I want to share some of my schizo thoughts I 've had on the Canadian military while the thread is on the subject.
The Canadian navy has 12 main 'combat' ships ie frigates, but not all of them are operational. The crew is 225 sailors for a frigate; there are 8400 regular force personal in the navy, but like the frigates the amount who can actually go to sea is much lower.
One of the things the Canadian navy participates in are these freedom of movement exercises
where they sail through the Strait of Taiwan and are followed by PLA ships telling them to get lost. There is always a lot of talk about China invading Taiwan, western media and government are convinced its going to happen every two weeks. In my opinion I don't think it will ever happen. Or at least I don't think World War 3 will happen because of it. The global economy is just too integrated now for there to be a full out war between China and NATO without global economic collapse. There is no way for either side to defeat the other without WOMD, there is no way for there to be any winners.
War game scenario here. China finally decides it's going to make a move on Taiwan. They decide they are finally going to back up their claim on the Strait with military force and sink, from their perspective, one of these trespassing NATO ships. How do they decide which one to sink?
Say if they go and sink an American vessel, kill hundreds of American sailors, World War 3 will probably happen then. The American public won't stand for it.
So sink an Australian or Canadian ship then instead? But wait, NATO states any attack on a member nation is an attack on all. Yes, and when the Chinese sink a Canadian frigate, that NATO article is invoked and WW3 is declared.
But what's the American public think here? A lot of them will be outraged by the attack, but being honest here not as many and as much outrage for an attack on a Canadian vessel. But who cares what the public thinks, what about the US government? Well, seeing how cold their feet have been with troops on ground in the Ukraine, I'm not confident they would any more willing to sacrifice Americans in Taiwan. Would they be able to prop up Taiwanese nationalists? I actually don't know, but Taiwan being an island and not centered in Europe I don't feel like the same strategy would apply here.
In this scenario, I think a standoff occurs. There maybe some skirmishes in and around Taiwan. But ultimately a deal would be reached by China and the US, because ultimately Taiwan is just not worth the cost. China will keep the Strait from now on and the media figures out a way to make the US the "winner" in everyone's mind.
As for Canada, with one ship sunk and an entire crew wiped out it has lost just under 10% of it naval combat assets and just under 5% of its sailors, although these percentages are actually higher. Maybe someone could speak to this, but how motivated exactly are the Canadian military's members? Would they all be rushing on to the next dilapidated ship to avenge their comrades, or would everyone suddenly have injuries and not able to sail?