Not too many scenarios around with Canadian ships around... why?   Well, 
Canadian ships suck...

Well, actually, no, they don't suck, but a bunch of old 30 year old 
destroyers with funny rounded hulls, and that awful paint scheme aren't 
quite as glamorous as cruisers and nuclear subs.  So, Canada is getting 
new ships - 12 "City" class frigates, and we're getting rid of most of our 
30 year old destroyers, (Harpoon calls them frigates, but we call them 
destroyers - don't ask).  I think the only DD's we're planning to keep 
are the Improved Restigouche Escorts, (IRE's), and I doubt we'll keep 
them that long.

...which leaves us with the 12 frigates, (called CPF's in Canada, for 
Canadian Patrol Frigate), 4 "Trumps", (which are the modified "280's" - known 
to the rest of the world as "Tribals", as they are named after Indian Tribes, 
as were the original Tribals), 3 AOR's, a bunch of other useless crap, 
(MSA's, YNG's, etc), and some new minesweeper/patrol craft, (wartime, look 
for mines - peacetime, harass American fishermen).

So, even with all the new stuff, not too glamourous.  The air force, 
(Canada's navy doesn't operate any aircraft - it's the air force who flies 
the helos off the ships - strange), is getting 50 new EH-101's at about 100 
million _each_, for SAR, and ASW.A few years ago, the government looked into 
getting some SSN's, (either Trafalgar, or Rubis class - LA was "too rich for 
our blood"), but this was shot down, because public opinion was really set 
against the purchase, (we didn't want nuclear weapons).  

So, I got to thinking... we need something _fun_.  Those minesweepers, are 
OK, but cruising along at 10 knots, puking your guts, making sure the 
Yankee's stay on their own side of the line on George's Bank, isn't fun, 
(trust me).  How about hydrofoils, like the Pegasus class?  Well, it's been 
tried already - HMCS BRAS d'Or was Canada's hydrofoil project in the late 
60's, and was cancelled due to costs, etc... - basically too expensive, and 
pretty tough to justify, (kinda like those EH-101's...).  Also at this time, 
our last CV was paid off, the BONAVENTURE.  

So I thought, "what if we still had that neat stuff?".  I was discussing it 
with someone, and he said, "we mostly have a lot of Sea Kings, but we could 
fly them from a small carrier, like the American's LPH's".

Then it occurred to me that this wouldn't really be the same, because the 
LPH's are Amphibious ships, (something that's really hard to explain to 
Canadian sailors - "I know it looks like a carrier, but it's not... trust 
me"), and Canada's navy is mostly concerned with ASW/escort duties.  Then I 
thought, well, maybe it could be like an escort carrier was in WWII... I'm 
sure any Convoy Commodore would appreciate any extra 15 helos, or so.  
Canada already owns F/A-18's, so how about taking an older US carrier, 
say, the Ranger, (no nukes for Canada), loading up on EH-101's, and any
Sea Kings that are still around... throw in some F/A-18's for self defence, 
and maybe use it as an ASW platform.  I can see two good things, first, there 
would be extended ASW coverage out to however far as you wanted it, and second, 
you would get an fighter umbrella over the convoy, just in case the Red Menace 
managed to get off a couple shots at you, (from subs or bombers).

So, what's wrong with this... too expensive?  Not really - I'm not sure how 
much a new carrier goes for nowadays, but I'm pretty sure we could pick up a 
_used_ one up pretty cheap - consider that just one of our new frigates costs 
500 million, and the helos that fly off it are 100 million a piece.  A real 
problem would be maintenance - I suppose that things like carriers are 
pretty expensive to maintain - especially if it's an older carrier.  The 
big thing, though, is that if you were to take everybody in the Canadian 
navy from their DDH's, and AOR's, and put them on this CV, it probably 
wouldn't quite be full, (or even have enough people to run it, probably.).  
But we can overlook this.

So, the first scenario is about Canada's new CV - she's on workups between 
Halifax and Sable Island with CANDESRON ONE, CANDESRON FIVE is escorting a 
convoy to Europe, and Nipigon is operating independently on a Canlant patrol.  

Downloaded from Firedrake.org, filename HDS2MRS1.
