The National Shipbuilding Strategy

If you cast your mind back, you may remember discussion 10 years ago about a policy to build new ships for the Canadian Coast Guard and the Royal Canadian Navy. In the 1990s and early 2000s, the fleets of the navy and coast guard received little attention. Ships got older and older and harder to maintain, and some ships were getting beyond the age that it made sense to keep repairing them. New ships were needed. The $33 billion National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy - now called the National Shipbuilding Strategy (NSS) - was announced in June 2010 as a plan to renew the fleets, provide long-term work for Canadian shipbuilders, and create employment. The strategy has three components: combat ships; non-combat ships; and small ships.

CCGS and Hfx class

In 2011 Halifax Shipyard (Irving Shipbuilding) was selected to build the combat ships, consisting of 6-8 Arctic Offshore Patrol Ships (AOPS) and 15 Canadian Surface Combatants. Vancouver Shipyards (Seaspan) was selected to build the non-combat ships. Since then, the shipyards have upgraded, contracts have been signed, and some ships have been built. If you want to find out about the National Shipbuilding Strategy, take a look at the Naval Association of Canada Briefing Note #6: https://www.navalassoc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/BN6-NSS.pdf

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