CNR, Vol. 11, No. 2 (2015) Abstract - Winner of the 2015 CNMT Essay Competition The winning essay in the 2015 CNR essay competition focused on the AOPS, and the implications of a budget being eroded as time passes. In his essay, “Arctic Offshore Patrol Ships: Adrift in Inflationary Waters,” […]
Arctic and Offshore Patrol Ships
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[* Moderator’s note: This is a revised and expanded version of the same article published yesterday, 8 March.] Steel will be cut in a few months for the first of the Harry DeWolf-class Arctic and Offshore Patrol Ships (AOPS). The official date of the cutting will be an opportunity for […]
[*This article appeared originally in the February 2013 issue of Marine Matters. It is reprinted here with the permission of the publisher.] It is an odd thing about Canada that, although the number of people who have lived, worked or travelled in the arctic region is probably below ten percent […]
A very brief and terse news article from CBC News has revealed that President Steve Durrell has left Irving Shipbuilding. This development is prompting great speculation about the internal stresses within the company and Durrell’s role in all of it. The company spokesperson declined to comment on the reason for […]
In my last post on this subject I wondered what the effects of an economic downturn or outright recession would have on the National Shipbuilding and Procurement Strategy (NSPS). We are now starting to see the results of that process: the Arctic and Offshore Patrol Ships (AOPS) have been delayed […]
Lee Berthiaume’s Postmedia News article on 8 May, entitled “Armed Arctic vessels face delay in latest procurement setback,” reports a further three-year delay in procurement of these ships. If true – the NDHQ procurement website continues to quote an in-service date of 2016 for the first ship - that is […]
The problem with the ships Senator Kenny wants 'axed' is that they are not just ice-capable ships: they are a hybrid design for both arctic and offshore patrol work. Arctic operations require high endurance: lots of capacity for supplies plus hauling all waste by-products out again. Fuel is an especially […]
Senator Colin Kenny’s remarks this week (as reported by Murray Brewster in the Toronto Star, “Tory Arctic ship plan should be sunk, replaced with real icebreakers: senator,” and Paul MacLeod in the Herald News, “Arctic patrol ships ‘dumb’,”) has raised a lot of interest in what capabilities are envisioned for […]
The Foreign Affairs Committee (FAC) of the British parliament has published its tenth report, entitled “Piracy off the coast of Somalia.” You can read the report here. The report notes that, while the establishment of the safety transit corridor has made the Gulf of Aden reasonably safe, their concentration of effort […]
Moderator’s Note: This article was original published in The Chronicle Herald on 12 February 2012. Many of you who have followed the National Ship Procurement Strategy (NSPS) announcements will no doubt have heard that the first contract to be negotiated will be for a new class of ship, the Arctic/Offshore […]