Babcock Canada has signed a teaming agreement with South Korea’s Hanwha Ocean to support the Canadian Patrol Submarine Project (CPSP), one of the largest conventional submarine procurements in modern history.
The deal makes Babcock the exclusive in-service support partner for Hanwha Ocean’s bid, building on a 2021 memorandum of understanding and a 2022 technical cooperation agreement between the firms. Hanwha Ocean was recently shortlisted as one of two qualified suppliers by the Canadian government.
If selected, the programme would see Canada acquire up to 12 new submarines, with the first four delivered by 2035. Hanwha has said it can provide the first KSS-III variant in just six years from contract award, followed by one per year thereafter.
Tony March, CEO of Babcock Canada, said the agreement “further strengthens our existing relationship with Hanwha Ocean and enables the combination of both organisations’ extensive experience on the Canadian Patrol Submarine Project.”
Steve Jeong, Hanwha Ocean’s head of naval ship global business, argued that the partnership offers Canada “the lowest risk and most reliable solution to ensure optimal availability of the submarine fleet.”
Babcock, which sustains the UK’s Royal Navy submarine fleet, already leads Canada’s submarine sustainment enterprise, providing long-term support for the Royal Canadian Navy’s Victoria-class. Hanwha brings extensive design and construction expertise, positioning the team to offer both build and through-life sustainment.
The CPSP is intended to replace Canada’s ageing Victoria-class with a modern fleet able to operate across the Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic. For Ottawa, the project is framed as a “transformational opportunity” to enhance maritime security and sovereignty.
Small AIP SSBN’s.
Hmmm, what’s not to like ?
How do you work the B & N into that?
These are neither nuclear nor balistic.
The KSS-III can fire ballistic missiles.
Sorry, SSB’s then !
Canada should be able to knock together some nukes quite quickly. Just fit them and they have a deterrent that should shut up the Americans.
Will it be enough to honour their comment to defend Greenland from America as well?
Certain irony considering the original nuclear programme was an Anglo Canadian affair.
Maybe the French could dust off plans for the short fin Barracuda?
It would probably fit the bill very well.
A little late for that as Naval Group didn’t make it to the final two, Thyssen Krupp being the other competitor. One presumes the French option wasn’t deemed competitive against the other two, for whatever reason.
Curious, as the SF Barracuda was specifically designed for long periods submerged and exceptionally long range, to meet Australian requirements.
It would appear to meet Canadian Pacific/Atlantic requirements well, on the surface at least…
For a nation with a coast line the size of canada where the only threats come from an ocean away or under the ice these submarines will be close to useless.
Snorkeling or even just running shallow will be suicidal for a submarine in a modern war due to radar satellites and any littoral work that they may have previously been good at will be much better done by UUV’s.
Canada should have tapped on to AUKUS when it had the chance.
I just forwarded your comment and Canada have now cancelled them. 😁
Hotline to Mark Carney AKA the Governor 😀
He read it here first though ! 😂
Jim can you provide any evidence what so ever to back up your statement “Canada should have tapped into AUKUS when they had the chance” ?
As far as I’m aware not only wasn’t Canada ever invited to take part, the Historic fallout of the last time Canada thought about acquiring SSN’s precluded them from even inquiring.
Quite simply the US vetoed them acquiring any from us as per the US/UK Mutual Defence / Cooperation treaty as they do want Canada having SSNs nor access to US nuclear tech. Don’t ask me why but that’s just the way it is 🤷🏼♂️
As for AIP submarines being useless for Canada due to the Arctic Ice well they are the 2nd most useful ones after SSNs as they can can stay down without the need for snorting for quite a long time. These KSS III boats are way better than the early AIPs as like Japans they have Lithium batteries so can stay down for @40 days +. Norway is buying German AIPS ones and Portugal boat recently had one of theirs on patrol up there (which they are very proud of).
The bit that makes me nervous about this is Babcock need to be very careful with S Korea, they “develop” things. For instance their KSS III is based largely on the tech they acquired (German HDW) in the KSS I / II and then it was “developed” by Samsung. Babcock big speciality is weapons handling systems and you would be surprised by just how many countries boats use their products.
It’s Sunday so if you want a good laugh read an article in Defence News “Naval Group charges ThyssenKrupp with selling out submarine tech”.
Yep the French blame the Germans for them getting eliminated from the Canadian Submarine competition !