Canadian warship missile test aborted mid-flight after communication failure

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

The Harpoon Block II missile was lost at sea after it was fired from HMCS Regina during a joint Canada-U.S. exercise at the U.S. Navy’s Point Mugu Sea Range near San Diego.

Commander. Jeremy Samson, the frigate’s commanding officer, says the missile’s flight was aborted approximately 30 to 60 seconds after it was launched toward a surface target about 55 kilometers from the ship.

“Without going into too many technical details, there was a problem with the first missile,” Samson said in a telephone interview from the warship on Thursday.

“When a missile is fired at a range, safety procedures are in place to ensure the missile is doing what it is supposed to do, and losing that communication can result in the missile being ordered destroyed,” he added.

A Department of National Defense spokesperson says the precision-guided missile sank into the ocean within the 93,000-square-kilometer sea range and was not recoverable.

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

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

HMCS Regina followed the failed shot with a second attempt, which “hit its target and met established mission requirements,” the National Defense spokesperson said.

A Harpoon Block II missile fired from HMCS Regina during a joint Canada-U.S. exercise off California on October 23, 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 the first Canadian test of the surface-to-surface missile 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.

“While we’ve done it in the past, the targeting process needed to be a little more dynamic,” the commander said. Dave Mazur, commander of the Canadian Pacific Fleet, wrote in a post on X, referring to this week’s exercise.

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

The test-launched missiles carried sensor packages instead of warheads to allow controllers to collect data on the missile’s automated processes during flight.

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

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

The Canadian fleet’s 12 Halifax-class frigates can each carry up to eight Harpoon missiles.