraser, Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities to celebrate the steel cutting milestone on the first of the two future Arctic and Offshore Patrol Ships for the Canadian Coast Guard, marking the official start of construction of the vessel undertaken by Irving Shipbuilding Inc. from Halifax, Nova Scotia.

The Canadian Coast Guard’s new Arctic and Offshore Patrol Ships will operate as a primary platform to support fisheries enforcement missions on Canada’s east coast, including Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization patrols. They will also support search and rescue and icebreaking operations on the east coast, strengthening Canada’s presence in the low Arctic.

In addition to their primary missions, the Arctic and Offshore Patrol Ships will be able to support environmental response and aids to navigation, allowing greater flexibility and adaptability for the Canadian Coast Guard’s operations. Outfitted with science equipment and a medical facility onboard, these modern and versatile ships will be able to conduct scientific research and support humanitarian assistance missions.

The two ships are built under the National Shipbuilding Strategy’s large vessels construction pillar. Through the National Shipbuilding Strategy, the Government of Canada continues to make significant investments in modernizing the Canadian Coast Guard fleet while creating good skilled jobs in our shipbuilding and marine industries across the country.

The Canadian Coast Guard’s Arctic and Offshore Patrol Ships project will contribute to more than $125M annually to Canada’s GDP, and create or maintain close to 1,250 jobs annually in the Canadian shipbuilding industry over the 2022-2030 period.

The first Canadian Coast Guard Arctic and Offshore Patrol Ship is expected to be delivered in 2026. By 2027, the Canadian Coast Guard’s fleet is expected to include two new Arctic and Offshore Patrol Ships.

The Arctic and Offshore Patrol Ships will replace two of the Canadian Coast Guard’s existing five Offshore Patrol Vessels. The vessels are 103 metres long, 19 metres beam, with approximately 6,677 metric tons displacement.
 
It's completely honest and in my mind refreshing. It is daunting. And it is difficult. This isn't a walk in the park. You are really very very far away from help if something goes wrong in a badly charted land. It's a lot more risk then sailing pretty much anywhere else in the world for a CO to undertake.

Just getting fresh groceries is a massive chore. GPS doesn't work properly, there are no SATCOM's to call for help, you have to rely on HF for your beyond visual horizon coms. And the ships though proven still have much of the new car smell so have more risk.

It's completely reasonable for a new CO to have concerns, and voicing them to his crew is likely a sign of his leadership style.
TBH to me it’s either over the top drama, or poor leadership.
Yes you can have concerns, but suggesting you don’t know how to prepare is beyond problematic.

Honestly if he doesn’t know how to prepare properly, he should be relieved.
 
TBH to me it’s either over the top drama, or poor leadership.
Yes you can have concerns, but suggesting you don’t know how to prepare is beyond problematic.

Honestly if he doesn’t know how to prepare properly, he should be relieved.
To be honest I've been all over the Arctic and pretty far up north and its somewhere not to be screwed with and have a healthy respect. Things can go wrong quickly and rescue is not always possible or quick due to the isolation. You need to prepare and know what your going into. The good thing is plenty of RCN ships went there before them and we have a whole mechanism to lessons learned to answer those questions along with picking up the phone and talking to CO's who actually been there. I'm pretty sure that CO has asked the questions, and received the information they need to be successful and the RCN is not in the habit of sending a CO without being prepared. I been around long enough to keep doubts to myself and if I have them to gain the knowledge I need to dispel them.
 
I've just started referring to them as 'Lesson's written down', which then become 'lessons forgotten'. Pretty much every after action report to the Med in the last decade has the exact same lessons learned and recommendations to CJOC, and with the timing of when they go in if you are lucky you just get it from the ship you are replacing two months before, instead of relying on the last one.

We really suck at lessons learned as an institution, and consistently find that major incidents had a lot of identical minor incidents or near misses before something major happened. They also don't get shared well between coasts, as there are local databases for TIs etc. I know a lot of people didn't like the old PELs (because they sucked at writing them so that they were useful) but lots of things like that we just stopped doing because someone thought it was inconvenient.
 
