Today, His Majesty's Canadian Ship (HMCS) Ville de Québec completed the forward rearmament of Block II Harpoon Missiles while participating in Exercise TALISMAN SABRE 25 in Australia. The rearmament, conducted at the port of Darwin, Australia, was a joint Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) and Australian Defence Force effort, demonstrating the continued military interoperability between Canada and Australia.
This rearmament follows the forward rearmament of HMCS Vancouver in the port of Broome, Australia, in 2024, which was the first of its kind for a Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) ship outside of North America. The 2025 rearmament builds on important lessons learned from the inaugural iteration in 2024 and further develops an important logistical capability that ensures the CAF can be agile when deploying RCN ships to the Indo-Pacific region.
The rearmament took place ahead of, and immediately after, a live-fire missile shoot of a Block II Harpoon Missile during Exercise TALISMAN SABRE, where the missile engaged a ground-based target.