HMCS Okanagan

HMCS ''Okanagan'' (S74) was an that served in the Canadian Forces (CF). She entered service in 1968 and spent the majority of her career on the east coast. The ship was paid off in 1998 and sold for scrap in 2011.

Design

The ''Oberon'' class were considered an improved version of the preceding ''Porpoise''-class submarines, with a different frame of the pressure hullCocker, p. 108 and constructed from a better grade of steel.Brown, p. 285Gardiner and Chumbley, p. 530 These build differences allowed the ''Oberon''s to have a deeper diving depth at roughly .

The submarines displaced surfaced and submerged. They measured long with a beam of and a draught of .Gardiner and Chumbley state that the dimensions were between perpendiculars, long overall with a beam of and a draught of

The boats were powered by a two shaft diesel-electric system. The ''Oberon''s were equipped with two ASR 1 16-cylinder diesel engines creating and two English Electric motors creating . This gave the submarines a maximum surface speed of and a submerged speed of . The boats carried 258 tons of oil giving them a range of at 12 knots.Gardiner and Chumbley, p. 529

The design was armed with eight 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes, six in the bow and two in the stern. They carried 24 reloads for a total of 30 torpedoes. Canadian boats differed from the original design by being equipped for the US Mark 37C torpedo.Gardiner and Chumbley, p. 48 The longer, wire-guided Mod 2 version was carried in the forward tubes and the non-guided Mod 0 for the rear tubes.

The ''Oberon''s were equipped with Type 187 active-passive sonar, Type 2007 passive sonar and Type 2019 sonar.

Submarine Operational Update Program (SOUP)

By the late 1970s, the ''Oberon''s in Canadian service had become obsolete and were in need of an update. Planning was done in 1978 and the program approved in February 1979.Ferguson, p. 298 In an effort to take the subs from anti-submarine warfare training to frontline service, Maritime Command developed a refit program that included new sonars, periscopes, communications and fire-control systems. They also had their armament upgraded with the fitting of torpedo tubes capable of firing the Mark 48 torpedo. This would allow the submarines to be deployed by NATO in the North Atlantic to monitor Soviet submarines.

The SOUP refits comprised a new US fire control system, a digital Singer Librascope Mark I, and new Sperry passive ranging sonar with the Type 719 short range sonar removed. The new sonar was placed in the upper casing on the pressure hull. New communications and navigational systems were installed. The submarines were fitted with new torpedo tubes for Mark 48 torpedoes, however the torpedoes themselves were considered a separate procurement program, which was only finalized in 1985.

Between 1980 and 1986, one of the Canadian ''Oberon''s was out of service undergoing the refit. SOUP came in on time and on its budget of C$45 million in 1986. SOUP kept the Canadian ''Oberon''s operational until the end of the 1990s when they were replaced by the British s.

Acquisition

In March 1962, the Cabinet recommended the purchase of three ''Oberon''s and eight frigates, on the condition that the cost of acquiring the submarines from the United Kingdom would be offset by British defence purchases in Canada. On 11 April 1962, the purchase was announced in the House of Commons of Canada by the Minister of National Defence, Douglas Harkness.

However, the Conservative government postponed the acquisition of the ''Oberon''s due to the slow speed of the United Kingdom's attempt to offset the acquisition. The Conservative government was defeated in 1963 and the incoming Liberal government suspended all major defence procurement projects upon taking power. The final price of C$40 million for the entire contract was agreed upon in 1963.Ferguson, p. 260 However, due to Canadian modifications to the design, that number climbed to C$51.4 million.

Since ''Onyx'' was already under construction, the boat was finished to Royal Navy specifications. All three boats received modifications to the original ''Oberon'' design, which included the enlargement of the snort de-icer, a different weapons fit, a larger air conditioning unit, active sonar and different communications equipment. The second and third hulls were built to Canadian specifications, which moved the galley forward of the control room to make room for the sonar equipment. This led to the removal of three crew bunks, a problem that was never rectified in the submarines and led to an accommodation issue for the crew. The three submarines were acquired for service as "clockwork mice", submarines used to train surface vessels in anti-submarine warfare.Macpherson and Barrie, p. 268

Construction and career

The submarine, built at Chatham Dockyard in England, was laid down on 25 March 1965, and launched on 17 September 1966 by Monique Cadieux, the wife of the Associate Minister of Canadian National Defence.Moore, p. 63 She was commissioned on 22 June 1968 at Chatham. She was also the final submarine constructed at Chatham Dockyard. The submarine was named after the Okanagan First Nations people, and was assigned the pennant number S 74.

''Okanagan'' was assigned to the First Canadian Submarine Squadron, joined by her sister boats and served her entire career with Maritime Forces Atlantic (MARLANT) in the North Atlantic.Ferguson, pp. 265 ''Okanagan'' spent time training with the Royal Navy after an exchange program was instituted in the 1960s that would see submarines from both the Royal Navy and Royal Canadian Navy spend time with each other's forces. This allowed Canadian submarines on intelligence-gathering missions. Beginning in the 1970s, Canada began underwater surveillance patrols in the western Atlantic, tracking Soviet sub and surface fleet vessels, especially the ballistic missile submarines, usually in concert with an Argus or Aurora patrol aircraft.

In July 1973, ''Okanagan'' collided with the Royal Fleet Auxiliary vessel while exercising in British waters off the coast of Scotland. The submarine was running submerged off the mouth of the River Clyde when the tanker hit ''Okanagan''. There were no injuries to the submarine's complement. However, the submarine suffered damaged to her fin and mast. The submarine returned to Faslane to effect repairs.

On 30 June 1983, ''Okanagan'' was deployed on a 19-day anti-Soviet submarine patrol. ''Okanagan'' underwent her SOUP refit beginning in 1984, being handed over to HMC Dockyard at Halifax, Nova Scotia on 2 April. The refit began on 12 June 1985 and lasted until 7 April 1986. Following the SOUP refit and the introduction of the Mark 48 torpedoes, the ''Oberon''s were considered fully operational and counted the same as other offensive fleet units in Maritime Command (MARCOM).

In October–November 1990, ''Okanagan'' cruised the Great Lakes, the first Canadian submarine to do so. Following the end of the Cold War, the ''Oberon''s were retasked, performing patrols on behalf of federal institutions such as the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and the Solicitor General of Canada between 1991 and 1994. The delay of the introduction of the ''Victoria''-class submarines led to the ''Oberon''s working past their life expectancy. During the Turbot War, the ''Oberon''s were tasked with monitoring European fishing fleets off the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. Their presence served as a deterrent in the escalating crisis.

In early September 1998, ''Okanagan'' was used to search the ocean floor for the flight recorders of the crashed Swissair Flight 111 off the coast of Nova Scotia. She was paid off from MARCOM on 12 September 1998.

In May 2005, the ''Halifax Chronicle-Herald'' announced that MARCOM was looking to sell ''Okanagan'' for scrap metal, along with three other Canadian ''Oberon''s laid up at CFB Halifax. MARCOM stated that the submarines were not in suitable condition to be used as museum ships and predicted that each submarine would sell for between C$50,000 and C$60,000. ''Okanagan'' was towed to a scrapyard in Port Maitland, Ontario in August 2011.

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Okanagan (S74)
Oberon-class submarines of Canada
Ships built in Chatham
1966 ships