Canadian warship missile test canceled mid-flight due to communications failure

A Canadian navy missile test was canceled mid-flight this week after controllers lost communication with the missile off the coast of Southern California.

The Harpoon Block II missile was lost at sea after being fired from HMCS Regina during a joint Canada-US exercise at the US Navy’s Point Mugu naval field near San Diego.

Commander. The frigate’s commander, Jeremy Samson, said the missile’s flight was aborted about 30 to 60 seconds after it was launched toward a surface target about 55 kilometers away from the ship.

“Without going into too much technical detail, there was something wrong with the first missile,” Samson said in a telephone interview from the warship on Thursday.

“When you fire a missile from a distance, there are safety procedures to make sure the missile does what it’s supposed to do, and losing that communication could lead to you ordering the missile to destroy,” he added.

The spokesperson of the Ministry of National Defense said that the precision-guided missile fell into the ocean within a sea range of 93 thousand square kilometers and could not be recovered.

“Because safety is paramount during any military live-fire exercise, constant communication between the missile and the range facility is required,” a National Defense spokesperson said in an emailed statement. he said.

“These paths are checked and verified before the missile is launched. However, if communication is interrupted, even temporarily, for any reason after the launch, the range will terminate the missile’s flight.”

A National Defense spokesman said HMCS Regina followed up its unsuccessful launch with a second attempt, which “achieved its target and met the stated mission requirements”.

A Harpoon Block II missile is fired from HMCS Regina during a joint Canada-US exercise off the coast of California on 23 October 2024 (Royal Canadian Navy)

The Harpoon Block II missile, estimated to cost more than $2 million each, is not a new weapon for the Royal Canadian Navy.

Another Pacific fleet frigate, HMCS Vancouver, fired Canada’s first surface-to-surface missile test during the same California-based exercise in 2016.

The introduction of the Harpoon Block II missile, an updated version of the anti-ship missile carried by Canadian frigates for decades, gave warships the ability to attack targets both on land and at sea.

“Even though we have done these things in the past, the targeting process needed to be a little more dynamic,” the commander said. Canadian Pacific Fleet commander Dave Mazur referenced this week’s exercise in an article on X.

“The shot was similar to what might be seen in the Black Sea, requiring maneuvering on land to hit something moving close to land.”

The test-fired missiles carried sensor packages rather than warheads that allowed controllers to collect data about the missile’s automatic processes during flight.

“When the range loses this data, it is a critical step for them to order the missile to be destroyed in flight for safety reasons,” said Samson, the ship’s commander.

Despite the failure of the first missile, a National Defense spokesman described the exercise as a successful demonstration of “high-level military targeting processes,” including the ability to direct and direct long-range naval weapons against targets on or near land.

Each of the 12 Halifax-class frigates in the Canadian fleet can carry up to eight Harpoon missiles.