HMCS Corner Brook
Canadian Submarine HMCS Corner Brook ran aground during manoeuvres off Vancouver Island in June 2011. Two sailors were slightly injured. The Canadian navy never described the extent of the damage or released a photograph of the damage to the sub. The sub has now just been drydocked for repairs. Canadian Senator Colin Kenny, the former head of the Senate defence committee, commented that “I was gobsmacked. I had no idea that this level of damage had occurred,” describing the damage to the sub as “horrific.”
Rear-Admiral Mark Norman, deputy commander of the Royal Canadian Navy, said that the damage is not as bad as it looks. “When you’re looking at your damaged car in the intersection, and you can drive it home, you don’t really know how badly damaged it is,” Norman said. “It is similar to a fender bender, yes. It just happens to be a very expensive piece of equipment.”
CBC News quotes unnamed sources “familiar with the submarine” who suggest that the pressure hull has been damaged and is beyond repair, while Canadian Defence Minister Peter MacKay is quoted as saying, “I am able to confirm it is in fact the HMCS Corner Brook, the picture does represent the damage to what is known as the fibreglass sonar dome, which covers the sonar array of equipment aboard the HMCS Corner Brook. Now, it has not affected the external hub or the pressure hull if you will, of the submarine itself, and so the watertight integrity of the submarine remains intact.”
Is the damage “a fender bender,” or is the submarine “totalled?” Only time will tell.
The Canadian submarine fleet has had a rough time in recent years. Canada purchased four used British Victoria class subs more than a decade ago and so far, has spent an estimated $3 billion on the fleet. Currently, none of the four subs is in service.
Ron Devion writing for the Times Colonist notes:
Enough embarrassment already. It is well past time for the navy brain-trust to accept the fact the Brits conned Canada into purchasing four submarines well past their “best-before” date. Since 1998, our jinxed fleet has spent more time on land than in water.
In 2005, and American sub, USS San Francisco (SSN 711) hit a seamount while traveling submerged at flank speed and killed a sailor. The collision wiped out most of the entire sonar system forward and heavily damaged the forward pressure bulkhead of the sub, but she managed to make it back to Guam for temporary repairs and then make it back to Puget Sound for more extensive repairs, and was eventually returned to service.
I’d be amazed it this sub was “totaled” and it appears that the grounding was relatively mild and the damage was apparently limited to the sonar dome. Expensive to fix, but not a “total”….
It will be interesting to see. No one really knows what happened to the Corner Brook. I suspect that you are right. It will probably just be another expensive repair.
I worked at Newport News Shipbuilding for a while, and those sonar domes are incredibly expensive to make, and even a crack repair can cost an amazing amount of money. If any of the sonar equipment that is housed underneath that dome was damaged, depending on what got bent, can be even more expensive to repair.
Sub maintenance and repair is expensive because so much is on the line with every component once you submerge. Actually, its not the submerging part that’s difficult, its the coming back up again that often gets tricky…..
They were ‘Upholder’ class submarines and virtually new when sold. A submarine fleet is extremely expensive to run in terms not only of hardware but training the men. I think it is in this respect that the Navy brass has made mistakes.
Si.P
Pingback: Canada aan de bedelstaf door oude subs | Bootjesgek.nl