Vanguard Magazine

Naval www.vanguardcanada.com JUNE/JULY 2019 35 Centre for Ocean Ventures & Entrepreneurship "The recapitalization of the federal fleets in Canada remains an important and achievable goal, only if we work tirelessly to keep driving down the cost and educating Canadians on the importance of this strategy." — Patrick Finn Lastly, the role of culture. It is about map- ping out the end state, which is a vision of where they are going, using creativity to get there, and empowerment with the technologies so that the people of the RCN can step out and realize that vision. He pointed out that the digital navy is not about reducing the number of per- sonnel or shrinking the RCN by replac- ing them with technology. "It is about investing and enabling sailors to be at their best and providing them with the personal satisfaction that comes from working in a world-class leading-edge in- stitution called the RCN," he said. He went on to provide some examples of utilizing cutting edge technologies like Artificial Intelligence in ships and how that is viewed from the perspective of augmenting the sailors. It's about lever- aging network and data to provide sailors with more information to make better-in- formed decisions. Other technologies like machine learning, cloud, and augmented reality will be integrated into the RCN to empower sailors in the future. Another major area that is helping to shape the future of shipbuilding is Can- ada's NSS program. NSS is an ongoing operation that Canada is undertaking to re-capitalize its fleet, grow the marine in- dustry and encourage innovation across the country. During his keynote address, Patrick Finn, ADM Materiel, provided a short update on NSS. He explained that this procurement strategy articulated an approach that will provide direction for years to come on building ships. Finn pointed out that building this strategy "goes well beyond the creation of jobs; it's about national security and sovereignty. That is why we need a ship- building strategy." It's about having our own shipbuilding and repair capacity. "All of our key allies understand the need for a strategic source of supply around shipbuilding. Some go offshore for some products, only after there has been suf- ficient domestic build to ensure that sup- plies are available and a robust mainte- nance capability is in place," he added. ADM Materiel also provided an over- view of the major builds that are un- derway in various stages on the East and West Coasts of Canada, namely the Arctic and Offshore Patrol Vessels, Joint Support Ships and, more recently, the selection of BAE's Type 26 design for the Canadian Surface Combatant proj- ect. Looking forward, he pointed out that they want to continue to build on interoperability, situational awareness, survivability, adaptability and other areas to apply to the Victoria-class Submarine Modernization program. Other capabili- ties upgrades will include updating tor- pedoes, patrol systems, and periscopes. "The shipbuilding strategy has and does the work and enables us in so many ways to continue to ensure we provide the fleet the Navy needs. It also bolsters the ma- rine industry," said Finn. "The recapital- ization of the federal fleets in Canada re- mains an important and achievable goal, only if we work tirelessly to keep driving down the cost and educating Canadians on the importance of this strategy." Currently, Canada has all the pieces in place to build a strong foundation through the NSS and become a com- petitive player within the global marine industry. However, having this strong foundation is not enough; it is about building on this foundation that will po- sition Canada to be one of the leaders in the future of shipbuilding. "We need to press forward in build- ing ships in Canada for a number of operational and economic reasons. We need to ensure that the learning curves are achieved to drive cost down, which will in turn result in savings from an in- service support perspective," said Finn. Other presentations during the con- ference revolved around lessons learned from NSS; an update on marine welding; a new hub for ocean technology inno- vation called COVE (Centre for Ocean Ventures & Entrepreneurship), which opened last October in Halifax; and an insightful discussion on digital twin in shipbuilding. ShipTech Forum The 2020 ShipTech Forum will take place on February 25 at the Westin in Ottawa.

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