Government of Canada announces call to launch intellectual property collective

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  May 18, 2018 | Local, Naval

  Feds OK early start to construction of navy's new supply ships

  OTTAWA — The federal government has approved plans to start some work on the navy's new support ships in the coming months in a bid to keep delivery of the much-needed vessels from slipping farther behind schedule. Seaspan Shipyards is expected to begin cutting steel on some parts of the two vessels in Vancouver this summer during a lull in the construction of two science vessels for the Canadian Coast Guard, several sources told The Canadian Press. The science vessels will still be delivered first, but officials are hoping that the head start will result in the first Protecteur-class joint support ship, as the naval vessels are officially known, being delivered 2022. That would be a year earlier than the Department of National Defence's current estimate for the ship's completion, which was recently revealed in an annual report tabled in Parliament. Construction on the first vessel was supposed to start in 2016, with delivery slated for 2019, but the project has been plagued by delays and the government says its $2.3-billion budget is under review. The navy has been without a permanent support ship since 2015, when it was forced to retire its existing vessels due to an unexpected fire and corrosion issues, though it is leasing a temporary replacement, the MV Asterix. The Asterix is at the heart of the criminal case against Vice-Admiral Mark Norman, who has been charged with breach of trust for alleging leaking government secrets about the project to a Quebec shipyard in 2015. Norman has denied any wrongdoing and vowed to fight the charges in court. An official announcement about the plan to start work on the support ships, which are considered essential for supporting a modern navy on international operations, was expected this week but has been delayed. Seaspan, which is responsible for building the two support vessels as well as four science ships and a polar icebreaker for the coast guard, initially pitched the plan in a bid to prevent layoffs between construction of the science ships. National Defence publicly backed the proposal last month as a way to save time and it was touted in the department's annual report to Parliament, which was written before the federal government signed off on the plan. “Current discussions underway between Canada and the shipyard could also result in schedule compression opportunities being exploited,” the report reads, “including the potential to commence the early construction of some JSS components.” Yet the report also confirmed what many have feared: The project continues to experience delays. The department predicted last year that the first ship would be delivered in 2021; the new report says it will be delivered in 2023, though officials hope that the advance work will cut that time to 2022. The cause of the delays has been sharply contested by the government, National Defence, Seaspan and other industry players, with fingers pointed in all directions. Defence analyst David Perry of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute said while starting work soon on the support ships has merit, the ongoing delays point to much wider issues with regards to how the entire national shipbuilding plan is unfolding. “These mitigations keep talking about making something less late than it otherwise would be, not delivering them earlier than planned,” he said. “It's not really clear, but at a minimum, the Crown hasn't really demonstrated that they've reached any kind of stability in terms of the schedule.” http://thestarphoenix.com/pmn/news-pmn/canada-news-pmn/feds-ok-early-start-to-construction-of-navys-new-supply-ships-sources/wcm/cdc8e162-7d54-4493-90c2-6d883a7b03dd

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  February 23, 2021 | Local, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security

  EDC overview of the changes to U.S. government procurement

  This EDC report offers an overview of the changes to U.S. government procurement and implications for Canadian companies.

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  December 7, 2018 | Local, Aerospace

  Senate committee outlines recommendations for Canadian SAR

  by Ken Pole As the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) gears up for the late 2019 arrival of the first of 16 new Airbus CC-295 fixed-wing search and rescue (FWSAR) aircraft, a Senate committee said the government should consider the deployment of even more search and rescue (SAR) aircraft. “This would be a multi-year, mega-government dollar capital procurement project,” the Standing Senate Committee on Fisheries and Oceans acknowledged in an exhaustive new report, When Every Minute Counts: Maritime Search and Rescue. “Repositioning current aeronautical SAR assets is not feasible . . . at this time because the fleet is fully utilized.” The November 2018 report is based on more than two years of study and hearings, which wrapped up in October. While most witnesses were heard in Ottawa — including senior RCAF, Canadian Coast Guard (CCG) and Transport Canada officials, as well as representatives of several industries — the committee also travelled to bases across the country as well as visiting officials and SAR facilities in England, Ireland, Norway and Denmark. RCAF fixed- and rotary-wing assets are a key element in covering nearly 18 million square kilometres of land and sea. In 2017, the Joint Rescue Coordination Centres in Victoria, Trenton and Halifax responded to 10,003 SAR calls, 62 per cent of them maritime. The committee predicts that the number of calls in the Arctic will increase as global warming results in a longer ice-free navigation period. Accordingly, the report recommends that the CCG establish additional primary search and rescue stations in the Canadian Arctic, where no SAR aircraft are currently based. It also calls on the Department of National Defence (DND) to authorize a pilot project which would see private civilian helicopters provide coverage in the North as well as in Newfoundland and Labrador, where the committee says “a disproportionately high number” of SAR incidents occur. In addition to the possible privatization of some missions (CHC Helicopter and Cougar Helicopters Inc. appeared before the committee), the committee also said the CCG should be an independent agency. “The Canadian Coast Guard . . . is hampered by its position within Fisheries and Oceans Canada, which leaves it at the mercy of the department for funding and prevents it from receiving long-term sustainable capital funding.” SAR reaction times were also an issue for the committee. It was told that the CCG's official time is 30 minutes from when a helicopter or ship is tasked until it departs, but that it usually takes less than 15 minutes in the case of a surface vessel, because they are probably on the water already. In comparison, the RCAF has a reaction time of 30 minutes during a typical eight-hour working day five days a week, and two hours at all other times. “Like the CCG vessels, the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) crews are often airborne sooner than the targeted reaction time, around 20 minutes during working hours and one hour outside of working hours,” the committee notes. “However, there was considerable discussion regarding what witnesses called the CAF's ‘two-tier reaction time.' It was stressed that the two-hour reaction time guaranteed outside of working hours had . . . resulted in missions becoming recovery-oriented instead of rescue-oriented. In their view, the CAF should have a reaction time of 30 minutes, 24/7/365, like the CCG.” DND witnesses told the committee the concern had been addressed “to the extent possible” and it was the responsibility of SAR commanders in the three regions to align the 30-minute reaction time to coincide with the observed periods of greatest maritime SAR activity. “Overall, the committee was told that shifting the regular weekly schedules without increasing the total number of hours worked has improved readiness.” It also was told it was impossible for the RCAF to maintain 30-minute readiness at all times because “pilots and SAR aircrew members have a limit on how long they can engage in flying operations.” Sustaining a 30-minute target would require crews to remain poised on flight lines. “The two-hour reaction time allows the pilots and aircrews to be ‘fresh' and able to deliver a SAR response for up to 14, 16, 18 hours, which allows them to then go longer, further distances. Moreover, the increased level of readiness would require more aircraft, add more maintenance and necessitate infrastructure upgrades.” The committee says that despite improvements, Canada's SAR reaction time is “not at par” with other countries. “Aeronautical SAR assets operated in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Denmark respond within 15 minutes during the day and between 30 and 45 minutes at night.” The committee says that given current shortfalls in the RCAF's pilot, flight engineer and SAR Technician cadres, it isn't possible to impose similar reaction times on RCAF crews. But it says it hopes the RCAF will reconsider its reaction time targets once personnel shortages are addressed. https://www.skiesmag.com/news/senate-committee-outlines-recommendations-for-canadian-sar