October 25, 2018 | Local, Naval, Security
OTTAWA — The Canadian Coast Guard says three "interim" icebreakers that were recently purchased without a competition will be used for the next 15 to 20 years.
Coast guard officials revealed the timeframe in interviews with The Canadian Press while playing down concerns about the state of their aging fleet — and the challenges in building replacements.
The government in August agreed to sole-sourcing the purchase of three used icebreakers from Davie Shipbuilding for $610 million, saying a stop-gap was needed until replacements could be built.
The deal represented a win for the Quebec-based shipyard, which had been lobbying hard for additional federal work, and should ease pressure on the coast guard's icebreaking fleet.
The coast guard's existing vessels are on average more than 35 years old and have lost hundreds of operational days over the past few years due to mechanical breakdowns.
Yet there are no immediate plans to replace them; the government's multibillion-dollar shipbuilding plan includes only one new heavy icebreaker, which won't be ready until the next decade.
Deputy Commissioner Andy Smith, who is overseeing the shipbuilding plan for the coast guard, said the service is instead in the midst of extending the life of its current fleet another 20 years — during which it will rely on the Davie ships to fill any gaps.
"The icebreakers that we recently purchased were envisioned to backfill behind those various ships as we put them into a refit or an extended maintenance period," Smith said in an interview.
"And we have mapped that out over 20 years."
Deputy Commissioner Mario Pelletier, who is responsible for coast guard operations, confirmed that time period in a separate interview, saying: "I would expect that we're going to have them for 15, 20 years.
"The urgent need is just to make sure we do have a surge capacity to backfill when those ships come out of service," he added.
While few would argue the need for additional icebreakers, the timeline has nevertheless resulted in fresh criticism of the country's procurement system — and questions about the shipbuilding plan.
The federal government previously purchased "interim" icebreakers in the 1980s and those vessels are still in use, said Rob Huebert, an expert on the Arctic at the University of Calgary.
That, plus the absence of any real plan to replace the majority of the coast guard's icebreakers, leads Huebert to believe the three Davie ships will eventually become part of the permanent fleet.
"What's going to happen is we have been overworking our three medium icebreakers and those three (Davie ships) will replace them even though no one is saying they're replacing them," he said.
The two Canadian Coast Guard officials both insisted that the Davie deal would not undercut the shipbuilding plan, through which Vancouver Shipyards is building several coast guard ships.
Those include three fisheries-science ships, an ocean-science vessel and a heavy icebreaker, in that order. Two naval support ships will be built between the ocean-science vessel and the icebreaker.
But defence analyst David Perry of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute wondered whether calling the Davie deal an "interim" measure was intended to sidestep the plan — and any legal trouble.
Either way, he said, the arrangement only underscores many of the enduring issues facing Canada's troubled procurement system and the long amount of time it takes to buy new equipment.
"If they're defining an interim period being up to 20 years, only in Canada is that considered an interim basis," he said, noting that the shipbuilding plan is already years behind schedule.
"Only in a country where you run things for 40-plus years is two decades a temporary solution."
Smith and Pelletier said the current coast guard fleet is nonetheless in good shape and that there are positive signs of progress at Vancouver Shipbuilding, despite some hiccups.
Those included a welding problem discovered on the three fisheries-science ships that has pushed back delivery of the first of those vessels until next year.
The design and budget for the ocean-science ship also remains up in the air, while the construction schedule for the navy support ships and heavy icebreaker remain in limbo.
"It's really a dynamic time as we look to regrow the whole ecosystem of shipbuilding in this country, and they are in various stages of design and construction," Smith said of the challenges.
"So that whole ecosystem is being rebuilt."
— Follow @leeberthiaume on Twitter.
Note to readers: This is a corrected story. It corrects Mario Pelletier's title.
By Lee Berthiaume, The Canadian Press
https://www.niagarafallsreview.ca/news-story/8982113--interim-icebreakers-to-be-used-for-decades/
April 6, 2022 | Local, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security
Après des années de sous-financement, le Canada devra assumer une très longue et coûteuse liste d’épicerie pour mettre sa défense à niveau.
