Warships

by **Trooper** Thu 12 Oct 2017, 9:22 am

Ships' histories - Canada.ca

Details Here: Ships’ histories

by Cypher Mon 14 Dec 2020, 9:03 am

'Too much noise' on Canadian warship program - DND Deputy Minister admonishes industry executives

David Pugliese • Ottawa Citizen
Publishing date: Dec 14, 2020

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/national/defence-watch/too-much-noise-on-canadian-warship-program-dnd-deputy-minister-admonishes-industry-executives

by **Braven** Mon 14 Dec 2020, 6:43 pm

$70 billion warship project promised thousands of
jobs, but who knows how many will be delivered?

David Pugliese • Ottawa Citizen
Publishing date: Dec 14, 2020

Questions are being raised about the number of jobs that might come from a $70-billion program to buy new warships after a top defence executive involved in the project warned that firms were struggling to deliver on their promises.

Politicians and federal bureaucrats have stated the Canadian Surface Combatant project will create thousands of high-paying jobs. Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains has been told that Lockheed Martin Canada, which has been selected to design and integrate the high-tech systems on board the new ships, will provide significant long-term economic benefits to the country, according to 2019 Innovation, Science and Economic Development briefing documents obtained by this newspaper.

But industry executives point out that strategy has already run aground, noting that in November 2019 the Lockheed Martin Canada executive responsible for delivering on the commitments admitted the system has major problems.

Walt Nolan said the policy the Canadian government developed has prompted defence firms to significantly over commit on the benefits they claim they can deliver on the Canadian Surface Combatant and other programs. “This monster has got out of the box and has stayed out of the box,” Nolan told executives about promises of industrial benefits.

Bidders have committed to delivering to Canada more than 100 per cent of the contract value in those benefits. “Those (procurement) programs are in their infancy on the delivery of those obligations, and many of us are already beginning to struggle,” Nolan added.

Nolan’s comments were first reported last December by Countertrade and Offsets, a specialty publication. A Lockheed Martin source confirmed to this newspaper the accuracy of the statements and acknowledged the concerns Nolan raised are significant.

The decision on which consortium would be selected as the winning bidder for Canadian Surface Combatant (CSC) was based partly on the industry benefits they could deliver.

The proposed 15-ship fleet of Canadian Surface Combatants is the backbone of the country’s shipbuilding strategy and accounts for most of the federal money to be spent over the next several decades on new vessels. The national shipbuilding strategy, originally introduced by the Conservative government, is not only supposed to create jobs but lay a foundation for a domestic shipbuilding industry that will be set up to seek out international work in the future.

Asked to comment on Nolan’s concerns, Gary Fudge, vice-president of Lockheed Martin Canada RMS, noted in an email to this newspaper that, “The value proposition requirements associated with CSC matched the level of complexity and sophistication of the program. Lockheed Martin Canada has fully embraced the policy and recognizes the incredible benefits it brings to Canadian industry — not just for today but for the future through enduring investments and returns to the economy.”

Fudge stated that the company has made significant progress and that CSC is positioned to deliver significant economic benefits to Canada.

Michael Byers, a University of British Columbia professor who authored a report analyzing the government’s shipbuilding strategy and the CSC, pointed out there is significant secrecy surrounding the industrial benefits for the program. In addition, he noted that there are no consequences for various companies if they do not meet job creation targets.

“Canadians will likely never know how many jobs were produced,” Byers explained. “Some jobs will obviously be created as workers will build the hulls in Halifax and install the foreign-made equipment, but we can’t be certain this will contribute actual value for the large amount of money taxpayers are spending.”

In some cases, the requirements for industrial benefits on CSC contracts are non-existent or limited. On Nov. 5, it was revealed by the U.S. government that Canada would be ordering $650 million worth of new missiles to be built by Raytheon in Arizona for the surface combatants. Hans Parmar, spokesman for Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, noted that Canada “will be exploring the applicability” of industrial benefits, known in the U.S. as offsets, for the purchase. Parmar did not provide any details on when industrial benefits discussions would take place, if at all.

