Arctic/Offshore Patrol Ship AOPS

[Kirkhill]

This information pertains to the Danish Absalon/Huitfeldt ships but it details the design-build planning sequence and the Danish costs for producing the first two of a 5 ship class - a class that could be in contention, not for the AOPS programme, but for the much more sophisticated Canadian Surface Combatant programme.

Denmark – Absalon Class Support Ship (Flexible Support Ship)
Rewritten – February 2006


L-16 Absalon underway
Program Status: Complete – Final Report. Both units of the class, L-16 Absalon and L-17 Esbern Snare, were constructed at the Odense Steel Shipyard in Denmark and have been accepted by the Royal Danish Navy (RDN). The first unit, Absalon, was launched on 25 February 2004 and accepted by the RDN on 19 October 2004. The second unit, Esbern Snare, was launched on 21 June 2004 and accepted by the RDN on 18 April 2005.

Operational Requirement: The RDN has a requirement for a class of multi-purpose ships that can perform a wide range of duties, including conflict prevention, peacemaking, peace support, humanitarian relief, and general naval combat operations.

Program Background: In April 1996, the Danish Ministry of Defense established an expert committee (the Committee Concerning the Armed Forces’ Equipment) to evaluate the suitability of existing defense materiel systems, and to recommend what major materiel acquisitions should be made over the period 2000 - 2011. In August 1997, the committee completed its evaluation by submitting its 300-page report, The Report from the Committee Concerning the Armed Forces’ Equipment, to Parliament. The report recommended replacing the three Niels Juel class corvettes, four Falster class minelayers, and ten Willemoes class fast attack craft (FAC) with six units of a new design, referred to as the "Large Standard Vessel". Two of the Large Standard Ships would be Command & Support Vessels, and four additional units would be Large Patrol Vessels (Frigates). All six of the Large Standard Vessels would be based on the RDN’s Standard Flex (STANFLEX) concept.

Passed by Parliament in 1999, Defense Agreement 2000-2004 provided for the construction of two Command & Support Vessels, and lays the groundwork for the future construction of the Large Patrol Vessels (Frigate). Construction of three of the originally planned four Large Patrol Vessels was authorized in 2004 under Defense Agreement 2005-2009.

Program Acquisition Plan: The Naval Material Command (NMC), in cooperation with a number of foreign designers, initiated a pre-feasibility study for the two Flexible Support Ships authorized under Defense Agreement 2000-2004. An integrated part of the study was the derivative design for the Patrol Ship variants.

Feasibility studies for the program, involving Direction Constructions des Navales International (DCNI) (now Armaris) and BAE Systems, were completed by the end of 1999. Three Danish shipyards (Oerskov Steel Shipyard, Odense Steel Shipyard (Lindoe Yard), and Danyard Aalborg Shipyard) were selected to submit detailed designs and prices by May 2001. Danyard Aalborg Shipyard declined to bid on this program. Tenders were returned in late June 2001, however, both were above the set ceiling price of US$110M (hull, mechanical, and electrical systems only).

On 03 August 2001, the NMC cancelled the tender activity and entered into parallel negotiations with Oerskov and Odense yards. Several meetings were held to clarify the specifications, and to mitigate areas of risk and identify cost savings in order to reduce the overall price. On 15 October 2001, as a result of these negotiations, Odense Steel Shipyard was awarded a US$110M contract for the detailed design and construction of the two ships. First steel was cut for Absalon on 30 April 2003, launched on 25 February 2004 and accepted by the Royal Danish Navy (RDN) on 19 October 2004. The second unit, Esbern Snare, was launched on 21 June 2004 and accepted by the RDN on 18 April 2005.

An additional US$256M was authorized to complete the construction and integrate both units of the class, allowing a total cost of US$183M per unit. The US$183M does not include the containerized STANFLEX systems, which are already in stock or funded through a separate budget.


