P R O C U R E M E N T
www.vanguardcanada.com OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2024 13
Photo: Jacek Szymanski, Royal Canadian Navy
and upgrade the legacy submarines are
continuing to increase exponentially, in
direct competition with the necessary re-
sources needed to extend the service lives
of the Halifax-class frigates. Simply put,
the RCN fleet of the next decade is in a
fragile situation and any efforts to reduce
fiscal pressures, whilst maintaining a mini-
mum of operational readiness, must be
exploited.
In review of key Allies in similar circum-
stances, the Dutch have decided to up-
grade only two of four Walrus-class sub-
marines and concentrate on a replacement
project, which was recently announced
to be the French conventional Barracuda
design.
2
Much like the Victoria-class, the
Dutch submarines are of a similar size, en-
tered service in the 1990s and are all over
30 years old.
The Dutch decision to cut their losses
by minimizing expenditures on legacy
submarines, while concentrating on fleet
replacement is worthy of further investi-
gation in the Canadian context.
3
Specifi-
cally, by accelerating the procurement of a
class of modern conventional submarines,
Canada could:
• Reduce the number of Victoria-class
submarines, thereby focusing mainte-
nance on fewer units to maximize avail-
ability and alleviate the need for some
future extended docking work periods.
• Reassess, and where appropriate de-
scope, Victoria-class Modernization
(VCM) projects needed in a smaller sub-
