[Canadian Army]

Originally Posted by helbent4

CA,

It's not only the Soviets that would seek to mine the St. Lawrence seaway (probably using sub-laid "bottom" mines which are hard to detect and sweep). Those mines could and if at all possible be cleared at some point and it would be difficult for the Soviets to repeat this operation. They might well lay a nuclear mine, however, to decide the issue once and for all! (Nuclear mines were developed but apparently never deployed, at least in our timeline.)

Once the French decide to intervene in Quebec, whatever minelaying capability remained would be deployed to close the St. Lawrence again and any other Quebec ports. Even with regular minesweeping by the French it's hard to see how any aid could regularly reach the separatists, and indeed in AD2300 Quebec is no longer a separate nation. (In fact, it makes a kind of realpolitik sense that the French would actually want to broker a settlement to create a stable state in Canada (in counterpoint to a politically chaotic and hostile USA) rather than support an untenable independent Quebec state).

As for Leg's point about other sea lane choke points and the possibility of bypassing dangerous areas, the ocean is indeed a large place and some dangerous areas can be avoided by taking alternate routes. Traffic passes through choke points like the Straights of Malacca primarily due to economics: it's simply the most efficient route and it would cost too much to go around. Also, these areas are thoroughly mapped with respects to tides and hazards, and are therefore safe and easy to navigate. More than one nation and faction would have reason to close off sea lanes in strategic areas, likewise others would seek to keep them open. It's debatable which would prevail in what area but probably all sea lanes and especially maritime choke points are still significantly more dangerous during and after the Twilight War.

In the aftermath of the Twilight War, I think established sea lanes (even those that are hazardous) would be used for two reasons: fuel is so expensive that ships will still have to take the most efficient route, and without electronic navigational aids (like GPS, LORAN-C/CHAYKA, etc.) navigation is going to become much more difficult. Navigation won't be impossible in most places, but in close waters like off Malaysia/Singapore treading off the beaten path is asking for trouble that ships can't afford.

Tony

I did not mean the soviets laying mines, I meant Maritime Command, aka the Royal Canadian Navy. They would do this as precaution to prevent soviet subs from penetrating the St. Lawrence seaway, just like in the Battle of the St. Lawrence. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_St._Lawrence