The construction schedule for the class is as follows:

Hull

Name

Laid Down

Launched

Commissioned

1

Absalon

28 Nov 03

25 Feb 04

19 Oct 04

2

Esbern Snare

May 04

21 Jun 04

18 Apr 05


L-17 Esbern Snare pierside
Design and Construction Considerations: The Flexible Support Ship is to some extent based on the earlier Thetis class design, and includes the successful STANFLEX Concept. The ships are longer than the Thetis class (137m/452ft vice 112.5m/369.1ft) in order to incorporate a mid-ship "multi-function" plug. The beam has grown from 14.4m/47.5ft in Thetis to 19.5m/64.4ft in the new class. An all-diesel propulsion plant driving two shafts (compared to the one-shaft propulsion system chosen for the Thetis class due to the requirement to navigate in ice) allows for a maximum speed of 24 knots. The superstructure is designed and constructed to enhance the ships’ stealth characteristics. Additionally, a flight deck and hangar to support flight operations by two helicopters up to 15 tons.

The stern and the deck below the flight deck is designed for roll-on/roll-off (RO/RO) of vehicles up to Main Battle Tank size (62 tons). Alternatively, the 900 square meter multi-purpose deck (245 lane-meters) can take 75% of an Army reconnaissance battalion, a containerized hospital with a capacity for 10 surgeries a day, a containerized command module for a staff of up to 70 personnel, a container accommodation for emergency evacuations, or up to 300 mines in modular rails. Facilities for carrying two high-speed insertion craft (Swedish Type SRC-90E) are included. Light displacement will be approximately 4,500 tons and full load displacement of around 6,300 tons.

The design features five STANFLEX container positions amidships. In principle, any combination of STANFLEX weapon/equipment container suites developed for the Flyvefisken class will fit on the Flexible Support Ship. However, the mission-specific STANFLEX weapon/equipment container suites that are found on the Absalon class include:

A surface-to-air missile (SAM) module consisting of twelve Evolved Sea Sparrow missiles. Raytheon developed a dual pack Mk 56 launcher for ESSM for the RDN that will replace the Mk 48 Mod 0 at a later date.

A surface-to-surface missile (SSM) module for two quad Boeing Harpoon launchers.

An anti-submarine torpedo module with Eurotorp’s MU90 lightweight torpedoes.

An ELINT module.

A basic storage module.
The STANFLEX containers are manufactured in Denmark by Promecon (a subsidiary of Monberg & Thorsen). They are 3m in length, 3.5m in width, and 2.5m in height. Containers are craned into wells in each ship, with standard interface connections providing access to ship’s services (power, communications, ventilation, water, and data). Installation of a single container is typically accomplished in about 30 minutes, and depending upon the weapon/equipment being installed, system checks are generally complete with a few hours. If one or more container positions are left unoccupied, purpose-made hatch covers are fitted to seal the wells.

In October 2002, the RDN announced the procurement of two United Defense Industries (now BAE Systems Land and Armaments Systems) Mk 45 Mod 4 127mm/54 guns, one for each of the Flexible Support Ships. As this type of gun is not planned for installation on other future RDN units, they will not be containerized. The RDN also intends to procure the Extended Range Guided Munitions (ERGM) for the 127mm gun.

Ship Characteristics:

Vessel Type Auxiliary
Country Denmark
Program Flexible Support Ship
Total Number 2
Unit Cost (US$) 183M
Builder Odense Steel Shipyard in Denmark
Displ. Tons 4,500 (light); 6,300 (full load)
Length 137m (452ft)
Beam 19.5m (64.4ft)
Draft 6.3m (20.6ft)
Machinery Diesel: Two MTU 8000 diesel engines (22,300 hp each, providing a total of 16.63MW of power); two shafts; two controllable pitch propellers; bow thruster.
Speed (Knots) 24
Range 9,000nm at 15 knots.
Complement 100, accommodation for up to 170
Weapons Guns: One BAE Systems Mk 45 Mod 4 127mm/54 gun; four 12.7mm machine guns.
Close-in-Weapons System (CIWS): Two Oerlikon Contraves- 35mm GDM08 Millenium guns with Advanced Hit Efficiency and Destruction (AHEAD) air burst munitions.

