Minister of National Defence Harjit Sajjan received his Supplementary Mandate Letter from the Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on January 15, 2021, which is available in full here: Minister of National Defence Supplementary Mandate Letter | Prime Minister of Canada (pm.gc.ca) While much of the letter is generic and common to […]
Defence Procurement
David Dunlop, 10 January 2021 Let us take a quick look at CSC frigate costs as of early 2021 and compare them to say, buying off-the-shelf. The CSC cost figures according to the Public Budget Office (PBO) are approximately $70B CAD for all 15 CSC frigates; that much we know. […]
Dan Middlemiss, 25 December 2020. Murray Brewster reported on 23 December that an independent analysis reveals that the total life-cycle costs of the Canadian Surface Combatant (CSC) have risen to between $213 billion and over $219 billion [1]. The staggering sum reported by Alan Williams, a former senior defence official, […]
Dan Middlemiss, 16 December 2020. Here we go again! From his voluminous collection of interviews and Access To Information (ATI) documents, David Pugliese has just published two more articles questioning the scope and value of the proposed Industry and Technological Benefits (ITB) flowing from the CSC project [1]. There are […]
Dan Middlemiss, 10 December 2020. Today, journalist David Pugliese wrote another long exposé of the planning, or lack thereof, behind Ottawa’s Canadian Surface Combatant (CSC) [1]. His article, allegedly based on thousands of pages of documents obtained via access to information requests and other sources, depicts the concern of federal […]
David Dunlop, 02 December 2020. According to Leadmark 2050, “To meet defence and security challenges in the coming decades, Canada’s maritime forces will need to become better equipped for Maritime operations to maintain our sovereignty and conduct peace-support operations, including rendering humanitarian assistance and relieving distress from the sea.” Successive […]
Procrustes, 26 November 2020. Through Access To Information (ATI) documents, the Canadian Press reports that the Canadian Navy has planned for some time to rely upon Chantier-Davies’ converted civilian container ship MV Asterix even after Seaspan builds its two Joint Support Ships (JSS). [1] The original plan was for three […]
Procrustes, 22 November 2020. Following the Parliamentary Budget Office’s (PBO) release on 17 November of its cost analysis of the government’s Joint Support Ship (JSS) program, DND immediately issued a statement [1] basically saying the Department did not misjudge the cost of its planned JSS from Seaspan. This is depressing […]
Dan Middlemiss, 17 November 2020. Today, Canada’s Parliamentary Budget Officer released a detailed cost projection for the two supply ships for the Canadian Navy [1]. The PBO analysis compares the overall costs of procuring the ships from Seaspan under the National Shipbuilding Strategy (NSS), and the costs of procuring, and […]
RCN Public Affairs, 09 October 2020. After 45 years of dependable and steady service, the RCN’s GLEN class tugs will soon be replaced. Their replacement fleet has progressed from drawings and ideas into reality. On September 18, steel was cut for the Naval Large Tug Project, signaling the start of […]