Unless the RCN wants to rely on friends and allies, Canada needs support ships/Auxiliary Oiler Replenishment (AOR) ships when RCN ships deploy. Until about five years ago, Canada had two […]
David Dunlop, 25 October 2020. Apparently the British have decided to use a Direct Energy Weapon (DEW) laser system on the Type 26 frigate starting in 2023 (see below). Will […]
In case you haven’t been paying attention, Canada is building new ships for the navy. We hear about design, capabilities, timetables, numbers and especially costs. But we don’t hear a […]
You might want to check out an interesting article in Maritime Engineering Journal (Volume 93, Summer 2020), “The Canadian Surface Combatant – Starting a New Conversation on Canada’s Major Warship […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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. […]
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 […]
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? […]
Procrustes, 05 July 2020. There has been a longstanding debate in Canada about the extra costs (i.e., the ‘domestic premium’) for building warships in Canada. Certainly the best exponent of […]
It is usually a long process to procure new warships for the Royal Canadian Navy. Warships are both complex and expensive, so there are legitimate concerns about efficient use of […]
On June 10, the Joint Support Ship (JSS) Build Contract was awarded to Seaspan’s Vancouver Shipyards Ltd. (VSY). This $2.4-billion contract will undertake the full construction phase for the replacement […]
The National Shipbuilding (Procurement) Strategy (NSS) to build ships for the Royal Canadian Navy and the Canadian Coast Guard was announced in 2010. That’s 10 years ago. So where are […]
Procrustes, 08 June 2020. This is further to my earlier post about NSS contracts. An early unpublished, but apparently widely circulated, 2015 Price Waterhouse Cooper study concluded that these types […]
Procrustes, 08 June 2020. Shipbuilding contracts generally tend to be shrouded in mystery, and normally stir few passions. However, Canadians deserve slightly more information than they are receiving about the […]
Procrustes, 30 May 2020. Here is a brief background of the Alion complaint. Alion was one of the 12 pre-qualified Canadian Surface Combatant (CSC) bidders, and one of the three […]
Trevor Wekel, 30 May 2020. As a proud Canadian, I am saddened by the state of our Canadian Navy and Canadian Coast Guard. Years of neglect have led to difficult […]
If you don’t live near an ocean – and most Canadians don’t – you could live your whole life without ever seeing a warship. So why, you may ask yourself, […]
There has been much talk over the years about problems in the process of procuring military assets. Procuring ships for the navy, in particular, receives attention because of the size […]