Torpedoes: STANFLEX Anti-submarine module with Eurotorp MU90 lightweight anti-submarine warfare (ASW) torpedoes.

Mines: Modular mine rails can be mounted to provide a capacity for 300 mines.

Missiles Surface-to-surface missiles (SSM): STANFLEX modules containing two quad launchers for eight Boeing Harpoon Block II SSMs.
Surface-to-air missiles (SAM): STANFLEX modules each containing three Mk 48 Mod 0 dual pack vertical launcher Sea Sparrow launchers. Raytheon Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile (ESSM) launched from the Mk 56 VLS.

Military lift Sufficient deck space to embark a containerized hospital consisting of twenty-five 20-ft standard containers or 75% of an Army reconnaissance battalion.
Cargo Capacity 140 square meters.
CMS/Fire Control Combat Management System (CMS): Terma Elektronik C-Flex CMS.
Fire Control System (FCS): SaabTech Ceros 200.

Radar Air/surface search: Thales Naval Nederland SMART-S 3D Mk 2.
Navigation: Furuno Danmark X and L band.

Integrated Platform Management System (IPMS) Rockwell Automation IPMS.
Integrated Bridge System (IBS) Rockwell Automation IBS.
Integrated Communications Suite (ICS) Infocom 2000 ICS.
Countermeasures Electronic Support Measures (ESM): EDO ES 3701 Tactical Radar Electronic Support Measures and Surveillance System.
Decoys: Terma Elektronik Soft Kill Weapon System (SKWS) with two DL-12T twelve-barreled chaff/IR launchers.

Sonar Atlas Elektronik hull-mounted active search and attack sonar.
Helicopter Flight deck and hangar for two EH-101 helicopters.
Key Personnel:

Royal Danish Navy

Rear Admiral Nils Christian Wang
Admiral of the Danish Fleet
Admiral Danish Fleet Headquarters
P.O. Box 483 DK-8100 , Arhus C
Denmark
Tel: + 45 89 433 099
Fax: + 45 89 433 141
E-mail: sok@sok.dk
Royal Danish Navy Material Command (Defense Acquisition)

Rear Admiral Kristen Husted Winther
Royal Danish Naval Materiel Command
Lautrupbjerg 1-5
DK-2750 Ballerup
Denmark
Tel : + 45 32 663 266
Fax : + 45 32 663 299
E-mail : smk-ck@nmc.dk
Contract Department
Naval Materiel Command Denmark
Attn: Contract Department
Danneskiold-Samsoes Alle 1
DK-1434 Copenhagen K
Denmark
Tel : + 45 32 663 266
Fax : + 45 32 663 299
E-mail: ka@nmc.dk
Website: http://www.smk.svn.dk

Link: amiinter

 

[Colin Parkinson]

Seems we are not alone in our lack of capacity, Canada gets a good nod in this article.


Coast Guard To Navy: Arctic’s Covered; White House OKs Arctic Icebreaker
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. on May 21, 2013 at 3:31 PM
The Canadian Coast Guard Ship Louis S. St-Laurent makes an approach to the Coast Guard Cutter Healy in the Arctic Ocean Sept. 5, 2009. The two ships are taking part in a multi-year, multi-agency Arctic survey that will help define the Arctic continental shelf. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer Patrick Kelley.

[updated with Adm. Greenert comment] WASHINGTON: While the Navy pivots to the Pacific, the Coast Guard has got their northern flank: the once icebound but now rapidly opening waters of the Arctic Ocean, with its new opportunities for oil, gas, and trade through the fabled Northwest Passage. For the chronically underfunded and “oversubscribed” service, however, the challenge is rebuilding Arctic skills and capabilities that have atrophied for decades – including construction of a new heavy-duty icebreaker that might cost up to a $1 billion, said Coast Guard Commandant, Adm. Robert Papp.

“The United States Navy’s not up there,” Papp told reporters after a speech this morning to roll out the service’s new Arctic strategy, “or if they’re up there, they’re not on the surface of the water”: Nuclear submarines are great for many missions, but not so much for search and rescue, fisheries patrol, or stopping oil spills.

