First off, I must say that this topic has brought up many intresting ideas/concepts/dreams and even though some are out there, IMHO it's good to think and plan big........in the hopes that when the other side (in this case government) counters with their "plan", hopfully we end up with everything we
need and some of what we would
like.
Who would have honestly thought three years ago that a serving, Canadian CDS would bring up the prospect of a Canadian Amphib for instance?
Now the concepts that stand out the most to me, are Ex-Dragoon's proposal of setting up two expeditionary forces on each coast, a substantial increase in MCM assets, and the introduction of OPVs to the navy. So for the purpose of this topic, I hope to expand on Ex's ideas and at the same time making parts of them more fiscally palatable to a government and throw out a few of my own unorthodox ideas for target practice.
First off I'll steal Ex's idea of two expeditionary forces (one on each coast) and add my own twist. Now ideally, as I'm sure most would agree, these two forces should be able to operate as independently as possable and plausible, no need to re-fight Jutland or invade Iwo Jima, but if the need to defend Canadian, overseas intrests alone, where to arise, we could at least make a respectable effort in doing so.
Now all this talk of independent Canadian actions is not meant to take away from the more likely scenario, in which we would still be a part of a larger coalition. With that being the case, our expeditionary forces should be able to seamlessly intergrate with our allies, namely the Yanks. Now since any major conflict we may find ourselves a part of in the future, the Americans will, in all likelyhood, also be involved, I think we should further move towards the ability of total intergration within the USN in a time of war.
This could mean purchasing more American kit, implementing more American doctrine and tapping into, at a greater extent, the vast American fleet logistics train.........let the government decide as to what level though.
So my model of a Canadian, expeditionary force would be as follows:
1 LHD
1 DDG
2 FFH
2 LCS
1 SSK
1 AOR
So the combined resources, dedicated to expeditionary warfare, of the two martime commands would be double the above figures.
Now my unorthodox approach would be that the expeditionary force would be forward based (say Western Australia) and made up of assists (split roughly 50/50) from MARPAC and MARLANT
The reason behind my madness, should be clear........
-less transit time
-Closer to any current or potential hotspots
-The potential to employ some sort of "Blue/Gold" (ala USN boomers) system of crew rotation
-Reduced burden on MARPAC and MARLANT for a major deployment
As for the rest of the navy, I'll borrow a page off the RN and call it the "Home Fleet". All remaining tasks (ie training, NATO commitments, sovereignty and maintenance etc) will be drawn out of the remaining pool of ships, which would be equally spread between the the two coasts. So each coast would have (not counting the expeditionary assists) :
1 DDG
4 FFH
4 LCS
2 SSK
(MARLANT would also receive two armed Icebreakers)
Then my final command would be organised along the lines as the RFA and MSC with each coast having:
1 Oilers
1 Dry stores ships
2 RO/ROs
plus various Auxiliary vessels (ie tugs, tenders etc)
So the entire fleet would be as follows:
2 LHD Wasp "plug plus"
4 DDG Burke "flight IIIs"
12 FFH next generation Canadian design
12 LCS off the shelf, American littoral combat ship
6 SSK type 212?
2 Ice Breakers USCG Healy class?
2 AOR American AOX/ next generation Supply class
2 Oilers off the shelf design (Henry Kaiser?)
2 AKE Lewis and Clark?
4 RO/ROs Bob Hope class?
I've got my flash protection on so fire away