By Moderator, 10 March 2026
There’s an interesting article by Rear-Admiral (Ret’d) Ian Mack, entitled “Lessons from Launching the National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy,” in Vanguard. Mack suggests that, given the money being poured into defence these days, it’s time for an NSS 2.0. But before that happens, we need to learn the lessons from the original National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy (NSPS) and make changes accordingly. Mack makes some suggestions, summarized here but read the full article to get the details. First, if there is urgency to this plan, then “[t]he right execution team leader with experience in complex projects plus an effective stakeholder liaison and management team would be essential. And this must be assembled now.” Second, communication and transparency have been lacking in NSS 1.0, and this should be rectified. As Mack says, “[t]ransparent regular reporting on projects within NSS 2.0 could educate and manage expectations, both of which were failures as NSPS was announced and implemented.” Third, NSS 2.0 needs to do better with governance of the program. Fourth, “NSPS insisted on shipyards as the potential prime contractors, whether they were the most capable or not. In NSS 2.0, more care should be taken in selecting the prime contractor candidates for various crewed and uncrewed vessel projects.” Fifth, the NSPS originally “underestimated the government workforce’s capabilities to implement NSPS and the shipyards’ ability to scale up their blue-collar and white-collar work forces,” so NSS 2.0 might want to consider “contracted-in expertise to augment the government team and a national HR program to help resolve Canadian industry maritime workforce issues.” Sixth, under NSS 1.0, shipyards needed time to upgrade, which would not be as big a factor in NSS 2.0. These upgrades caused delays, and Mack recommends that “[w]ith NSS 2.0, infrastructure-driven schedule delays should be minimized by prioritizing and phasing enhancements which would be paid for with government funding – this to maximize premiums to accelerate shipyard improvements. As well, performance improvement targets should be tracked but not contractually binding.” Seventh, media has focused on delays and cost overruns in NSS 1.0, and this negative attention could have been ameliorated with more accurate/realistic estimates and better communication. Eighth, politics and political interference should be kept to a minimum. Much tasty food for thought!
Read the article at https://vanguardcanada.com/lessons-from-launching-the-national-shipbuilding-procurement-strategy/
Image: The first Joint Support Ship, future HMCS Protecteur, is seen in construction behind the Offshore Oceanographic Science Vessel at Seaspan Vancouver Shipyards, 26 December 2023. Credit: Timothy Choi
