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At the end of July 2020, the first Arctic and Offshore Patrol Ship (AOPS) – HMCS Harry DeWolf – was handed over to the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN). This was a great moment for several reasons. First, this is the first ship built for the navy through the National Shipbuilding […]
Procrustes, 11 August 2020. The recent confirmation that the Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) will conduct and deliver yet another report on the mounting costs of Ottawa’s preferred bid winner for the Canadian Surface Combatant (CSC) program in October 2020 could lead to a reversal of course on this slowly evolving […]
At the onset of the Cold War, it became clear that the Arctic was of strategic significance. So, for a brief period, the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) established a presence there. But this presence was sporadic and largely abandoned with the transfer of HMCS Labrador - the navy’s only icebreaker […]
RCN Media Release, 31 July 2020. The ultimate milestone in shipbuilding procurement is finally here, a first for the Royal Canadian Navy under the National Shipbuilding Strategy! The first Arctic and Offshore Patrol Ship, the HMCS Harry DeWolf was formally accepted and delivered to Canada on 31 July 2020. The […]
The Royal Canadian Navy’s (RCN) has 12 Halifax-class frigates, which are split between the East and West Coasts of the country. They were built in the 1990s and joined the fleet between 1992 and 1997. They are very flexible and versatile warships, and have become the workhorses of the navy. […]
Procrustes, 23 July 2020. Are cost overruns the norm in Canadian naval shipbuilding? If so, why? The Canadian warship procurement system is centrally oriented to keeping Canadian shipbuilders in business. Ottawa’s cost concerns and the navy’s scheduled delivery goals are only secondary considerations. The operating assumption is that, once construction […]
Dan Middlemiss, 19 July 2020. Will the Canadian Navy ride the robotic wave of the future? Maybe the future has already arrived. The United States Navy (USN) recently awarded a $35 million contract to L3 Technologies for a prototype Medium Unmanned Surface Vehicle (MUSV). This represents another milestone in what […]
The Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) is versatile – and will become even more so when the ships included in the National Shipbuilding Strategy (NSS) are complete. The fleet of submarines, frigates and coastal defence vessels can be adapted to various missions. The RCN trains for naval combat including high-intensity operations, […]
Procrustes, 15 July 2020. Is Ottawa going against an international cost-reduction trend in putting all its surface warship eggs in a one, large, expensive Canadian Surface Combatant (CSC) design basket? Herein lies the age-old quality versus quantity debate concerning naval fleets. In one sense, the impulse toward a capable, general-purpose […]
How do navies get fuel, ammo, food and spare parts when they’re at sea? Naval forces often have agreements with allied or friendly states that allow them to visit ports to buy fuel and supplies, but often there is no convenient state nearby. And in sparsely populated regions like the […]