But defence industry and DND sources say it’s highly unlikely there will be any significant industrial benefits related to the missile purchase because Canada didn’t specifically ask for them before deciding on Raytheon’s missiles. In addition, they say the DND did not make a public announcement about such a significant purchase for CSC for fear of drawing attention to the lack of industrial benefits.

Previous claims about federal job creation have also fallen short. In 2017, the Liberal government claimed its Innovation Superclusters Initiative would create more than 50,000 jobs over 10 years. The cost to taxpayers would be $918 million.

But a study by the Parliamentary Budget Officer released in October of this year raised questions about such claims, noting that even if all the money was spent, only 27,000 jobs would be created. The PBO also pointed out that Innovation, Science and Economic Development couldn’t produce any records to support government claims about the impact of the program on the economy.

In addition, there has already been questions about the value of some of the industrial benefits linked to the federal government’s shipbuilding strategy.

Under the government’s policy, the prime contractors on such procurements are required to do work in Canada equal to 100 per cent of the value of the contract they receive. The industrial benefits program is also supposed to promote innovative work and research in defence and aerospace fields.

But in May 2019, the Globe and Mail revealed that on the program to build new Arctic and Offshore Patrol Ships for the navy the federal government allowed Irving Shipbuilding to claim a $40-million industrial benefit credit for work on a french fry factory in Alberta.

Irving officials say one of the core components of the industrial benefits policy is to create “indirect” transactions. They have argued that they were creating jobs by using Canadian companies for high-value work to create one of the most modern french fry facilities of its kind.

The promises of industrial benefits linked to defence contracts has had a checkered past. In the 1980s, some foreign companies would create assembly lines in Canada to meet their requirements, only to shut those down as soon as their products were delivered to the Canadian military.

In 2011, the Conservative government awarded a $274-million contract to Navistar to provide commercial trucks, modified for military use, to the Canadian Forces. Even as the government was awarding the contract to Navistar to build the trucks in Texas, the company was laying off employees at its Chatham, Ont., truck plant. Eventually 800 were laid off. Navistar closed the plant in 2011.

Then-defence minister Peter MacKay defended the awarding of the contract to the U.S. firm, saying there would be domestic work done on the military vehicles as Canadian mechanics would be involved in maintaining the trucks, and that gas and tires for the vehicles would also be bought in Canada.

Alan Williams, the former head of procurement at DND, said the government has lots of latitude to determine whether an industrial benefit can be linked to military purchases, and, like Michael Byers, warns that because the industrial benefits program is so secretive it is difficult to determine whether high-value jobs are actually being created.

Freedom of Information specialist Ken Rubin has already found that out in regard to the Canadian Surface Combatant. He requested background papers, briefings and reports from Innovation, Science and Economic Development, which would indicate numbers of jobs to be created by the mega-project. He specifically focused on material exchanged at the senior levels of government between 2015 and 2019. Rubin was told by the department it would take at least three years before it responded to his request, if at all.

“If jobs were really being created, then the government would be eager to make those records public,” Rubin said. “The fact they’re being withheld should be seen as a warning sign that maybe there’s not really a lot of jobs being created for the billions of dollars being spent.”

In May, Rubin appealed to innovation minister Navdeep Bains to release the documents, citing the Liberal government’s promise of openness and transparency. He received no reply.

Rubin faced a similar process trying to get details about industrial benefits linked to other defence purchases. Ten years after the purchase of Leopard tanks from Germany in 1976, he received government records that revealed that some of the much-vaunted industrial benefits the Canadian government claimed to have received from that deal were limited. Instead of creating high-tech jobs, Germany dealt with some of its industrial benefits requirements by purchasing canola, plywood and airline tickets from Canada.

