When the Canadian military departs for the world's largest international maritime war-gaming exercise next week, it will be with a dramatically reduced force compared to what was initially planned.
Gone are the submarine, the coastal defence vessels and resupply ships that were slated to attend the U.S. Navy's biennial Exercise Rim of the Pacific in Hawaii. Gone too are the Aurora patrol planes, special operations forces and mission support personnel; all reassigned or held back from deploying due to the global COVID-19 pandemic.
The April 29 crash, which is still under investigation by the military, involved a similarly ship-deployed Cyclone that was attempting to land aboard the HMCS Fredericton when a conflict arose between the aircraft's autopilot software and the flight crew's maneuvers.for the Cyclones, but University of British Columbia professor Michael Byers says the helicopters should be grounded until a long-term fix is found.
A software problem in the flight control system of one Cyclone in March 2017 caused the helicopter to suddenly drop during a test flight. Another had aWhile acknowledging the need for continued training on the Cyclones, Byers says the restricted maneuvers are "not a solution, especially for the long-term, since pilots in combat situations need to be able to fly to the limits of their aircraft's capabilities.
"In 2020, the Asia-Pacific is even more important geo-strategically than it was in the 1970s," says retired vice-admiral Mark Norman. "China takes a great interest in the exercise and they have increased their monitoring of the exercise significantly over the past few cycles." "Obviously, with the pandemic our workforce was completely shut down, including the fleet maintenance facility," says Dubeau.
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