“The United States Navy is forward deployed; it’s fighting wars,” Papp went on. So in the Arctic, “we have not had any participation with the US Navy nor have I asked them for any up there right now. I think the CNO [Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert] would tell you they are fully employed with their responsibilities around the world; and given this is more of a maritime governance issue and not a national defense issue, they are just as happy that the United States Coast Guard is taking on those responsibilities.”

That said, Papp is hoping the Arctic will get more high-level attention now that the administration has released its May 10 National Strategy for the Arctic Region. (He’d also like the Senate to finally ratify the Law of the Sea treaty, a political longshot but something he said he gets “lectured” about by his international counterparts at every meeting on regulating the Arctic). When Adm. Greenert gives his standard slideshow on strategic chokepoints around the world, “he does not show the Bering Strait,” Papp told the audience after his remarks. In fact, the CNO uses a map projection that, while accurate at lower latitudes, makes the Bering Strait look much wider than in reality, where it narrows to as little as 50 miles. “I’ve teased him about that,” Papp said, and, indeed, since November the CNO has added an entire slide devoted to the Arctic.

I got a chuckle out of the good-natured Adm. Greenert when I mentioned Adm. Papp’s anecdote to him before a speech later the same day– and during his remarks, despite the topic of the evening being the Pacific, the CNO made sure to show off his Arctic Ocean slide. “Working with the Canadian Navy, this is becoming a big topic of conversation, as well as with my partner in the Coast Guard,” Greenert told the audience. While his status reports can show dozens of ships in the Pacific, he said ruefully, ”here’s what we’ve got in the Arctic region: one SSN [nuclear-powered attack submarine]. So we’ve got a lot of work to do.”

That includes making sure that whatever the Navy procures can operate in the extreme cold of the far north, Greenert said, rather than “learn[ing] the hard way” about the rigors of a new environment, as the fleet did in the 1990s when it took equipment designed for the North Atlantic into the heat and sand of the Persian Gulf.

Not every defense official, however, is catching up quite as quickly as Adm. Greenert. At one recent meeting with the Canadians, a Defense Department official Papp declined to name stood up and said “we see no conflict [in the Arctic], there are no threats, the Defense Department has no plans for the next 10 years,” Papp said. The senior Canadian present, he recalled, “turned very red.”

In fact, it’s the Coast Guard, not the Defense Department, that’s taken the lead on Arctic cooperation with the Canadian Navy, as well as the Canadian Coast Guard. For example, the American Coasties regularly send a cutter to participate in Canada’s annual “Operation Nanook” exercise “even when the Navy has had to back out” to cover commitments elsewhere, Papp said. For the future, the commandant expects to see close cooperation with the Canadians in the Arctic on the model already proven on the Great Lakes, where the two countries share icebreakers and helicopters. But the Canadians themselves are stretched thin over their own vast Arctic territories, so they’ve concentrated their resources on the eastern (Atlantic) side, leaving the western (Pacific) side largely to the US Coast Guard — which, of course, is the side on which we have a little thing called Alaska, which stretches across almost to Russia.

“We’re relearning all those lessons up there,” Papp told reporters. “The good thing is I also have the knowledge we’ve done it before.” It’s been a while, though: “The heyday was 1955 through ’58,” he said when the Coast Guard worked with Canada and the Navy to build the DEW Line to provide “distant early warning” of Soviet nuclear attack. That history proves that the nation can commit resources to far north when it has to, Papp said, and “that national imperative in the Arctic is upon us again.”

One of Papp’s proudest achievements as commandant has been to get the nation’s only heavy icebreaker, the Polar Star, out of mothballs and back into service: It’ll be heading north soon to start training the crew. But the Star, built in 1976, won’t last forever, and the nation’s only other icebreaker is the much smaller Healy, so Papp has won administration approval to explore developing a new heavy-duty icebreaker. (Once again, he’s working with the Canadians, who “are probably about a year or two ahead of us” in looking at heavy icebreaker designs). While Papp doesn’t think Arctic-capable ships built by oil companies have enough icebreaking power, he does see some Scandinavian designs that might be good starting points for the US to modify.

