CANADIAN ARMED FORCES: Sub-Standard Submarines

[Dr Strangelove]

Lemons. The impetus was we to get these to retire the oberons and then maintain the ABILITY to field a sub fleet and then build on it. The reality is the subs were junk to begin with and the retooling required was unique to this class and will not provide any redundancy for a future fleet. It was never intended to be a one off but we failed to follow through so now we have actually atrophied our capabilities to where we are now worse off then when we started.

[Canucked]

As a 35 year veteran, I have to ask myself why we even need subs, let alone diesel powered ones.
I, for reasons I will not get into, remember the day Chretien was in England to make the announcement that we bought 3 subs for $1 each.
That was over 20 years ago...and gazillions of dollars later we still have no operational subs.
So no, we do not need sub standard sub...we do not need subs at all.

[Dr Strangelove]

We can't support subs given what the pubic deem acceptable spending on the military. We could use subs as we do have 3 wet boarders but in the age of drones there are better options. Subs require a dedicated arm of the forces to support and we can barely recruit what we need for ground forces let alone a specialized and expensive fleet of warships on both coasts of one of the largest countries in the world. It was proposed that subs could aid in our arctic sovereignty but if we can't field them on a consistent basis they are only expensive port queens and we can't afford white elephants.

Long range awacs would be a better investment.