But claims of high-paying jobs created by government programs can be good for public relations. Some of those advising Bains see the focus of the surface combatant project as a public relations exercise. In 2018 and 2019 briefings for Bains, obtained by this newspaper, the minister was told by his bureaucrats that there are “significant communications opportunities” available to highlight the link between jobs and the CSC.

The number of jobs and when they are to be created were censored from the documents.

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/national/defence-watch/70-billion-warship-project-promised-thousands-of-jobs-but-who-knows-how-many-will-be-delivered

by **Riverway** Wed 16 Dec 2020, 8:54 am

Top of the line Canadian-made naval equipment
shut out of $70-billion warship program

David Pugliese • Ottawa Citizen
Publishing date: Dec 16, 2020

Canadian equipment that taxpayers spent hundreds of millions of dollars to develop isn’t being used on the country’s new $70-billion fleet of warships because the consortium that won the bid selected its own affiliated companies and their foreign systems.

A number of Canadian firms repeatedly tried to warn ministers and deputy ministers at the Department of National Defence, Public Services and Procurement Canada as well as Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada that they would be shut out of the Canadian Surface Combatant project, according to federal government documents obtained by this newspaper.

Those concerns were ignored. Instead, Canada left it up to the winning consortium, in this case, the U.S.-controlled Lockheed Martin Canada and BAE of the United Kingdom to determine the equipment that would make up key components of the proposed 15-fleet Canadian Surface Combatant, or CSC fleet. By selecting the consortium’s Type 26 warship design for the CSC, the Royal Canadian Navy automatically agreed to what Lockheed Martin had determined was the best equipment for it to use.

In the last week, this newspaper has chronicled multiple issues with the CSC project, the most expensive military procurement in Canada’s history. This newspaper reviewed thousands of pages of documents, obtained through sources and through the access to information law, to reveal how the CSC’s budget has spiralled upward and upward and how government officials previously tried to block the cost of the project from becoming public.

In an email, DND defended its choice that shut out inclusion on the CSC of Canadian-made propulsion systems, sonar and communication systems, as well as radar. The Canadian-based firms that build those systems employ hundreds of people in the high-tech sector.

“By selecting the design, Canada has selected the associated equipment,” said DND spokeswoman Jessica Lamirande. She noted DND is “confident that we have competitively selected the best design to meet Canada’s needs.”

As a result, a radar built by Lockheed Martin in the U.S., which hasn’t yet been certified for naval operations, will be installed on the CSC. Passed over was a state-of-the art naval radar developed with the help of Thales Canada in Nepean. Canadian taxpayers contributed $54 million to the development of that radar, which is now being used on German, Danish and Dutch warships.

Also shut out of the CSC competition is SHINCOM, a naval communications system built by DRS Technologies of Ottawa and considered one of the top such systems in the world. SHINCOM is in service on other Royal Canadian Navy vessels as well as 150 warships of allied navies around the world, including Australia, the U.S., Japan, New Zealand and South Korea. It was originally developed for Canada’s Halifax-class frigates and taxpayers have poured millions of dollars into its development.

Also left on the sidelines was General Dynamic Mission Systems of Ottawa, Canada’s top developer of anti-submarine warfare and sonar equipment. The firm has its systems on aircraft or warships of militaries in Canada, Japan, South Korea, Portugal and various South American nations.

Top government officials and politicians were repeatedly warned key Canadian firms would be shut out of the CSC project.

Steve Zuber, vice president of DRS Technologies, wrote on Aug. 31, 2016 to alert innovation minister Navdeep Bains that the way the CSC procurement was designed would work against Canadian firms. “The CSC procurement approach may actually disadvantage Canadian companies,” Zuber warned. “The current evaluation approach puts our world-class Canadian solutions at serious risk of not being selected for Canada.”

At the heart of the matter was a procurement system that penalized bidders if they deviated too much from their original ship designs to accommodate Canadian equipment. In addition, no competitions were held for key components of the new warships, such as sonar, radar or communications systems.