It’s expensive, Papp admits, at least by Coast Guard standards: “The high end is a billion dollars, but I think that’s a good investment for something you’re going to use for forty years.” (For comparison, the Navy’s workhorse DDG-51 destroyers cost a couple of billion, and the fleet has more than 60 of them).

Besides icebreakers, though, Papp must also pay the bill for the Coast Guard’s new flagships, the National Security Cutters, and, soon, for a smaller Offshore Patrol Cutter to replace its 14 aging Reliance-class medium-endurance cutters:  “We don’t even send them to Alaska,” he said, and in fact the 1960s-vintage vessels have trouble even in calm water. “We’re constantly plugging holes in hulls,” he sighed, and one cutter, the Dauntless, just went into “emergency drydock” to repair a dangerously rusted hull.

Will the Coast Guard be asking for more National Security Cutters and Offshore Patrol Cutters than currently planned to cover its growing Arctic responsibilities? “No,” Papp said flatly. “I’m having enough of a challenge just getting the program of record,” he said, having fought a successful battle just last year to restore the seventh and eighth National Security Cutters to the budget.

It’ll be those big cutters that will act as the mobile headquarters for the Coast Guard as it surges to the North Slope of Alaska every summer in the coming years. “There’s no permanent infrastructure or operating forces” on Alaska’s northern coast, Papp said, nor does he think it wise to build them, at least in the near term. For the next decade, he said, the ice will remain bad enough in winter that commercial traffic will stay out and only a seasonal Coast Guard presence, about nine months a year, is necessary.

“One of the things that Shell found last year” – when some of the oil company’s craft got badly battered – “and that kind of surprised us as well, was the amount of ice still floating around up there,” Papp said. While the Arctic is opening for energy exploration, trade, and even tourism, it’s still unwise to underestimate its dangers.

Nevertheless, the Far North is changing inexorably. In his own first tour as a young Coast Guard officer, Papp recalled, he reported to the cutter Ironwood in Alaska, where he encountered the worst weather of his almost 40-year career. In 1976, when Ironwood tried to pass through the Bering Strait to patrol Alaska’s North Slope, it could find no way through the ice. In 2010, as Commandant, Papp went back to the same place: “I looked out as far as I could see, and there was no ice.”

http://breakingdefense.com/2013/05/21/coast-guard-to-navy-weve-got-arctic-covered-sort-of-white-house-oks-arctic-icebreaker-studies/

 

[STONEY]

For Info;  Irvings Halifax Shipyard has begun completely flattening 3/4 of its site and construction has begun
on a completely new expanded site including a huge building hall that towers to a height of 16 stories high and is several football fields long. New piers are being built at a cost of 300 million. They have also acquired a closed steel facility across the harbour in Dartmouth which will be modernised for cutting steel to ship to the yard. So it looks like things are finally getting underway.

Cheers

 

[Underway]

For Info;  Irvings Halifax Shipyard has begun completely flattening 3/4 of its site and construction has begun
on a completely new expanded site including a huge building hall that towers to a height of 16 stories high and is several football fields long. New piers are being built at a cost of 300 million. They have also acquired a closed steel facility across the harbour in Dartmouth which will be modernised for cutting steel to ship to the yard. So it looks like things are finally getting underway.

Cheers

I find it painfully ironic that Irving is laying off people to create more jobs.  Just brutal for those families.  Hopefully they stick around instead of heading west otherwise it will be tough to hire them back.

 

[Kirkhill]

Aye, and how much work are they going to attract to a yard when 75% of its facilities are being destroyed/replaced and the other 25%, no doubt, impacted by construction activities. 

Part of the plan might have included a furlough package for key personnel.

 

[Navy_Pete]

Aye, and how much work are they going to attract to a yard when 75% of its facilities are being destroyed/replaced and the other 25%, no doubt, impacted by construction activities. 

Part of the plan might have included a furlough package for key personnel.

From the company that lays off guys on Thursday to hire them back Monday or Tuesday?  I think the 'furlough package' is probably EI.

