Heroes saved HMCS Protecteur last week after a fire broke out in the engine room of the 45-year-old 'Auxiliary Oiler Replenishment Ship' during a mid-Pacific storm.
Our admiration for the courage of the men and women of the Royal Canadian Navy does not stop us from asking: Why is the Navy operating a steam-driven single-hulled tanker in 2014?
Protecteur was commissioned in 1969 and is based at Esquimalt. Her just-slightly younger sister ship, HMCS Preserver, is based at Halifax. The 172 metre-long vessels form the core of Canada's two naval task groups, carrying fuel and other supplies as well as three Sea King helicopters.
Because of their age and because they were built to civilian rather than military standards, the vessels are very outdated. Instead of the diesel-electric propulsion systems found on Canada's other naval vessels, Protecteur and Preserver have oil-fired boilers to produce the steam that drives the propellers.
Despite being designed to carry a great deal of fuel, Protecteur and Preserver have single rather than double hulls. This greatly increases the risk of an oil spill in the event of an accident. They are banned from European ports for this reason and will be banned from U.S. ports after 2015, limiting their sphere of potential operations.
Two decades of dithering
Planning to replace the supply ships began in 1992. The Afloat Logistics Sealift Capability project aimed to deliver three vessels that would serve both as replenishment ships for the Navy and as transport ships for the Army.
Along with several other procurements -- notably the replacement of the Sea King helicopters -- the project was effectively suspended for the duration of Jean Chrétien's government.
The procurement was finally approved in 2004 by Paul Martin's government, with delivery of the three ships expected between 2012 and 2016. A total of $2.1 billion was allocated for the Joint Support Ship project.
In November 2006, Stephen Harper's government announced two companies, ThyssenKrupp and SNC-Lavalin, would each receive $12.5 million to develop designs. As part of the arrangement, the intellectual property rights would be assigned to Canada, allowing the government to select the builder.
Two years later, however, the Harper government cancelled the project -- after ThyssenKrupp and SNC-Lavalin's proposals failed to meet the required specifications for the three ships within the $2.1-billion envelope.
Costs climbing
In July 2010, the project was re-launched as part of the Harper government's new National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy. The number of ships was reduced to two, with most of the Army transport component removed, and the estimated total cost was raised to $2.6 billion.
In 2013, the Berlin-class design submitted by ThyssenKrupp was selected. The project is now in the 'contract definition' phase.
All the while, the cost is rising. In February 2013, the Parliamentary Budget Office estimated the project would cost $4.13 billion, with the difference between this estimate and the Harper government's much-lower estimate being explained by a failure to account properly for inflation.
Indeed, in an audit of the project, the Department of National Defence's own Chief Review Services found that the government had assessed inflation at 2 per cent per year instead of the 3.5 to 5 per cent "acknowledged to be prevalent in the shipbuilding industry."
While this was happening, the Harper government passed on an opportunity to purchase a brand new support ship from the Dutch navy in 2013 -- at a price of just $480 million.
Canada to lose naval autonomy
Delivery of the two new Canadian-built ships is now projected for 2020. With Protecteur and Preserver due for retirement in 2015, this means the Royal Canadian Navy will be reliant on allied support ships for at least five years.
Without its own support ships, Canada will be unable to deploy task groups from either coast. Yet geopolitical tensions -- as exist today in Ukraine and the South China Sea -- could well necessitate sending ships across oceans.
Canada's only option then would be to assign our Halifax-class frigates to U.S. task groups, at no small loss to national control -- and to our stature in the world.
Read more: Federal Politics
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