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 […]
JSS
42 posts
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 […]
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 AORs – HMCS Preserver and HMCS Protecteur – but both ships have now been retired. This meant that Canada had […]
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 of the RCN’s two, previously decommissioned, Auxiliary Oiler Replenishment (AOR) vessels. The award directly supports both a significant Strong Secure […]
27 November 2018. ABCO Industries of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, is building a 12 metre landing craft for each of the six AOPS -- a landing craft to provide a ship-to-shore connection. A Mexeflote powered raft (20X7m) is a ship-to-shore connector with a 60,000 kg payload. An AOPS has space for […]
A few days ago Davie Shipyard in Quebec invited the public and various governmental, defence/navy and industry representatives to its drydock. The event was the unveiling of MV Asterix which Davie is converting into an interim supply ship for the navy. Davie says that the ship will be delivered to […]
On 30 November 2015, the federal department Public Services and Procurement issued a statement (http://news.gc.ca/web/article-en.do?nid=1022609) that the government of Canada had "determined that proceeding with Project Resolve is the most viable course of action to provide the Navy’s at-sea oil replenishment capability..." Project Resolve is the conversion by Chantier Davie […]
Jack Granatstein, one of Canada's foremost historians, has written a significant op-ed for the Ottawa Citizen (“National interests collide in shipbuilding strategy,” 30 October 2013). In it he quite correctly argues for a realistic assessment of the additional costs of made in Canada solutions versus what might be cheaper foreign […]
If you haven’t yet had a chance to read the Parliamentary Budget Officer’s report “Feasibility of Budget for Acquisition of Two Joint Support Ships” I think it is worth a look. Here are a few of my observations on what is already a very talked about report. The process was […]
The latest revelation in the F-35 saga came last week when Lee Berthiaume reported that the military would be unable to refuel the new fighter while in flight using existing equipment. More stunning yet was the finding in the KPMG report that the government and the military intend to “rely […]