I think the cash cow that is the RCN is probably all the business they really need. Why get other customers when you can screw the govt and not worry about poor quality workmanship or meeting the schedule?  Even better, if you mess something up, you blame the customer.  Ideal really.

 

[jollyjacktar]

My youngest is being offered a job there to paint for them.  Minimum 2 years at $17/hr.

 

[Colin Parkinson]

From the company that lays off guys on Thursday to hire them back Monday or Tuesday?  I think the 'furlough package' is probably EI.

I think the cash cow that is the RCN is probably all the business they really need. Why get other customers when you can screw the govt and not worry about poor quality workmanship or meeting the schedule?  Even better, if you mess something up, you blame the customer.  Ideal really.

In some ways being the poor cousin out west has been good for us, our shipyards had to compete for customers and apparently built a decent rep for on time reliable repairs.

 

[The Bread Guy]

Point (via CBC.ca):

Two days before signing a contract to begin work on a $3-billion shipbuilding project, the federal government was warned by its own advisers that the contract was overpriced — but signed it anyway.

The warning was contained in a previously confidential independent review of the initial phase of the government's plan to spend $3.1 billion on a fleet of Arctic offshore patrol ships, known as AOPS.

The report, by International Marine Consultants of Vancouver (IMC), was commissioned by the Department of Public Works and obtained by CBC News under the Access to Information Act. It says the number of man-hours quoted by Irving Shipbuilding of Halifax was "very high and considerably more than we would have expected for a shipbuilding program for vessels of the size and complexity of the AOPS."

Although the report was delivered on March 5 of this year, the government signed the contract at Irving's Halifax shipyard two days later, on March 7 — leaving no time to do anything about the report's findings ....

Counterpoint (via PWGSC Info-machine):

International Marine Consultants Ltd. (IMC) was engaged by the Arctic/Offshore Patrol Ships (AOPS) project office to conduct an Independent 3rd Party Review of the Irving Shipbuilding Inc. (ISI) Proposal to Canada which set out indicative (estimated) costs for AOPS tasked-based Definition Contract. The role of 3rd party experts is to help inform the decisions that are made by Canada. IMC commented on these indicative costs in January 2013, and the government's negotiations with ISI on Tasks 1 (Project Management) and 2 (Engineering Design Phase 1) of the Definition Contract were directly informed by IMC's observations.

In assessing IMC's observations, Canada also took into consideration that comparisons to traditional build/design processes reflected by IMC were not being used for AOPS. Indeed, as Canada has indicated on many occasions, including at a recent technical briefing in June, ISI is taking a comprehensive design, then build, approach to AOPS. The net effect is an increased cost of design in order to generate more significant savings in construction. Thus a straight comparison to earlier or other projects that have not taken this approach is not valid. A description of the definition contract is provided on the National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy (NSPS) website.

Equally important is that this third party review was conducted in the context of a ship design exercise. In fact, ISI is being tasked to set up the capability to design and build ships for the Government of Canada over the next 30 years, which includes preparations for construction that are taking place now for use during the entire duration of the shipbuilding strategy. ISI announced in August its $300M shipyard improvement initiative, which speaks directly to the long-term view that is being taken, with the first ships, AOPS, benefitting from that approach.

Costs negotiated for Task 1, which is a firm-fixed price task, represent fair and reasonable costs for the work to be done. For Task 2, which is a cost reimbursable incentive fee task, the costs and profits are estimates only at this time.

The review of Task 2 (i.e. costs of the Design Agent, the Command and Surveillance System Integrator, etc) raised important points that are being monitored during the execution of the contract. The basis of payment for this task is time and material, in an open book environment. In fact, the entire contract with ISI is being undertaken on an open book basis. As a result, the Crown will only pay for work actually performed by ISI and its subcontractors. If the effort is actually overestimated, as suggested by the third party review, the ultimate payment for Task 2 will be less than quoted.

