HMCS St. John's heading to Mediterranean to participate in NATO operation

A Canadian naval frigate left Halifax Tuesday to continue Canada's commitment to Operation Reassurance, a NATO standing force meant to deter Russian activity in central and eastern Europe.

It's the eighth rotation for the navy, which began its commitment in 2014 — and the second deployment within a year for HMCS St. John's and its 240-member crew.

The ship will replace HMCS Charlottetown serving with Standing NATO Maritime Group 1 in the Mediterranean Sea.

"This mission is very important from a deterrence aspect, it's very important from a training aspect," Rear Admiral Craig Baines told a gathering of family members at the ship's departure ceremony.

"It's very important that all of our [NATO] nations be able to operate together, if and when required in the future."

HMCS Charlottetown, which is expected to return to Canada within the next few weeks, took part in a NATO training exercise in the Mediterranean last September and October. Dubbed "Brilliant Mariner," the exercise assessed the crisis response of the 11 countries that took part.

Weeks earlier, the ship was in the Baltic Sea, where it took part in coastal defence and anti-submarine warfare exercises.

"This has made a huge difference, in that it shows that Canada stands with their NATO partners," Baines told reporters.

"It allows us to do very important training and to work on our tactics and procedures. It makes sure we are present in very important parts of the world."

Busy few months

Baines said warships like HMCS St. John's are at their "absolute highest level of readiness" when they are deployed on operations like the NATO mission, because of ongoing training.

"That training program is quite lengthy and hard," he said, adding that it's been a busy few months for the crew of St. John's, which was also sent to the Caribbean last September to help in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma.

As for whether this would be one of the final deployments of a Canadian ship as part of Reassurance, Baines refused to speculate.

"That's a political decision. That will really be up to the government to decide how we continue to support what's going on in that theatre."

Baines said this deployment would also see one of the last planned operational uses of a Sea King helicopter. In service since 1963, the Sea Kings are slated to remain in service until December of next year, as testing and training on the new CH-148 Cyclone helicopter continues.

He said having any helicopter on board makes life easier for any ship's captain.

"The helicopter [Sea King] brings an incredible amount of capability to the ship and makes it that much more effective on deployment," he said.

Snag with new helicopters

Last month the military said Cyclone training had hit a snag after it was determined that modifications were needed to the sonar system on some of the aircraft to allow them to land on ships.

Officials said the sonars, which protrude slightly from the bottom of the helicopter, risked being bumped by a landing system that tethers the helicopter to the ship.

Baines said Cyclone training is continuing and the aircraft would be "coming into further service shortly," although he didn't elaborate.

Training is also ongoing with the navy's new interim supply vessel, MV-Asterix, he said.

The converted civilian container vessel, meant as a stop gap measure until new supply ships are built, arrived in Halifax late last month.

Baines said sea trials are underway, adding that the first fuelling exercise between Asterix and a Canadian patrol frigate (HMCS Toronto) had taken place on Monday.

He said having the Asterix in service would allow the Canadian navy to operate independently with various international task groups.

"Bringing Asterix on line will bring an important capability back to the navy that we need," Baines said.