Vanguard Magazine

20 AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2020 www.vanguardcanada.com the age of the Victoria-class advances, and can be expected to manifest from time-to- time in ways that are difficult to predict with certainty. Also, we can expect that the degree of obsolescence in legacy systems will increase, further exacerbating supply chain difficulty. So a decision to continue to operate the Victoria-class notwithstand- ing its advancing age entails some risk that we might experience a failure that proves to be impractical or uneconomical to repair, either of which could alter any plans we may develop around how we will eventually phase the class out of service. Our primary means of addressing these challenges is in partnership with the Cana- dian industry. In the first several years of the Victoria-class, our primary partnership was with British Aerospace (Canada) Ltd., un- der the aegis of the Engineering and Sup- ply Management Contract (ESMC). Since 2008, we have been partnered with Babcock Canada (formerly the Canadian Submarine Management Group) under the aegis of the VISSC. The ESMC provided and the VISSC continues to provide access to a strong cadre of submarine-experienced engineers and technologists as well as to supply chain spe- cialists who can assist with managing the technical data packages for each submarine, tackle issues around supply chain integrity and obsolescence, and manage integration risks for new equipment in partnership with DND personnel. Also, the VISSC included a 3rd line maintenance component, consistent with the overall DND approach to contract out deep maintenance periods for warships. Additional to the VISSC, there are a num- ber of smaller system-level support arrange- ments with companies in Canada and world- wide, either direct with DND, through Government to Government agreements, or through Babcock Canada as the VISSC Prime contractor. Our contracting arrange- ments in general serve to sustain Canada's submarine capability while promoting Ca- nadian economic growth and development and while sustaining highly skilled Canadian jobs both directly and through the Govern- ment of Canada's Industrial Technological Benefits program. Q What impact does Strong, Secure, Engaged has on these challenges? Strong, Secure, Engaged (SSE) articulated a requirement to modernize and operate the Victoria-class into the mid-2030s. As I indi- cated above, I believe there is a reasonable foundation upon which to base a decision to safely operate the Victoria-class for years to come, and our present planning for the future of the Victoria-class is both informed by and aligned with this Defence policy ob- jective. To achieve the SSE objective, two es- sential lines of effort are required. The first line of effort is around ensuring that we ex- tend our sustainment arrangements, mean- ing primarily that we need to replace the VISSC with a successor. The VISSC succes- sor, which we refer to as VISSC II for sim- plicity, will be the cornerstone of the effort to ensure the Victoria-class remains avail- able for operations until the mid-2030s. Of note, Canada will be stepping through the process of defining requirements and expectations for the new in-service support arrangement with all pre-qualified potential bidders for VISSC II. We anticipate that the VISSC II development process will include various rounds of consultation with the pre-qualified bidders as we move forward. The second line of effort is around en- suring that the Victoria-class remains op- erationally relevant into the mid-2030s, meaning primarily that we need to define and implement the Victoria-class Modern- ization (VCM) project. VCM will ensure that the submarines are not just opera- tional, but also operationally relevant into the mid-2030s against a variety of evolv- ing threats. The overall plan for VCM is to move its major projects into the Definition phase this year and next. Q Aer a two-year hiatus from opera- tions that was preceded by an intensive global deployment of two submarines, are you happy with the current maintenance cycle or do you anticipate further changes as the submarines get older? In 2017, the maintenance program plan underpinning Victoria-class sustainment was shifted from a '6+2' plan (6 years of op- erations (including scheduled maintenance opportunities), + 2 years for an Extended Docking Work Period (EDWP)) to a '9+3' plan (9 years of operations, + 3 years for an EDWP). There were several drivers for this, but a key one related to our experience with the first three EDWPs completed in Can- ada (one at each RCN Fleet Maintenance Facility, one under VISSC), which demon- strated fairly conclusively that the two-year EDWP objective was not one we would likely be able to realize, mostly because we do not have the capacity to execute the required maintenance in such a short time. After significant internal discussion, the three-year EDWP objective was cho- sen as a stretch goal, even noting that our fastest EDWP up to that point was closer to five years in duration. That said, within the overarching maintenance program plan that supports the SSE objective to maintain the Victoria-class and operate it until the mid-2030s, success means holding the line as much as is practicable on the three-year EDWP target. It also means holding a hard line on safety while being prepared to make trade-space decisions around other priori- ties in the context of limited human and financial resources. Q Are you seeing supply chain issues in sourcing equipment spares for the submarines? If so, how can the Canadian industry help? As I noted above, the supply chain is a key issue for us as we look to the future of the Victoria-class. We have issues, but in partnership with industry, we have been able to address the most critical ones, up to and including taking action to replace systems that have become too difficult to support. If you recall the very first thing we did with the Victoria-class when it arrived in Canada was to "Canadianize" it. While Canadianization was intended primarily to integrate the Mk 48 torpedo, modernize other capabilities, and make some modest changes and upgrades to habitability, a cor- ollary benefit was that older and difficult- to-support legacy equipment was replaced with modern and supportable equipment. We have continued similar work in a piece- meal fashion ever since, and have signifi- cantly improved the capability of the sub- marine while reducing its obsolescence. A particular Canadian success story is the Victoria-class Autopilot system, where we replaced the legacy system with a Canadian one designed by L3 Harris. VCM will have similar corollary benefits, and we also have a number of smaller obsolescence initiatives in varying states of maturity that may result interview Photo: Babcock Canada.

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