And let's not even talk about the Iwo Jima/Essex idea

The Brock Report, of course, never came to fruition, as did many proposals of the unification era of the RCN.

Curious on more? My next substack, we've been here before, takes a look at this fascinating era and how we as observers can relate and learn from it.

The Brock Report lays out one of the most extensive attempts at transforming the RCN into a three-ocean, blue water force. Keen observers might even take note of just how similar this report is to our current set of plans for the future of the Royal Canadian Navy.

The Brock Report laid out a Modernization plan that included:

• Eight General Purpose Frigates

• Twelve conventional/nuclear submarines

• Twelve heliporter frigates

• Two Arctic patrol vessels

• Two tankers

• A fleet of complementary Auxillery vessels

The Brock Report called for the mass modernization of the RCN leading into the 1970s, as vessels such as the WWII era Tribal-class quickly neared retirement. I would call it ambitious, but that would be quite the understatement

• Supporting the Canadian Army

• Establishing and maintaining Canada’s sovereignty in the Arctic

The Brock Report firmly committed the RCN to playing a major role in the Arctic, a region that had come to the forefront of the Diefenbaker administration.

The Brock Report laid out the role of the Royal Canadian Navy as:

• Defending Canada's interests against attack from the sea

• Meeting our commitments to collective security arrangements

• Contributing to other external undertakings

....

This report, the Ad Hoc Report on Naval Objectives, more commonly known as the Brock Report, presented a fifteen year plan to transform the RCN into a "Three-Ocean-Navy" able to effe tively operate in all three of Canada's oceans.

I keep brining up the undersea cables that US officials don't want to talk about, the secret ones, and Deb included an excellent example of what happens when one of those gets (accidentally) cut. They're much more important to the GUGI than known and charted telco cables.

RV Yantar isn't stealthy, it wouldn't make sense for them to be doing sabotage themselves. Even when they don't have AIS on, they can (and are) still be tracked by NATO. Every Russian Navy vessel is a "spy ship" when they need to be; in 9 yrs of operations they haven't been around any cable failures

P.S. one version of the 7-125 is already in service as the Chiayi-class of Taiwans CGA.

It's fairly standard in design, with some unique features and a big container fetish. I'm not all in on containerization, nor am I gonna to outright deny it. Is jumping the gun in it a bad thing? If they can make it work, why not? I am willing to hear people out on these things.

The 7-125 is again the largest combat vessel Vard has. There are versions that significantly cut down the armamant down to an OPV level, but I don't think that'd enough for me to call it that.

Vards classification system might be built on lies and wishes, but I do like this.

In fact, the vessel is big on containerization, not only featuring Cube integration in the mission bay but also space for further Cube modules midship, along with a dedicated 20t crane.

It absolutely gives off Vigilance vibes with all the containers, I'll say that much.

Vard also offers other potential options to be integrated as well, including the potential for both 25/30mm gun

Beyond that, the 7-125 features a flight deck rated for up to 13.3 tons, a dedicated hanger/workshop, and a modular mission bay with SH Cube integration.