Halifax Shipyard launches Canada’s second Arctic and Offshore Patrol Ship

On the same subject

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  March 10, 2021 | Local, Naval

  PBO at a loss to explain why cost of new Canadian warship, currently at $77B, keeps rising | The Chronicle Herald

  The selection of a vessel that doesn’t yet exist has contributed to the risk of building Canada’s new warship fleet, but the parliamentary budget officer acknowledges he’s at a loss on why the price tag keeps rising. Parliamentary budget officer

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  August 21, 2018 | Local, Aerospace

  PAL Aerospace seeks talent for SAR operating bases

  Chris Thatcher PAL Aerospace is on the hunt for maintenance, materiel, information technology and other support talent to staff the Royal Canadian Air Force's (RCAF's) four search and rescue main operating bases. Twenty months after the federal government selected 16 Airbus CC-295W fixed-wing search and rescue aircraft to replace six CC-115 Buffalos and 12 CC-130 H-model Hercules, St. John's, N.L.-based PAL is ready to hire the team that will deliver in-service support (ISS) for the new fleet. “PAL Aerospace will be providing a wide assortment of program management services as we prepare to undertake the maintenance and logistics support, heavy maintenance, including a mobile repair team, and centralize supply chain management activities for this aircraft,” Eva Martinez, vice-president of ISS, told the Abbotsford Aerospace, Defence and Security Expo (ADSE) in August. As a supplier to Airbus, PAL is responsible for maintenance and material support of the new fleet, providing an integrated team of aircraft maintenance engineers (AMEs), warehouse and tool crib personnel, a technical library and a contractor field office at four main operating bases in Comox, B.C., Winnipeg, Man., Trenton, Ont., and Greenwood, N.S. Each base will require around 11 people. PAL will also establish and maintain a maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facility in Winnipeg for heavy maintenance work. The shop will be co-located with its central warehouse, and will be home base for the mobile repair team. In total, PAL expects to hire around 28 people to staff the facility. As for material, PAL will provide ground support equipment, a 30-day supply of aircraft consumables at each base, personal protective equipment, and shipping and handling of all aircraft spare parts, said Martinez, an aerospace engineer who served 13 years in the Air Force. Through a joint venture with Airbus called AirPro, PAL will collaborate on the integration of all ISS services. “Our hiring target as it stands right now is 73,” she said. “As we work with Canada and Airbus to fully define the maintenance tasks, we could see an increase in the level of effort required...for AMEs.” That workload is based in part on RCAF plans to locate three CC-295W at each base. Two more will reside with the operational training unit in Comox while a final two will serve as floaters. “They will be moved around depending on the induction into heavy maintenance as well as the operational tempo,” said Martinez. Comox, which will include the RCAF's new search and rescue training centre, will stand up in 2019 to coincide with the arrival of the first aircraft, expected by the end of next year. The front, mid and rear fuselage sections have been delivered to Airbus's pre-final assembly line in Tablada, Spain, and the final aircraft is expected to roll out in the first quarter of 2019. Full article: https://www.skiesmag.com/news/pal-aerospace-seeks-iss-talent-for-rcaf-sar-operating-bases/

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  November 23, 2018 | Local, Naval

  Failed bidder files trade challenge against Ottawa's frigate design pick

  Murray Brewster · CBC News Move comes after Alion Canada challenged frigate design pick in Federal Court The federal government's decision to select a group of companies led by Lockheed Martin Canada to design and support the construction of the navy's new frigates is now facing a trade challenge, on top of a Federal Court challenge filed last week. Alion Science and Technology Corp. and its subsidiary, Alion Canada, have asked the Canadian International Trade Tribunal to look into the procurement deal. They're telling the tribunal that Lockheed Martin's design will need substantial changes to meet the federal government's requirements, which would mean higher costs and more delays. The company last week separately asked the Federal Court for a judicial review and an order quashing the decision, which saw Public Services and Procurement Canada select Lockheed Martin Canada as the preferred bidder on the $60 billion program. Alion pitched the De Zeven Provinciën Air Defence and Command (LCF) frigate, a Dutch-designed warship that is already in service in other countries. More delays? Depending upon how they play out, said defence procurement expert Dave Perry, both challenges have the potential to further delay the frigate program. Federal procurement officials had hoped to nail down a fully fledged design contract with Lockheed Martin by the winter. Perry, who works with the Canadian Global Affairs Institute, said he expects those negotiations to continue — unless the Federal Court orders them to halt. "Unless there is a compelling reason to stop, they are going to keep going," he said. "There is a recognition of the urgency across the board." That urgency is partly due to the program's legacy of delays, which have stretched the design competition out for almost two years. Public Services and Procurement Canada would not comment on the matter because it is before the courts, but a senior official, speaking on background Thursday, said the federal government has up to 20 days to respond to the court challenge. The official — who was not authorized to speak on the record because of the sensitivity of the file — said there is flexibility built into the timeline and the government is optimistic it can meet its goal of an early 2019 contract signing. Perry said there are aspects of both the court challenge and the application to the Canadian International Trade Tribunal that he finds puzzling. Alion claimed in its court filing that the winning bid was "incapable of meeting three critical mandatory requirements" of the design tender. Speed bump The company said, for instance, that the Type 26 cannot meet the mandatory speed requirements set out by the navy and that both Public Services and Procurement Canada and Irving Shipbuilding, the yard overseeing the construction, should have rejected the bid outright. Perry said the criteria cited by Alion were among the first the federal government evaluated. "The rest of Lockheed Martin's bid wouldn't have been looked at if the Crown and Irving was not satisfied that the bid met each of those [initial] criteria," he said. "It's a weird dynamic." Alion's trade tribunal application argues in considerable detail that in order for the Type 26 to meet Ottawa's speed requirement, it will have to undergo considerable redesign. The court application also cites the fact that the design tender was amended 88 times and those changes "effectively diluted the [warship] requirements" and allowed the government and Irving to select "an unproven design platform." Unlike its two competitors, the Type 26 has yet to enter service with the Royal Navy. Competitors have privately knocked it as "paper ship." Navantia, a Spanish-based company, was the other bidder in the competition. https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/failed-bidder-files-trade-challenge-against-ottawa-s-frigate-design-pick-1.4916881