General Dynamics Missions Systems Canada also tried to warn government officials in November 2019 that the lack of competition shut out high-tech Canadian systems developed over the years with both private and tax dollars.

Company vice president David Ibbetson told navy commander Vice Adm. Art McDonald, DND deputy minister Jody Thomas, PSPC deputy minister Bill Matthews and ISED deputy minister Simon Kennedy about the lack of competition on the CSC anti-submarine warfare systems. That resulted in a “largely foreign solution with only limited Canadian content,” he noted.

The documents also show bureaucrats at ISED countering such concerns by pointing out that the CSC program will include equipment from other firms such as L-3 and CAE in Quebec and MDA in B.C. Lockheed Martin has also committed to invest in priority areas such as cybersecurity, clean technology and the marine sector, innovation minister Bains was told.

But the federal government has declined to release other documents requested through access to information law about specifics of the industrial benefits and job creation plan linked to the CSC. There is concern by some in the country’s defence industry that the Liberal government has put at risk existing Canadian high-tech jobs, developed and established in part by federal contracts and development money, in exchange for the promise by foreign companies to create new jobs in the future linked to the CSC.

In addition, in November 2019, the Lockheed Martin Canada executive responsible for delivering on the industrial commitments admitted the system had major problems. Walt Nolan said the policy the Canadian government developed has prompted defence firms to significantly overcommit on the jobs and industry benefits they claim they can deliver on the CSC.

But Lockheed Martin has significant support from the leadership of the Royal Canadian Navy, including Vice Adm. McDonald. In July, McDonald took to Twitter to promote the company and its SPY-7 radar, noting that such a system is critical to a warship’s survival and how it performs on missions. “For these reasons, the Royal Canadian Navy is delighted that Canada’s Combat Ship Team under Lockheed Martin Canada leadership will fit the SPY-7 in CSC,” wrote McDonald, in retweeting the company’s press release about the radar.

But McDonald’s enthusiastic corporate plug left out some critical information, namely that the SPY-7 radar had never been installed on an actual warship. Less than a month before McDonald’s tweet, Japan’s government, which had been hoping to use SPY-7 radar for a land-based missile defence system, suspended the project. Japan cited technical issues and cost for the decision and is now trying to figure out what to do with the systems it has already paid for.

Japan’s military has suggested using the SPY-7 on new frigates but some of the country’s lawmakers are trying to scuttle that plan. They are worried that Japan will pay significant development costs to get the radar ready for maritime use and since the U.S. Navy will use a completely different system there will be problems operating with a key ally.

While the SPY-7 radar issue has been debated in Japan’s legislature, Canadian politicians have been silent.

Lockheed’s rival, Raytheon, the firm which will provide the SPY-6 radar for the U.S. Navy, has made several presentations to the Liberal government. It tried to convince politicians and bureaucrats the Lockheed Martin system could become a money pit that would potentially put Canadian sailors at risk.

Switching to SPY-6 would save Canada tens of millions of dollars as the U.S. Navy would finance future research into modernizing the radar to deal with new threats, federal officials were told.

In addition, Raytheon pointed out that unlike the SPY-7, the testing of its radar, which included intercepts of targets, was completed in 2019. The U.S. Navy intends to install the system on 50 of its warships.

But cabinet ministers and federal bureaucrats dismissed Raytheon’s overtures as an attempt to reverse the CSC procurement process that had already been completed.

Neither Lockheed Martin nor the DND could provide a date on when the SPY-7 will be ready for naval operations and certified for use on the CSC. But they noted the company is supposed to deliver the first radar system in 2025.

“Once fully integrated into the CSC design, the SPY-7 will provide Canada the capabilities it needs to meet the operational and interoperability requirements of the Royal Canadian Navy well past the middle of this century,” added DND spokeswoman Lamirande.

Responses from DND and Lockheed Martin to questions posed by this newspaper for this story were answered in nearly identical fashion.

