Posted on 05/08/2013 8:50:40 AM PDT by JerseyanExile
The Canadian Coast Guard is also designing a new polar-class icebreaker, the CCGS John G. Diefenbaker, to replace its existing heavy icebreaker, the Louis S. St-Laurent (pictured), which is due to be retired in 2017.
The Harper government is going to have to decide whether resupplying Canada’s navy or Arctic sovereignty is more important thanks to a looming collision at a Vancouver shipyard.
The Royal Canadian Navy is designing new joint support ships to replace its 50-year-old resupply vessels, which were supposed to have been retired in 2012 and have become environmentally unsound and prohibitively expensive to maintain.
The Canadian Coast Guard is also designing a new polar-class icebreaker, the CCGS John G. Diefenbaker, to replace its existing heavy icebreaker, the Louis S. St-Laurent, which is due to be retired in 2017.
But while both are expected to be ready for construction at the same time, the Vancouver shipyard slated to build them can only handle one project at a time.
This scheduling conflict was acknowledged in a recent Defence Department report tabled in Parliament, which noted that “the Joint Support Ship and the Polar Icebreaker are progressing on a very similar schedule such that they both could be ready for construction at the same time.”
The report goes on to say the first joint support ship will be delivered around by 2018, “assuming JSS is not delayed by the initial Coast Guard projects and the Polar Icebreaker program.”
Any delay in replacing the navy’s existing resupply vessels could be potentially devastating for the maritime fleet because new ships are needed immediately, while delays undercut the purchasing power of the $2.6 billion set aside for the project.
(Excerpt) Read more at canada.com ...
Gonna need a bigger boat yard.......
Is Saint John Shipbuilding busy? They built some of the frigates back in the 1980s.
The headline needs a little work...LOL
I think there is some spare capacity in the US. We aren’t hardly doing s..t and it looks like we are going to be doing more and more of it.
The Current FReepathon Pays For The Current Quarters Expenses?
Canada Ping!
IIRC there’s another yard on the east coast.
“environmentally unsound” - is that code for “they burn diesel fuel”?
Yeah, they should be solar powered. Would work real well in the long winter.
I understand that they probably want to keep all of their ship building within Canada, but I wonder if they have checked into the possibility of an American shipyard building the ice breaker. If it’s going to save them billions in the long run, might be worth doing.
Ingalls could probably use some work........
The Canadian yards are astoundingly expensive and inefficient but they have to build domestically for political reasons.
Maybe Canada could use the more environmental communist approved sled-dogs to pull them through the ice.
Looks like Canada will have to ship its ship building to Communist China....where everything else is going. They can make the Free Traders happy in the process
“The headline needs a little work...LOL”
________________________________________________
LOL, that was my first thought as well. :)
Seriously, though; I don’t have any knowledge to comment intelligently, but there must be some Canada-based solution to the problem. I’m sure they’re working on it.
Will you please confirm that I am on any and all CANADA pinglists? I sure want to be!
(But sometimes I miss things)
Thanks!
golux
Can't, cruelty to animals. The only acceptable use for sled dogs is the Idatarod.
You are now.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.