Canadian HMCS William Hall finishes Operation Nanook with Allies to reinforce Arctic sovereignty.

HMCS William Hall has returned to Halifax after completing a 46-day, 8,497-nautical-mile Arctic deployment through the Northwest Passage. The patrol marks Canada’s growing ability to maintain sovereignty and respond to emerging challenges in the increasingly accessible Arctic.

According to information published by the Royal Canadian Navy on October 7, 2025, HMCS William Hall has returned to Halifax after sailing 8,497 nautical miles through Canada’s Eastern Arctic and completing a full Northwest Passage transit during Operation Nanook Tuugaalik. The Harry DeWolf class Arctic and Offshore Patrol Ship spent 46 days at sea, working with the Canadian Army, RCMP, Canadian Coast Guard and allied navies while conducting sovereignty patrols and community engagement across Nunavut. The ship’s organic armament centers on a stabilized 25 mm Mk 38 remote weapon system backed by machine guns, but its real advantage lies in the sensors, boats, cargo capacity and aviation facilities that turn a polar-capable patrol hull into a versatile presence and response platform for the North.
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HMCS William Hall, a Harry DeWolf-class Arctic and Offshore Patrol Ship, combines ice-strengthened endurance, advanced sensors, and helicopter support to project Canadian sovereignty and sustain long-range operations across the Arctic and North Atlantic (Picture source: Canadian Navy).

Built for sustained operations in first-year ice, the 103.6-meter vessel displaces roughly 6,600 tons and is rated Polar Class 5, enabling continuous progress at about three knots in one-meter ice while retaining 17-knot speed in open water. A diesel-electric plant with four MAN generators drives twin electric motors on shafts, a configuration chosen for efficiency, redundancy and low-speed control around ice. The design integrates retractable fin stabilizers for blue-water transits, a bow thruster for maneuvering in austere Arctic harbors, and ice reinforcement forward to Polar Class 4 standards. These fundamentals give the Royal Canadian Navy the endurance and seakeeping to remain on station far from support while preserving hull integrity in brash and young ice conditions.

Sensors and mission systems reflect the ship’s constabulary and domain awareness mandate. Terma’s SCANTER 6002 provides long-range surface surveillance in harsh weather, paired with Kelvin Hughes SharpEye X and S-band navigation radars and a modern IFF suite. Navigation is anchored by the BlueNaute inertial system, while CMS 330 ties the picture together for small-boat control, embarked boarding teams and cooperative operations with Coast Guard or RCMP partners. The aviation complex includes a large flight deck and hangar sized for the CH-148 Cyclone, extending radar and EO/IR reach and enabling vertical replenishment or casualty evacuation when runways are nonexistent. Together with two RHIBs and a 12-meter multi-role workboat, the ship can push sensors and boarding parties well beyond its own horizon to police fisheries, escort high-value assets, or respond to SAR.

William Hall's configurable mission bay accepts ISO containers for hydrographic gear, dive systems, UAV workshops or disaster-relief stores, while a vehicle bay can embark pickup trucks, snowmobiles and all-terrain vehicles to project capability ashore on ice or gravel. A 20-tonne crane and additional stores cranes allow self-loading in remote communities, and generous fuel and freshwater reserves translate into weeks of independent presence. These traits made the ship an obvious choice for this year’s Nanook deployment, which mixed maritime exercises with allied partners, support to joint force training and extensive community outreach at Coral Harbour and Rankin Inlet.

The AOPS is a sovereignty asset first and a warship second, but it meaningfully closes gaps in the North. The stabilized 25 mm mount and .50-caliber weapons deter and interdict non-state threats from smuggling to illegal fishing, while the ship’s boats, embarked helicopter and sensors enable precise localization, approach and compliant boarding in sea states and temperatures that ground smaller patrol craft. Diesel-electric propulsion and abundant hotel power support persistent radar, communications and UAV operations for maritime domain awareness. Recent deployments, including a summer counter-narco mission that seized more than 1.5 metric tons of cocaine, demonstrate the class’s utility when shifted to Atlantic or Caribbean contingencies between Arctic seasons, maximizing fleet availability without demanding a high-end escort for constabulary work.

William Hall’s return underscores how Canada is operationalizing Arctic policy amid accelerating great-power competition, more accessible sea lanes and higher commercial traffic. Nanook Tuugaalik is no longer a symbolic flag-showing sail. It is a multinational, whole-of-government rehearsal for surveillance, emergency response and cooperative security along a waterway where allied submarines, Russian ice-capable patrol ships and global shipping interests will increasingly intersect. As Commander Scott Kelemen noted, the operational experience accrued “will assist with future operations in the North,” a statement that reads as both a lessons-learned pledge and a signal that the AOPS fleet is now Canada’s routine instrument for persistent Arctic presence.