Canadian taxpayers will finance the development and testing of any of the radar requirements for the CSC. The cost of that, however, is not known at this point.

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/national/defence-watch/top-of-the-line-canadian-made-naval-equipment-shut-out-of-70-billion-warship-program

by Xrayxservice Wed 23 Dec 2020, 9:37 am

Battle of the budget: DND gears up to defend cost of
new warships in the New Year

Murray Brewster · CBC News · Posted: Dec 23, 2020

Warships Canadian-surface-combatant-type-26

An artist's rendering of Canada's planned new frigates, a design based on the British Type 26 frigate. (BAE Systems)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/SOMNIA-1.5851912

by **Lightning** Mon 25 Jan 2021, 9:04 am

Legal measure often cited in terrorism cases used by feds to prevent release of shipbuilding records

David Pugliese • Ottawa Citizen
Publishing date: Jan 25, 2021

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/national/defence-watch/legal-measure-often-cited-in-terrorism-cases-used-by-feds-to-prevent-release-of-shipbuilding-records

by **Accer** Tue 26 Jan 2021, 12:45 pm

PBO comes under fire as navy worries about
watchdog's report on troubled warship project

David Pugliese • Ottawa Citizen
Jan 26, 2021

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/national/defence-watch/pbo-comes-under-fire-as-navy-worries-about-watchdogs-report-on-troubled-warship-project

by Wolverine Fri 29 Jan 2021, 9:23 pm

Canadian Navy using leased supply ship more often — contract boosted by $71 million

David Pugliese • Ottawa Citizen
Publishing date: Jan 29, 2021

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/national/defence-watch/canadian-navy-using-leased-supply-ship-more-often-contract-boosted-by-71-million

by **Accer** Tue 02 Feb 2021, 1:12 pm

National Defence grappling with new delay in $60B warship project

Published Tuesday, February 2, 2021

https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/national-defence-grappling-with-new-delay-in-60b-warship-project-1.5291839

by **RazzorSharp))** Wed 03 Feb 2021, 1:03 pm

Navy needs to prepare for tough talks over warship delays, cost increases: Norman

Lee Berthiaume

The Canadian Press

Published Wednesday, February 3, 2021

https://www.ctvnews.ca/navy-needs-to-prepare-for-tough-talks-over-warship-delays-cost-increases-norman-1.5293499

by **Spider** Sat 13 Feb 2021, 9:44 am

It will be at least a decade before Canada sees any of its new frigates

Murray Brewster · CBC News · Posted: Feb 13, 2021

https://www.cbc.ca/news/SOMNIA-1.5912961

by **GeminiTeam** Tue 16 Feb 2021, 8:17 am

DND unable to say exactly when delays in $70-billion warship program began

David Pugliese • Ottawa Citizen
Publishing date: Feb 16, 2021

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/national/defence-watch/dnd-unable-to-say-exactly-when-delays-in-70-billion-warship-program-began

by Rekert Wed 17 Feb 2021, 7:05 pm

PBO report on Canadian Surface Combatant to be released Feb. 24

David Pugliese • Ottawa Citizen
Publishing date: Feb 17, 2021

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/national/defence-watch/pbo-report-on-canadian-surface-combatant-to-be-released-feb-24

by Rekert Wed 24 Feb 2021, 3:59 pm

Cassey wrote:
PBO report on Canadian Surface Combatant to be released Feb. 24

David Pugliese • Ottawa Citizen
Publishing date: Feb 17, 2021

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/national/defence-watch/pbo-report-on-canadian-surface-combatant-to-be-released-feb-24

Cost of Canadian Navy warship program jumps to $77 billion, says PBO

David Pugliese • Ottawa Citizen
Publishing date: Feb 24, 2021

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/national/defence-watch/cost-of-canadian-navy-warship-program-jumps-to-77-billion-says-pbo

by Spectrum Wed 24 Feb 2021, 9:09 pm

02.24.2021

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