{"id":2977,"date":"2026-08-03T03:35:35","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T03:35:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/futureknowledge.in\/?p=2977"},"modified":"2026-08-03T03:35:35","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T03:35:35","slug":"how-this-canadian-submarine-sunk-a-u-s-warship-off-hawaii-with-a-torpedo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/futureknowledge.in\/?p=2977","title":{"rendered":"How this Canadian submarine sunk a U.S. warship off Hawaii with a torpedo"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The<\/p>\n

The skipper of Canada\u2019s lone operational submarine is hoping HMCS Corner Brook\u2019s recent sinking of a decommissioned U.S. warship off Hawaii will help attract more young people to the life subaquatic. <\/p>\n

Canada is negotiating with Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems as the preferred supplier for up to 12 submarines to replace our aging Victoria-Class fleet. But the new German subs require a crew of 28 people and, as of this past June, this country only had 193 qualified submariners working within the Canadian Submarine Force, just over half the people required to operate the new subs. <\/p>\n

The July 12 sinking of USS Mobile Bay \u2014 a SINKEX in military parlance \u2014 was part of the U.S. Navy-led Rim of the Pacific 2026 exercise, a 30-nation, month-long set of war games that included five submarines, 30 ships, 15 national land forces, more than 190 aircraft and more than 30,000 personnel. <\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the things that I thought was so great about the SINKEX was the ability to demonstrate in an open way what we can bring, what we can do, and to be able to push that message to Canadians, especially at a time now when we\u2019re a hot topic and being able to show, this is what we do,\u201d Lt.-Cmdr. Clark Hubbard said. <\/p>\n

He doesn\u2019t know how Corner Brook was chosen to deliver the coup de grace. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t on the bucket list. It was a very happy surprise,\u201d Hubbard said Thursday in a telephone interview from Ford Island, an islet in the centre of Pearl Harbor, Oahu. <\/p>\n

Hubbard\u2019s crew had to wait out some rough weather on the day they started tracking the retired warship. <\/p>\n

Corner Brook \u2014 among other allied vessels and aircraft shooting at Mobile Bay \u2014 launched a Mark 48 heavyweight torpedo at the warship from about a mile away. She sank in waters 15,000 feet deep, more than 50 nautical miles off the northern coast of Kauai. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was mostly missiles and gunfire throughout the day, and missiles and gunfire do a lot of damage. But the most reliable sinking weapon that was fired that day was obviously the torpedo at the end,\u201d said Hubbard, who had never fired a live torpedo before. <\/p>\n

Hubbard\u2019s operations officer hit the button to send the weapon on its way. \u201cI got to say \u2018shoot,\u2019 though,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Hubbard has been in the navy for 17 years. He started his career in Halifax on surface ships and switched to submarines 11 years ago. <\/p>\n

\u201cTo me it just seemed like such a fascinating capability. No one talks about it very much and the more I asked my colleagues about what was going on, what was a submarine doing \u2026 no one knew, and that just intrigued me,\u201d said Hubbard, who has been Corner Brook\u2019s commanding officer for about a year. <\/p>\n

His crew of 59 left Esquimalt, B.C., for Hawaii around the same time Prime Minister Mark Carney made the announcement about buying as many as a dozen new submarines. <\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone\u2019s very excited,\u201d Hubbard said. \u201cThe people who came down to submarines did so because they really believed in the capability, and seeing a commitment to carry on and expand that capability has got everyone in a really good mood.\u201d <\/p>\n

He doesn\u2019t know how adding a dozen new subs to a predominantly surface-oriented organization is going to change the culture of the navy. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a fascinating question, and I have no good answer for you,\u201d Hubbard said. \u201cWe talk about it ourselves and, hopefully, it\u2019s a good change.\u201d <\/p>\n

They\u2019re eager to start training for the new subs, he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cEvery time we go to sea, we have some pretty in-depth discussions so we can optimize whatever we\u2019re doing there to balance between our different training objectives,\u201d Hubbard said. \u201cObviously we have to train people who are brand new, and we have to train people who are more advanced. And the training for those types of things can be different. So, we try to tailor the people we bring on each trip to meet the demands of the sail that we\u2019re going on, and then by the end of the operating year we hope to have produced as many people at the different levels of production required as we can so that we can move forward with the force.\u201d <\/p>\n

He\u2019s confident the navy can ratchet up the number of serving submariners to crew as many as 12 new subs. \u201cI absolutely think we can do that.\u201d <\/p>\n

