Colour it Red

 

It was made official today (January 5) that Irving Shipbuilding Inc (ISI) will build two Arctic Offshore Patrol Vessels for the Canadian Coast Guard. The government originally announced the two ships in May 2019 as an "add on" to the six Harry DeWolf class Arctic Offshore Patrol Vessels already under construction for the Royal Canadian Navy (subject to an agreement on terms.) The two ships were awarded to Irving's Halifax Shipyard as a stop gap to keep the yard fully operational and fully staffed after the DeWolf  ships were completed and before construction could begin on the new frigate construction program.

The government has now signed the construction contract for $1.6 bn allowing the shipyard to complete design work and begin cutting steel. There will certainly be many differences with the CCG ships - not just red paint. Crew quarters will have to be to a civilian standard and the ships will need to accomodate different helicopters. Most systems will be quite different, and then there is the question of weapons. Will these ships be combat ready "military grade" ? Only fisheries patrol vessels in the CCG are currently armed, and the crews are civilians. When they are required to conduct some policing operations they embark RCMP officers. They also co-operate with other government civilian services with policing mandates such as Border Services and the Food Inspection Agency.

How the Coast Guard will use the vessels is the question. They will likely assign one to each coast as the CCG currently has very limited space at its east coast bases. The navy had to build a new pier for the DeWolf ships, so I expect a new pier will be needed at the BIO Coast Guard base in Halifax - although there may be political pressure to base the ship(s) in St.John's, using the same faulty logic that sent the CCGS Terry Fox and Louis S St-Laurent from Halifax to Newfoundland.

The DeWolf ships are not heavy icebreakers, nor particularly fast for patrol duties - both part of the CCG's mandate. As Fisheries Patrol and Search + Rescue ships, they may be less than ideal. However Halifax Shipyard is supposed to be the Combatant shipbuilding specialists, and sovereignty patrol is the mandate of the RCN.

In the current era of inflation and supply chain issues the predicted cost is probably very optimistic. However they should be cheaper per ship than the RCN vessels, being at the top of the learning curve - even if they are military grade. The delivery dates of 2026 to 2027 also sound optimistic.

ISI states that they will be able to increase their work force by 500 from the current 2300 workers. The two extra ships were originally justified only to be a stop gap to maintain the skilled workforce. This sounds more like a ramp up to frigate construction by training new people on the CCG ships - that also means they would need to be working on military grade systems and methods.

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