A Gathering at the Island of Dr. No
Or, Russki sub meets Canadian warship, with other Reds lurking
The small Russian submarine flotilla that took part in drills off the Atlantic coast and docked in Havana harbour for five days has now departed, destination unknown. Unknown except to those who track Russian naval vessels for a living (hint—the US Defence Intelligence Agency, maybe CFINTCOM, maybe private sector satellite operators, maybe some kids in basements these days).
Docked in the same harbour was a Canadian warship. In another harbour on the island, famous as GITMO, a US nuclear sub tied up.
All these warships converging on the up-to-no-good island of Dr. No? (I know, Raoul Castro stepped down in 2021, but I like the image). What’s going on?
Canadian media had a field day wondering what a Canadian naval vessel was doing shadowing the Russian flotilla. Our defence minister, Bill Blair, could have been a little more straightforward about that. Instead we got a T-shirt, “presence is deterrence.”
But really, folks?
The RCN used to be rather good at monitoring adversary submarines: German in the case of World War Two and the Battle of the Atlantic; Soviet in the case of the Cold War. In one of its more controversial moments, Canadian naval and air force sub hunters were sortied to find Russian subs during the Cuban Missile Crisis, even in advance of any political decision from the Diefenbaker government, which tied itself in knots trying to disbelieve the seriousness of the situation. Not “the Chief’s” greatest moment.
No doubt sub-hunting is a continuing mission, bound to become more important as contemporary defence policy pivots to the Arctic.
What about those Russkis? The Russian flotilla consisted of a nuclear submarine, the “Kazan,” which is relatively new, a frigate, the “Gorshkov,” an oil tanker (for the frigate) and a rescue tug—presumably just in case.
One Ukrainian blogger suggested the crews of both the Russian sub and accompanying frigate sail over to Florida and defect—shades of The Hunt for Red October! It seems the Russian crews may not have seen the movie.
Sub watchers inspecting video of the Kazan in Havana harbour noted that it was missing many of the stealth tiles on its hull. Without those tiles the Kazan would have lit up on sonar. A field days for the boys and girls on HMCS Margaret Brooke?
HMCS Margaret Brooke was the Canadian naval vessel that shadowed the Russian flotilla into Havana harbour. It was operating far from its normal waters. The Margaret Brooke is one of the newly built “offshore patrol vessels,” designed principally for Arctic and Canadian coastal waters. It was only commissioned on October 2022.[1] The warship appears to have a talented crew in its complement of 65, including a trumpet player, caught on video leading a conga line during a diplomatic event organised by the Canadian embassy in Havana. Musicians, remember, make good sonar operators.
While the RCN was galavanting in Havana harbour, or maybe taking a few electronic sniffs of the Russian flotilla, it was joined by a lolly-gagging US nuclear attack submarine, the USS Helena, sent at the same time to make a visit to the US base at Guantanamo Bay. The Helena is a member of the Los Angeles class of nuclear submarines, described as the “backbone” of the US sub fleet. The US Navy has 41 of these boats.
Cuba objected to its presence.
Just another day in the long history of gunboat diplomacy, their’s and ours. The gunboats have changed, but the strategy has not. Shows of force, instruments of influence. It’s a game even Canada can play, despite the relatively small size of its navy.
Snuck into the story of the Russian and Canadian gunboat visits was a different angle—a passing mention of a Chinese spy base in Cuba. [2]
More to worry about on Dr. No’s island (check out the film, the PLA was everywhere!)
Though the history of Chinese involvement in Cuba remains shadowy, it would appear that the PRC demonstrated an early interest in inheriting or at least taking advantage of some of the Russian intelligence gathering sites on the island, built during the Cold War. At one point the Soviet signals intelligence facility at Lourdes, with its electronic ears pointed right at the US, was the largest outside the motherland. [3] By all (public) accounts, the Lourdes station could not be maintained by the Russians after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, and was downsized and ultimately closed after 2001.
Enter China (quietly).
The story of a Chinese spy base on Cuba stayed quiet for many years, but suddenly hit the headlines in June 2023, hard on the heels of the Chinese spy balloon incident earlier in the year. The Wall Street Journal led the way with a report on June 8, 2023, of a cash for spying deal between Cuba and China signed in 2019. Anonymous officials quoted by the WSJ indicated China had agreed to pay Cuba several billion dollars to build a new eavesdropping station on the island. [4] Other anonymous sources soon stepped forward to clarify that the China spy base was merely an upgrade of facilities long known to exist. To add a political twist, sources said President Biden had inherited the problem from President Trump. [5]
Whatever.
Cuba needs the cash. For China, a SIGINT station on Cuba (there may be as many as four) considerably extends the range of its global surveillance capabilities into the Western hemisphere and onto the US doorstep. It may also be regarded by Beijing as tit-for-tat for US support of an island off the coast of China—Taiwan.
Dr. No was one of Ian Fleming’s nutty megalomaniacs, using an island to take over the world (in real life, of course, only the British could do that). Cuba is but a cash-strapped pawn in a global game of eavesdropping, where the Chinese are trying to catch up to a decades-long US dominance. Russia, for its part, will links arms with whatever scattered ‘friends’ it might have.
Canada, we will sniff around. Maybe history will repeat itself. During World War Two, we had a naval intelligence listening station in Bermuda. We also had over 400 warships.[6]
Good dog?
[1] HMCS Margaret Brooke, news release, https://www.canada.ca/en/department-national-defence/news/2022/10/his-majestys-canadian-ship-margaret-brooke-commissioned-into-service.html
[2] Steven Chase, “Doubts cast on purpose of Cuba naval stop,” The Globe and Mail, Friday, June 21, 2024, https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-royal-canadian-navy-led-conga-lines-in-havana-as-part-of-deterrence/
[3] US intelligence kept a close eye on the Lourdes station. For a declassified, late 1970s intelligence report based on spy satellite imagery and analysis, see https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP80T01782R000100710001-8.pdf
[4] Wall Street Journal, “Cuba to Host Secret Chinese Spy Base Focusing on U.S.,” June 8, 2023, https://www.wsj.com/articles/cuba-to-host-secret-chinese-spy-base-focusing-on-u-s-b2fed0e0?page=1
[5] New York Times, “China has had a spy base in Cuba for years, U.S. official says,” June 10, 2023, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/10/us/politics/china-spy-base-cuba.html#:~:text=A%20Chinese%20spy%20base%20or,to%20a%20Biden%20administration%20official.
[6] https://www.veterans.gc.ca/en/remembrance/people-and-stories/royal-canadian-navy/sww
Why would the Chinese need a spy base in Cuba? They have one right here in Canada :)
Thanks for this clarification of the likely motives. Deterrence and friend raising. Much more plausible than the speculative nonsense in the press.