March 29, 2019 | Local, Naval
DAVID PUGLIESE, OTTAWA CITIZEN HMCS Corner Brook's Extended Docking Work Period, or EDWP, is presently underway in Esquimalt, BC and was scheduled to be completed in 2020. But an assessment conducted by the contractor, Babcock Canada Inc., indicates that the work could take longer than expected, the Department of National Defence confirmed to Postmedia. DND spokeswoman Ashley Lemire said given the complex and lengthy nature of submarine EDWPs, periodic assessments are routinely undertaken by Babcock Canada to ensure that the schedule remains achievable. “The most recent schedule assessment took into account the remaining work, and an updated assessment of the potential risk factors, to produce a probabilistic assessment of the completion date that showed that the EDWP could continue into 2021 if a number of the risks materialized,” Lemire noted in an email. The Canadian government and Babcock will now undertake a review of all risks to determine how those can be avoided and or mitigated, she added. They will also review the remaining items still to be done to ensure that only essential work has been scheduled. “This necessary process generally results in the schedule coming back towards the baseline and the process must be left to unfold to determine if a full return to baseline can be achieved,” Lemire added. If the work on Corner Brook slips into 2021, it could have an impact on the work periods for other submarines to follow. https://ottawacitizen.com/news/national/defence-watch/work-on-hmcs-corner-brook-could-stretch-out-to-2021-dnd-confirms
July 11, 2019 | Local, Aerospace
by Chris Thatcher The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) is asking for industry help to develop a road map for the modernization of its fighter aircraft training ranges. Public Services and Procurement Canada on July 8 issued a request for proposals (RFP) for a plan that would capitalize on Live-Virtual-Constructive (LVC) training and experimental environments at the two primary air weapons ranges in Cold Lake, Alta., and Bagotville, Que., as well as other ranges in Gagetown, N.B., Wainwright and Suffield, Alta, and Valcartier, Que., and at the Canadian Forces Maritime Experimental and Test Range in Nanoose Bay, B.C. The Cold Lake Air Weapons Range (CLAWR), in particular, is considered a strategic asset that is vital to RCAF individual and collective training, as well as integrated training with the Canadian Army, Canadian Special Operations Forces Command, and allies. It regularly hosts the multinational Maple Flag exercises. But the ranges were last upgraded almost 20 years ago and no longer provide sufficient representation of current threats or the connectivity to work with advanced next-generation fighter jets. They have also become expensive to maintain. “Obsolescence, threat replication, and other land use stakeholders challenge the CLAWR's current utility to training fighter forces, while its future training environment must enable rehearsing the integration of future capabilities against emerging peer adversaries,” explained Stephan Kummel, director general of Fighter Capability, told Skies in a statement. “The RCAF requires airspace designed for advanced air platforms, target arrays suitable for modern weapons, modern training instrumentation, and low-level communications to monitor and control training, and a selective security classification system to permit challenging simultaneous training at different classification levels so participants can share data within their approved national caveats.” The RFP noted that RCAF investments in various virtual constructive capabilities over the past decades “were delivered through discrete projects where interconnectivity with the spectrum of RCAF LVC capabilities was not a requirement.” As part of the road map, the Air Force is asking industry to “consider” the current modelling and simulation environment, virtual proving grounds, and all current RCAF platform simulators — including an eventual remotely piloted air system — as well as air traffic control, air weapons, and air and space control simulators. The aim is a report that “recommended way forward to modernize the ranges and integrate all RCAF LVC capabilities ... Ranges, simulators and virtual environments need to be developed in a manner that supports collective training, but solutions must also support collective and distributed research and experimentation. The proposed investment strategy for the LVC modernization program must enable a seamless transition of equipment and environments between training and force development activities,” according to the RFP. The 12-month contract, which includes a one-year optional extension, is divided into three phases: initial scoping, design and lifecycle support. The initial scoping report is expected to identify shortfalls in “critical range infrastructure such as: threat replication, briefing and de-briefing capability and facilities, communication, Air Combat Maneuvering Instrumentation (ACMI), EM spectrum management, A/G target design, specialist support personnel and security.” “This roadmap is the first step in a multi-stage process that will ensure the long-term viability of force generation efforts, training, testing and evaluation, and the execution of large-scale multinational exercises such as Maple Flag,” said Kummel. https://www.skiesmag.com/news/rcaf-seeks-proposals-on-air-weapons-range-upgrades/