The Canadian Press has learned that one of the navy's four new submarines will sail into the waters off Baffin Island this summer as part of Operation Nanook, the first time a Canadian submarine has been used in such exercises. "I can confirm that we're going to have a sub in play," said Maj. Susan Gray of Canada Command in Ottawa.
HMCS Corner Brook, one of the four Victoria-class submarines purchased in 1998 from Great Britain, will take part in the 10-day exercises this August off the Baffin coast and into Hudson Strait and Ungava Bay. Although the final planning for the operation is not complete, the diesel-electric Corner Brook is not expected to venture under the Arctic ice, Gray said.
Arctic waters were considered strategically crucial during the Cold War. American submarines have been sailing the North since 1946 when USS Atule ventured into the area between Ellesmere Island and Greenland. USS Nautilus became the first submarine to reach the North Pole in 1958.
In 1960, USS Seadragon conducted the first submerged transit of the Northwest Passage - with a Canadian officer on board.
Russian submarines have also long been suspected of operating under the ice in waters Canada claims for its own.
Nanook, the latest in a series of Arctic military manoeuvres, is intended to assert Canadian sovereignty in the North as well as give soldiers, sailors, submariners and air crews practice operating in the Arctic environment. Last year's Operation Lancaster took a frigate into the eastern gate of the Northwest Passage - the furthest north the navy had been in a generation.
The navy will also contribute the frigate HMCS Halifax to Operation Nanook. Air Force assets will include Griffon helicopters as well as Aurora surveillance planes, CF-18s and Twin Otters.
A platoon of infantry - between 20 and 30 soldiers - will also be involved.
But it's the participation of the Corner Brook that sets Nanook apart.
"Sending a sub up to northern waters has significant ramifications for our ability to know what's going on," said Rob Huebert of the Centre for Military and Strategic Studies at the University of Calgary.
Basing and operating a sub in North Atlantic and Arctic waters keeps Canada privy to high-level NATO information-sharing between other nations who operate submarines, he said.
"The moment you start operating in those waters, what kicks in under NATO is you have to share that information with each other, so they don't go bumping into each other in the night."
In all, 40 countries around the world operate 400 subs. Countries such as China are undergoing ambitious sub-building programs.
And as climate change opens previously ice-locked Arctic seas, defence analysts point to the diplomatic advantages of the stealth and uncertainty that submarines create.
"The suspected presence of even a single boat can exert diplomatic, political or military influence in the furtherance of national goals and interests," writes Cmdr. Michael Craven in the most recent Canadian Military Journal.
"Examples in the Canadian context include ... the spring 1995 fisheries dispute with Spain."
The Corner Brook's participation in Nanook is likely designed to give Canadian submariners experience operating in near-ice conditions, said Huebert. Diesel-electric boats don't have the power to break through ice the way nuclear submarines do.
"No conventional-powered sub captain will go willingly under ice," Huebert said.
The boat will actually have to be wary of nearby ice.
"He's going to keep a healthy distance. Ice can travel fast."
Still, Huebert said, Operation Nanook will be a landmark in Arctic sovereignty.
"It's the first time we're actually going to send the subs up."
