HMCS Ottawa leaves for Gulf
Melissa Atkinson
Editor
September 11, 2006
For the first time in Operation Altair history, a Canadian warship has been deployed under the new Canadian Expeditionary Forces Command construct and will embed in a U.S. Expeditionary Strike Group (ESG).
As HMCS Ottawa slipped from A jetty yesterday with an embarked Sea King and air detachment, it set a course for Hawaii where it will join the USN amphibious ships USS Boxer, USS Comstock and USS Dubuque for the voyage to the Arabian (Persian) Gulf. Ottawa will escort them along with USS Bunker Hill, USS Howard, USS Benfold, and USCG Midgett.
As part of its preparation for the six-month deployment, the Canadian Patrol Frigate will fire up to four NATO Sea Sparrow telemetric missiles - everything but the explosives, in an unscripted, tactical missile firing exercise at the Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF) in Barking Sands, Hawaii.
“The ship isn’t being told anything about the missile firing scenarios; we’ll just be on patrol waiting,” says Cdr Darren Hawco, Commanding Officer of Ottawa. “During a 10-hour window, we’re going to be fired upon multiple times and we’ll have to defend the ship. Nothing is ever easy, but that’s what makes it exciting.”
While en route for the Gulf, the strike group will stop in India for Exercise Malabar with the Indian Navy. Ottawa will participate in the bilateral exercise as an integrated member of the American strike group, and practice integrated coalition operations and amphibious landings.
“Working with the Indian Navy is something Canada hasn’t done much,” says Cdr Hawco. “There’s a wonderful range of opportunities to learn how the Indian Navy works, to compare ourselves, and further learn about amphibious operations.”
Once the strike group enters the theatre of operation, Ottawa will break away and do assigned tasks such as maritime interdiction, escort duty of high valued assets, surveillance and intelligence collection.
If an operation requires U.S. marines to land, the strike group will reconstitute in theatre, and if sanctioned by the Canadian government, Ottawa will participate, providing screening support to the amphibious ships as they disembark equipment and personnel.
“We’ll be on the watch for small boat attacks and shallow water submarine attacks; that’s an area where our dipping helo will really benefit the ESG,” says Cdr Hawco.
The Sea King carries subsurface acoustic detection equipment, or dipping sonar, as part of its primary mandate of searching, locating and destroying submarines.
When Ottawa returns home in 2007, Cdr Hawco will report amphibious lessons learned to the Commander of the Standing Contingency Force, Cmdre Paul Maddison. The Commodore has the lead in developing the Canadian Navy’s own Standing Contingency Task Force of integrated maritime, aerospace and land forces that could be deployed to conduct an amphibious operation.
“We’ll have a better sense of how amphibious warfare is done to help the navy and the CF develop it’s own Standing Contingency Force capability,” says Cdr Hawco.