Hubbard\u2019s best elevator pitch for joining the sub service goes like this: \u201cIt\u2019s meaningful work. It\u2019s hard work, but there\u2019s lots of personal challenges, lots of personal accountability\u2026. It\u2019s a small crew size and it\u2019s going to get even smaller. So, you know that whatever position that you\u2019re in, you are the person who will be looked at to excel in that position.\u201d <\/p>\n

Corner Brook is one of four diesel-electric subs the Royal Canadian Navy acquired from Britain in the late 1990s to replace its Oberon-class submarines. The Victoria-class subs are expected to remain operational into the mid-to-late 2030s. <\/p>\n

The first four new submarines are slated to be delivered in 2034. <\/p>\n

Hubbard, 38, doesn\u2019t know if he\u2019ll still be a submarine captain by then. <\/p>\n

\u201cDepending on the timeline, I might want a desk by that point,\u201d he said. \u201cMy back might be begging for it.\u201d <\/p>\n

But Hubbard didn\u2019t discount the possibility that he might command one of the new subs. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of flexibility. It\u2019s a small force, and we all know what it takes to move things forward and if I need to come back and do something out of sequence or out of the ordinary to make it happen, that\u2019s what I\u2019ll do.\u201d <\/p>\n

While the submarine force is expected to grow, Nick Drescher Brown, who speaks for National Defence, couldn\u2019t say by how much. Nor could he put a number on the amount of support staff the subs will require in shore roles. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe exact personnel needs will be determined as engagement with the preferred supplier continues, and as the Government of Canada progresses toward a final contract,\u201d Brown said. \u201cThe RCN will develop a recruitment and training plan to address these personnel needs as the new submarines are delivered.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"<\/p>\n

It\u2019s tough to put a number on how many submariners Canada will need in the future, said Paul Mitchell, a professor at the Canadian Forces College who is writing a book on the Victoria-class subs this country now operates. <\/p>\n

\u201cAll I would add is that the submarine enterprise is much larger than simply the (Canadian Submarine Force) and includes personnel working in (the assistant deputy minister of materiel\u2019s) Maritime Equipment Programme Management (Submarines) cell, the Fleet Maintenance Facilities on each coast, the Naval Experiment and Testing Establishment, the Canadian Forces Maritime Experimental and Test Range, and other fleet establishments like schools, liaison teams, or operational HQs,\u201d Mitchell said. <\/p>\n

\u201cOn top of those basic numbers are any number of slush to ensure availability and readiness and avoid pier-head jumps \u2014 the practice of assigning a sailor in one ship to another due to personnel shortages. This is complicated by the distance between our two naval bases and the family effects of moving people from one coast to the other at short notice.\u201d <\/p>\n

He pointed out that it can be difficult to find trained submariners to fill \u201cniche areas like Pharmacists Mates and Galley Cooks which often limit readiness. While each trade is employed navy wide, only some are submarine qualified.\u201d <\/p>\n

And submarine sonar operators \u201crequire higher levels of skill than surface ship operators,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Generating qualified people to fill those jobs \u201cis often a lengthy process made worse by the fact that some of this takes place mid-career,\u201d Mitchell said, \u201cmeaning personnel require extensive experience before they can begin professional development. Of these, submarine captains are perhaps the most onerous in terms of generation.\u201d <\/p>\n

Hubbard pointed out that Canada only has four qualified submarine commanders right now. \u201cOne of them\u2019s an admiral, so I don\u2019t think he\u2019s going to come back.\u201d <\/p>\n

Submariners with \u201clow amounts of sea time pose hard limits on force generation and have led in the past to accusations of false dolphins, referring to the badge submariners wear on their uniform,\u201d Mitchell said. \u201cThis reflects that getting qualified during the Oberon era meant far more time at sea than presently. There has been consistent worry about skill fade during the Victoria class. Some of this surfaced during the inquiry into the Corner Brook grounding (off Vancouver Island in 2011), and also in some potential captains failing Perisher in recent years.\u201d <\/p>\n

The Perisher is the informal name for the British Royal Navy\u2019s notoriously difficult Submarine Command Course which readies naval officers to command a submarine. Other countries including Germany, The Netherlands and Norway, also run their own Perisher. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhile the navy will push to keep the Victorias as operationally ready as possible, obsolescent technology may pose hard limits to the amount of sea time they can generate,\u201d Mitchell said. \u201cSome of this can be ameliorated by working with allied submarines, but that too comes with a risk as those sailors may be poached by allied navies also struggling to generate their own capabilities.\u201d <\/p>\n

