The Canada Surface Combatant (CSC) has been garnering attention of late. For an interesting slant on the implications of CSC schedule delays for Canada’s current fleet of Halifax-class frigates, see the analysis by Stewart Webb and Chris Murray, “Canada’s hidden plan for predicted failure: Planning for the introduction of the Canadian Surface Combatant” (CGAI, January 2016) here.
For a thorough, and possibly more reassuring, assessment of the CSC in the context of the National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy (NSPS), see Eric Lerhe, “Sailing into the Future” (Policy Options December 2015) here.
Dr. David Perry provides a careful update of major defence procurement projects, including a sobering caution about a 2-year slippage for the CSC in “2015 Status Report on Major Defence Equipment Procurements” (CGAI, December 2015), here.
FrontLine Defence magazine has been running a series of interesting articles reporting on the different contenders for Canada’s CSC, along with some speculation about the internal government-industry and industry-industry politics raised by this project. And FrontLine is planning more articles in the coming year. For the online magazine, see here.
Finally, it is worth noting that the Department of National Defence (DND) has already launched an internal assurance assessment audit (due to conclude in 2016) of the CSC. See the notification here.
Much food for thought.
