Canadian Surface Combatant
The Canadian Surface Combatant, formerly the Single Class Surface Combatant Project is the procurement project that will replace the Iroquois and Halifax-class warships with up to 15 new ships beginning in the mid to late 2020s as part of the National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy.
A rendering of the Canadian Surface Combatant | |
Class overview | |
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Builders | Irving Shipbuilding |
Operators | Royal Canadian Navy |
Preceded by | |
Cost | $77.3 billion |
Built | Mid 2020s–2040s |
Planned | 15 |
General characteristics | |
Displacement | 8,080 t (7,950 long tons) (standard) |
Length | 151.4 m (496 ft 9 in) |
Beam | 20.75 m (68 ft 1 in) |
Draught | 8 m (26 ft 3 in) |
Propulsion |
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Speed | 27 knots (50 km/h; 31 mph) |
Range | 7,000 nmi (13,000 km; 8,100 mi) |
Complement | 210 |
Sensors and processing systems |
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Electronic warfare & decoys |
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Armament |
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Aircraft carried |
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Aviation facilities |
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Notes |
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The replacement vessels will be somewhat larger than the existing Halifax class, and presumably provide a wide-area air defence capability, anti-submarine as well as anti-ship warfare capability. The design of these ships is currently underway and both the total number of ships and their capability will be dependent on the budget that is allocated to the project. In 2017, a new defence policy framework, entitled Strong, Secure and Engaged, was unveiled which promised significantly greater resources for the Surface Combatant Project - i.e. in the range of $60 billion. By 2021, the Parliamentary Budget Officer estimated the cost for the program of 15 Type 26 ships as $77.3 billion, "rising to $79.7 billion if there is a one-year delay in the start of construction and $82.1 billion if there is a two-year delay".
By December 2017, the three submitted proposals were:
- British Type 26 frigate design proposed by Lockheed Martin Canada and BAE Systems
- Dutch De Zeven Provinciën-class frigate-based design proposed by Alion Canada and Damen Group
- Spanish F-105 frigate design offered by Navantia
On 19 October 2018, the Type 26 was selected as the "preferred design", and the government entered "into negotiations with the winning bidder to confirm it can deliver everything promised in the complex proposal." However, after Alion Canada, one of the failed bidders, began litigation in November 2018, the government was ordered to postpone any discussion of contracts until the investigation by the Canadian International Trade Tribunal was complete. The Trade Tribunal dismissed the complaint for lack of standing on 31 January 2019, and the Canadian government signed the $60 billion contract with the winning bidders on 8 February 2019. Alion appealed the decision to Federal Court, but discontinued its challenge in November 2019.