Hah! The moment we have been waiting for! The fools, lowering their defences just as we make ready our strike! All wombat strike teams to your ships! Operation Zulu is about to commence!
(in related news, Russian heroin and chinese counterfit good prices are about to drop through the floor.)
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/International/2010/05/14/Canada-to-mothball-half-of-coastal-fleet/UPI-96061273879323/
Canada to mothball half of coastal fleet
OTTAWA, May 14 (UPI) -- Canada's navy says money problems have forced it to mothball half its fleet of vessels used to patrol the country's Arctic, Atlantic and Pacific coasts.
The navy said it would leave several of the ships at dock in Halifax, Nova Scotia and at Esquimalt, British Columbia, and strip them of their crews because it lacks the funding to operate them all, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported Friday.
"Upon close examination of resources and priorities, this was deemed necessary to safeguard and optimize our operational capability, both now and in the future," navy spokeswoman Denise LaViolette said.
The navy would continue to modernize its other ships and refit its submarines with "stable and predictable" funding from the federal government, LaViolette said.
The decision about the coast patrol vessels would leave three of the 12-ship fleet on each coast. The others would not be scrapped, the navy said, but put in long-term storage. When asked about potential invasion from militaristic Washingtonians in heavily armed rowboats, LaViolette was dismissive of their chances, claiming that the mighty Canadian Beaver would take up the slack in coastal defense.
"Never mess with the Dam Beavers.", LaViolette said.
How much funding it would take to keep the whole fleet active or how much would be saved by the reduction was not announced by the navy, the CBC reported.