If Canada wants \u201cto have decent bench strength once we get the TKMS boats, we can\u2019t do all of that crew training and force generation just off exchanges with the Norwegians and Germans,\u201d said David Perry, who heads the Canadian Global Affairs Institute. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to have some of our own ability to keep a roster of people with submarine expertise, both operational from the training point of view and the maintenance point of view, in the country.\u201d <\/p>\n

By the time the new subs are delivered, \u201cwe\u2019re going to have one of the largest conventional submarine forces on the planet,\u201d Perry said. <\/p>\n

\"<\/p>\n

Canada should consider borrowing one of the German submarines for training purposes, said Ken Hansen, a defence analyst and retired naval commander. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe (Victoria-class) submarines currently are old and they\u2019re going to be really old in another twelve years,\u201d Hansen said. <\/p>\n

There is no loan agreement with Germany at this time, Brown said. \u201cHowever, training is top of mind as the Government of Canada continues the negotiation process. As we are still in negotiation, it is too early to discuss training arrangements for this platform.\u201d <\/p>\n

The navy is going to have to come up with more people willing to train as submariners, Hansen said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ll be siphoning people off to do the first bit of training and familiarization in Germany, likely, or Norway. But they\u2019ll have to come up with people. People is the big vulnerability point right now,\u201d Hansen said. <\/p>\n

Canadian submariners \u201cwill be training alongside both German and Norwegian submarine forces as part of our regular Navy-to-Navy business on the international level, where we conduct training related and experiential exchange programs with allied and partner navies on a consistent basis, across the globe,\u201d Brown said. <\/p>\n

\u201cSubmarine training is conducted on a continuous basis to meet the demands of new submariners and to maintain the training standard for those currently serving. This requires that the Canadian Submarine Force continually re-evaluate training requirements to meet the need of current and potential future fleets.\u201d <\/p>\n

Mitchell said it\u2019s unlikely the Germans would lend Canada a sub for training purposes. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut what I do think is likely is that we\u2019re going to see submariners going over and working with the Germans on their boats,\u201d Mitchell said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe will be sending sailors over to Germany or to Norway to do training on board those boats before they show up in Canada.\u201d <\/p>\n

That will contribute to the additional numbers of people the navy\u2019s going to have to generate between now and 2034, he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are the number one problem with this,\u201d Mitchell said. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd they\u2019re having a hard time hanging on to the people.\u201d <\/p>\n

Canada\u2019s submariners \u201care aging out and they\u2019re not being replaced quickly enough,\u201d Mitchell said. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then on top of that, you have industry, you know, all the companies that are going to be contributing to this.\u201d <\/p>\n

They\u2019re all likely to be stealing qualified engineers from the navy, Mitchell said. \u201cThere\u2019s three or four that I know of specifically that have just retired from the RCN and gone out to Babcock Canada (which maintains the Victoria-class subs). So, you know, you lose the talent from the navy or the fleet maintenance yards and they go into industry and they get paid more.\u201d <\/p>\n

It takes \u201ca long, long time to generate all of these people, and they\u2019re only coming from very small numbers of sources,\u201d Mitchell said. \u201cSo, this is a problem for Canadian universities and colleges as well, you know, in terms of generating all this talent.\u201d <\/p>\n

The pressing need to generate more submariners is a \u201cgigantic problem,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s probably going to take a decade or more to do this.\u201d <\/p>\n

The \u201cenormous amount of automation\u201d aboard the new submarines Canada\u2019s buying will make them \u201can even more complex system to maintain\u201d than the Victoria-class subs, Mitchell said. <\/p>\n

\u201cKeeping it at sea and making sure that you have all the resources to keep it at sea, that\u2019s going to be the really hard one.\u201d <\/p>\n

There are \u201chuge backlogs\u201d in the U.S. now for submarine maintenance, Mitchell said. \u201cA lot of boats just sitting around waiting to be maintained because they don\u2019t have enough workers, they don\u2019t have enough dry docks, they don\u2019t have enough spare parts.\u201d <\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just a Canadian problem, he said. \u201cThis isn\u2019t just because we\u2019re feckless Canadians who haven\u2019t invested in their navy,\u201d Mitchell said. \u201cIt stems from the fact that submarines are among the most complex pieces of technology that humans operate. Spaceships and F1 cars, probably the only other equivalents.\u201d <\/p>\n

As for Corner Brook, the sub is slated to sail the Pacific for months to come, said Hubbard. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not going to see a lot of my family for a while,\u201d he said. \u201cThe Pacific\u2019s a big ocean; I\u2019ve got a lot of steaming ahead of me.\u201d <\/p>\n