Possibility of Canada having an all nuclear navy?

Nuclear power is awesome for submarines, great for carriers and not much chop for anything else.
Icebreakers? They're about the only other type of ship I can think of, IIRC the Soviets and modern-day Russians have some.
 
Icebreakers? They're about the only other type of ship I can think of, IIRC the Soviets and modern-day Russians have some.

Its also my point of view, nuclear for arctic "niche" and maintain a standart support fleet where USA can intervene.
 

TFSmith121

Banned
Good points

And of course, there is always the ever popular "why?" question that comes up whenever these sort of "make X country have a bigger military" questions come up.

Canada is in a unique position; it's only neighbor, the US, is strong enough that challenging them would be suicide, but also strong enough to protect Canada from everyone else. This combination means Canada can effectively free-ride on American defense spending; spending less on defense and more on other things (like healthcare, education, infrastructure, tax cuts, etc.). Yes, Canada maintains a respectable military, but not one that would conceivably slug it out alone with a superpower. But at the same time, there is nothing inherently stopping Canada from being like Costa Rica and eliminating its military entirely.

So, we return to the question of: what would Canada have to give up to afford a nuclear navy, and why would they want to do so? Being able to rely on the American umbrella is great for Canada (less so for the US); let the US pay for any expensive nuclear warships they want.

Good points.

Best,
 
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