So many other things become immediate and important. Trying to get the ship ready engineering wise for a deployment doesn't leave the dept heads (PO2 and up) much time to peruse the previous deployments lessons learned. Something that sea training always nails you on of course.

And you're trying to get your individual training sorted, your DAG done, ensure the dept does the same, find people to fill positions... list goes on. Lessons learned are great, but where's the time! I've only got so many hours in the day...
 
I've just started referring to them as 'Lesson's written down', which then become 'lessons forgotten'. Pretty much every after action report to the Med in the last decade has the exact same lessons learned and recommendations to CJOC, and with the timing of when they go in if you are lucky you just get it from the ship you are replacing two months before, instead of relying on the last one.

We really suck at lessons learned as an institution, and consistently find that major incidents had a lot of identical minor incidents or near misses before something major happened. They also don't get shared well between coasts, as there are local databases for TIs etc. I know a lot of people didn't like the old PELs (because they sucked at writing them so that they were useful) but lots of things like that we just stopped doing because someone thought it was inconvenient.
ATL used to have a floating drydock in the Western Arctic. At some point it might be wise of us to have another one stationed up there, it would have to be mostly subsidized, but it would be a great assets in the long run.
 
So many other things become immediate and important. Trying to get the ship ready engineering wise for a deployment doesn't leave the dept heads (PO2 and up) much time to peruse the previous deployments lessons learned. Something that sea training always nails you on of course.

And you're trying to get your individual training sorted, your DAG done, ensure the dept does the same, find people to fill positions... list goes on. Lessons learned are great, but where's the time! I've only got so many hours in the day...
People get lost in the sauce a lot.

If they'd start with lessons learned, they'd course correct early on multiple axes and save lots of time.
 
I will observe that when you post a crew off after a major deployment, it's a broken chain of lessons learned.

When I was on CHA from '96-01, I did multiple sets of WUPs, multiple missilex trips to Rosie Roads, and 2 major deployments. I didn't need to read lessons learned for the 2nd trip, because I'd done the first one.

Maybe the Navy needs to break the cycle.
 
I will observe that when you post a crew off after a major deployment, it's a broken chain of lessons learned.

When I was on CHA from '96-01, I did multiple sets of WUPs, multiple missilex trips to Rosie Roads, and 2 major deployments. I didn't need to read lessons learned for the 2nd trip, because I'd done the first one.

Maybe the Navy needs to break the cycle.
I think we need to differentiate experience (which we need as well) from lessons learned. Lessons learned as far as I understand it is learning from others experience.

The section that does this better then anyone is the Nav side. The navigators are constantly looking into their notes from other navigators on ports, challenges, rules and lessons from their deployments. Its litterally part of their planning process when they start putting electronic pencil to charts.
 
I think we need to differentiate experience (which we need as well) from lessons learned. Lessons learned as far as I understand it is learning from others experience.

The section that does this better then anyone is the Nav side. The navigators are constantly looking into their notes from other navigators on ports, challenges, rules and lessons from their deployments. Its litterally part of their planning process when they start putting electronic pencil to charts.
The log side has similar database for port visit reports which is really useful, but usually doesn't get used as part of planning unless you push for it.

FSE is also completely useless at provinding any kind of guidance for operating in special MARPOL areas (or even providing the actual MARPOL regulations if you have questions).

Lots of useful tidbits though like if you go into the Black Sea, which has about half the salinity of the oceans, you need to monitor and maybe add salt to the black water system so the crap zapper treatment works properly. Learned that one from LLs from a previous deployment as none of the crew had been to the Black Sea before, and sure there are nuances for different op areas that we don't go to regularly.

But like @TacticalTea said, if you start with LL, makes planning a lot easier. Unfortunately we bury that in classified 'After action reports', even when the majority of the info is completely unclass.

The big thing with experience is that people are getting promoted way faster, so there is just less of it. And on the officer side sea time is cut way down and they are also cycling to HOD tours far sooner, so it's cumulative. There will be some people that finish their NTO tours with 4 years posted to ships without actually ever getting enough sea days for even the gunmetal anchor.
 
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