FFCP Industry Engagement Event Presentation

On the same subject

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  November 10, 2017 | Local, Naval

  Submission of bids delayed again on Canadian Surface Combatant program

  The Canadian government and Irving Shipbuilding Inc. are extending the submission deadline for the request for proposals for the design of the Canadian Surface Combatant (CSC) fleet to November 30. The previous deadline had been Nov. 17. The Canadian Surface Combatant is the largest, most complex procurement undertaken by the government, according to Public Services and Procurement Canada. The ships being built will form the backbone of the Royal Canadian Navy. A winning bidder will be announced sometime in 2018 and the start of ship construction remains scheduled for the early 2020s, the government noted in a statement Friday. Bidding has been delayed a number of times now. At one point, construction of the vessels was supposed to start in 2018. http://ottawacitizen.com/news/national/defence-watch/submission-of-bids-delayed-again-on-canadian-surface-combatant-program

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  September 24, 2019 | Local, C4ISR, Security

  NORAD asked Canada to review cybersecurity around civilian infrastructure and army bases

  Three years ago the North American Aerospace Defence Command (Norad) charged the Canadian army with providing an inventory of all military bases and surrounding infrastructure. The Americans were looking to spot vulnerabilities in critical infrastructure that could be used in a potential cyber attack. The several-year-old request was detailed in a letter sent by former Norad Commander and U.S. Admiral William Gourtney to the Canadian Chief of Defence Staff, Jonathan Vance. In the letter Gourtney requested that Canada “identify and mitigate” potential areas of vulnerability on Canadian bases, specifically those “installations that are critical for accomplishing Norad missions.” The letter was delivered on March 24, 2016. Furthermore, it asked Vance to “advocate developing capabilities to respond to cyber incidents on CAF [infrastructure control systems] and defend CAF if required.” The request also expanded to identifying civilian infrastructure through cooperation with Public Safety Canada and “developing processes for reporting cyber incidents on the identified civilian infrastructure.” According to cyber expert, David Masson, vulnerability arises in “operational technology systems” that run tasks in critical infrastructure. Masson claims that these systems are extremely difficult to secure. “There's lots of them. Look at it as 50, 60, 70 different bespoke communications systems. There's no real standardization because they're so old. Many of them were never expected to be connected to the internet,” said Masson. Despite this, Masson claims that the systems can be reinforced and secured. https://www.thepostmillennial.com/norad-asked-canada-to-review-cybersecurity-around-civilian-infrastructure-and-army-bases/

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  June 15, 2018 | Local, Naval

  It's make or break time for Canadian Surface Combatant bidders

  DAVID PUGLIESE, OTTAWA CITIZEN The companies bidding on the Canadian Surface Combatant program will provide Irving Shipbuilding with their “cured” bids by July 21. Earlier this year, Postmedia reported that all three bidders in the competition failed to meet some of the federal government's requirements. The problems centre around technical issues. Some are minor but in other cases there is a view among defence industry officials that Canada is asking for too much in some areas such as radar, which may be causing problems with meeting requirements. Public Services and Procurement Canada spokeswoman Michèle LaRose earlier said the bids received for the Canadian Surface Combatant project have not been disqualified. Three bids have been received. The federal government and Irving Shipbuilding are still evaluating the proposals, she added. LaRose pointed out that the evaluation is at the second stage in the process. Government officials say that involves what is known as “the cure process” in which bidders will be given details of how their proposals have failed to meet the stated criteria. They will then be given only one opportunity to fix issues with their bids. So those fixes are to be submitted by July 21, according to industry representatives. If the bids are still considered “non-compliant” after the cure period they “will be eliminated from the competition,” according to the federal government. The budget for the Canadian Surface Combatant project is estimated by the federal government to be between $55 billion and $60 billion. That is a range but specific costs won't be known until contacts are signed and more details worked out. Fifteen warships will be built. Pat Finn, assistant deputy minister for materiel at the Department of National Defence, told Defence Watch he expects a winning bid to be selected by the end of this year. http://calgaryherald.com/news/national/defence-watch/it-is-make-or-break-time-for-canadian-surface-combatant-bidders/wcm/49777bbd-d1e9-44df-88f8-603850e12ae3