Quote:
Originally Posted by twoNeurons
Interesting. I also see this ship-building announcement as a potential way to get more federal money flowing this way as well as it could be seen as a nation-building exercise. We are going to need more ice-breaker vessels in the future and being able to build them at home is an advantage... which is harder to do without an industry or expertise.
Fast ferries were obviously problematic (although damage was exaggerated by the incoming gov't)... but keep to building what is known shouldn't be a huge problem.
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FWIW, Davie Shipyards in Quebec is structured in the current period of the NSS as the icebreaker-focused Tier 1 shipyard.
Edit: I also misspoke before. I had meant Seaspan's role as designer-constructor of the
Multi-Purpose Icebreakers, not
Program Icebreakers.
Seaspan is currently allocated the following under the National Shipbuilding Strategy:
- Offshore Fisheries Science Vessels - 3 ordered, 3 delivered
- Offshore Oceanographic Science Vessel - 1 ordered, 1 delivered
- Protecteur-class Joint Support Ship - 2 ordered, 2 under construction/fitting out, 0 delivered
- Polar Icebreaker - 1 ordered, 1 under construction, 0 delivered
- Multi-Purpose Icebreakers - up to 16 planned, vessel design/production engineering under way, 0 ordered, 0 delivered
Seaspan is currently allocated up to 23 large vessels, of which only 4 have been delivered and those projects closed out and 3 are physically under construction or outfitting. That leaves up to 16 large vessels still remaining in the pipeline. That's actually better than I thought with respect to the remaining work for Seaspan.
The big question is whether the Multi-Purpose Icebreaker program continues to be wholly allocated to Seaspan and whether the full 16-hull fleet will be built. Originally, Seaspan was allocated all the non-combat vessels under the NSS. Davie was added later as a third shipyard and it has taken on a role specializing in icebreakers. My understanding is that the second Polar class icebreaker and the 6 Program icebreakers were new requirements and orders established through the process of Davie being added to the NSS, and were never specifically identified as being part of the Seaspan order, notwithstanding the original combat/non-combat classification split between Irving and Seaspan. I just worry that the Multi-Purpose Icebreaker program will be split between Seaspan and Davie once the design and production engineering work at Seaspan is complete. That, or the order is reduced to account for the 6 Program icebeakers that were not on the books with the 'up to 16' hull count for the Multi-Purpose Icebeakers when the NSS was drafted.
Ultimately, I hope additional JSS hulls are procured and built by Seaspan, along with the notional Arctic Mobile Base vessel concept. Maintaining the capacity for Seaspan to undertake the design/production engineering and construction of specialized large displacement hulls will be important for the NSS to have reached it full purpose. Back on topic, contracts to replace the aging large-displacement BC Ferries hulls would go a long way towards the NSS goals, too.
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