By Dr. Ann Griffiths, 27 July 2022
It’s been said before -- and it’ll be said again -- that the National Shipbuilding Strategy is not going well. There have been endless delays and massive cost increases. There was hope that once things got started, construction of the ships would proceed quickly. But the delays continue and the costs increase. What is the solution? That’s the $64,000 question. There’s a good discussion of the NSS in the July issue of Frontline Defence. It’s called “The National Shipbuilding Shambles” by Andrew Kendrick. In the final section of the article, Kendrick states “At the end of the day, we need to decide what level of premium we are prepared to pay for build-in-Canada solutions – 100%, 125%? I don’t believe that 300-500% is either reasonable or sustainable – nor is it responsible.” Check it out at https://defence.frontline.online/article/2022/1/19348-The-National-Shipbuilding-Shambles
3 thoughts on “Another Critique of the NSS”
The evidence is accumulating that the NSS is not achieving its primary objectives of providing ships on time and within budget, and it is equally clear that the government is unwilling to provide even the barest scraps of information about what is – and is not – happening under the NSS.
The question is, what can be done about this discouraging state of affairs? Will we chance upon governments which take defence seriously? Will any government admit that the current processes are not working, and then be willing to change direction?
Or, is Canada simply stuck with a strategy that is not delivering the goods? What will be the end result? Cancellation or sharp curtailing of projects? Drastically reduced capabilities? A navy that is reduced to irrelevance?
It is difficult to be optimistic in these circumstances.
Hello Dan. I hate to say you are correct, but….you are absolutely correct! Although I think you have taken a more pessimistic view of the status of the NSS, and things do look dire for sure, but something different has to be done….and soon! I would like to give this government the benifit of the doubt, and look at the glass as “half-full” but it’s very hard with delays, after delays, after delays. 10 years to get our first CSC in the water from now is not performance at all!
Either the NSS is too complex for the political class to understand, and/or there is a sufficiently strong political constituency in place that ensures that the Strategy will keep plodding along. Who forms that constituency? Elements of the RCN who dread the prospect of starting over? What about elected representatives at the municipal, provincial, and federal level who see the disbursement of public funds as the primary motivator? What about Irving, who can hardly be faulted for seeing this as a >25-year revenue stream.