Vanguard Magazine

d deFsec ATLANTIC 28 OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2016 www.vanguardcanada.com deFsec 2016: Design bids for CSC expected next year m ore than 400 exhibitors from companies around the globe, as well as hundreds of military and government officials and defence industry experts gathered at the Cunard Centre in Halifax for the Defsec Atlantic 2016 defence, security, and aero- space exhibition this September. A majority of the companies were aspir- ing to become a link in the supply chain for the top military and government procure- ment projects. For those eyeing a piece of the pie of the Royal Canadian Navy's estimated $40 billion plus Canadian Surface Combatant program, the Department of National De- fence's senior procurement official's mes- sage was: they'll need to wait a bit longer. The request for proposals for the CSC, which was originally expected to be issued in September, will instead be released on or before mid-October, according to Pat Finn, assistant deputy minister of materiel. The slight holdup will enable bidders to fine tune their "one last proposal" and come up with their final cost calculations, he said. Finn said the government is getting "re- ally, really excellent feedback" in its con- sultations with industry regarding the CSC and the Arctic/Offshore Patrol Ships pro- grams. The Defence Department is working with Irving Shipping, the prime contractor for the CSC program which calls for the development of an off-the-shelf design of the country's next generation of warships. "There are areas where I would say some of the bidders are not completely happy with the approach. There are areas where we get diametrically opposed comments and we have to deal with it," he said in an interview with the Canadian Press. "But fundamentally it's getting the Navy the ships that it needs." When the CSC was announced back in 2008, the cost to build the 15 surface combatant vessels was said to be $28 bil- lion. Irving was announced prime contrac- tor in 2015. By the fall of that year, it was reported that the price tag on the project had gone up due to increased cost. A later study said the project would now likely cost more than $40 billion. Finn said that he expects design bids to come in by early next year. By the end of summer 2017, the government expects that a general design would be selected. How- ever, negotiations for final contracts on de- tailed designs might take several more years. He said by the time steel is cut on the first CSC vessel, the Irving shipyard will be well acquainted with the process of completing and delivering vessels for the Navy. "They will have a workforce and a pro- duction and a facility and processes that en- able them to have success," he said. "That's what we're trying to achieve; I often de- scribe it as building through AOPS into the Surface Combatants, and that is work we have underway." First aoPs vessel done by 2018 Kevin McCoy, president of Irving Ship- yard, said his company intends to deliver the first of the AOPS vessels by 2018, as originally planned. However, he said, building a modern shipyard to deal with the contract has been full of challenges. Starting the Irving Halifax Shipyard from scratch, he said, involved putting into place more than 700 new procedures, creating Photos: © DEFSEC Atlantic 2016 – Greg Gidney

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