It should be noted that in their report, IMC provided a general comment that "“Irving Shipbuilding Inc. had presented a comprehensive, high quality proposal that accurately describes the work associated with Task 1 and Task 2 of the Contract Definition Phase of this important project.”" They also stated that "“the amount of resources being allocated and associated level of effort proposed should ensure that a near-optimum Build Strategy can be developed for the Implementation Phase of the Project which in turn should allow the material procurement and actual ship construction to run smoothly using the minimal number of man-hours and full utilization of the available infrastructure.”" IMC provided their opinion that this will enable the "“AOPS to be built and commissioned into service in a timely manner.”"

 

[Kirkhill]

I don't often say this but I find the CBC report to be more persuasive than the Government/ISL response.

 

[Edward Campbell]

I hope David Parkins, commenting in the Globe and Mail, isn't being prescient:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/commentary/xxxxx/article14052163/#dashboard/follows/

Reproduced under the Fair Dealing provisions of the Copyright Act from the Globe and Mail

 

[AlexanderM]

Are those things stabilized?  ;D

 

[MarkOttawa]

Let's take an (Arctic) sea cruise!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EVDdt5jrUY

Mark
Ottawa

 

[Navy_Pete]

Posted the link to the buyandsell.gc.ca link to the call for interested bidders under the 'What's Canada buying Nov 2013' thread over here

buyandsell.gc.ca quicklink

The pdf at the bottom which is viewable by all shows the proposed outline of the concept of support, in case you were curious what the scope of the ISSC might be.  Will be refined with the industry input, but it's an interesting read.

Note that this is more extensive then the current ISSC for the MCDVs or the Vic subs, but that's directed by the current CAF policy on ISSC.  This will be the first kick at a large scale long term ISSC for a ship, and should go cradle to grave.

If you look at the scope, this isn't something that either of the NSPS shipyards could do on their own, and is probably more appropriate for a large engineering/ project management firm along with a few partners to cover off various aspects of the support.  The ships will still need repaired though, so they will go out to tender for the yards to bid on, except it will be done by the ISSC on behalf of the RCN rather then through PWGSC.  Think AOPs docking is something like every 30 months to inspect the icebreaking hull integrity under the class rules, so should be interesting.

 

[Underway]

This article came out in Nov, so its the vintage of the last discussion post on this thread, I thought it might be interesting.

http://www.navalreview.ca/2013/11/what-the-third-party-report-does-and-does-not-say-about-irving-shipbuilding/

In particular I find it funny that the 30 month design phase conicides with the shipyard rebuild.

Also this is older as well but a power point presentation at Dal regarding the design and operational challenges of the AOPS,
and some of the solutions provided. 

http://www.dal.ca/content/dam/dalhousie/pdf/cfps/Events/Soule_AOPS_CFPS_Sep11.pdf

Understanding that some of the yardsticks have moved since 2011,  I find most remarkable that helo's are an absolute for proper ice
navigation (perhaps a scaneagle would suffice these days), what classifies as first years ice (hardly slushbreaking), and the distances
involved in arctic travel.  Also the design is to have room for a larger gun armament that is initially listed.

 

[Colin Parkinson]

Funny they mentioned the CCGS Henry Larson, she suffered a major failure of a large electrical piece during her trial runs and sat tied to the wall for 6 months. As I recall it was a manufacturing defect, not a shipyard fault.

 

[Edward Campbell]

The Prime mMinister has announced that the class and first of class will be named for VAdm Harry DeWolf CBE DSO DSC CD.

Admiral DeWolf was known as "Hard-over Harry" for his bold handling of his ship, Haida in battle in 1943/44.

 

[jollyjacktar]

I like that decision.  He's an excellent choice for the lead in the class.  Wish they'd get the finger out and get things rolling faster.  Thanks for sharing that, ER.

 

[Kirkhill]

This may offer some additional capabilities to the AOPS and reduce the need (not eliminate the need, just reduce it) for long endurance submarines in the arctic.
http://www.defense-aerospace.com/article-view/release/157133/five-unmanned-boats-maneuver-as-one.html

If they can solve the problem of transferring data from one small platform to another underwater, joined with an ability to transfer power or use long endurance underwater gliders, then the AOPS can become a command post and service station for an underwater network of sensors that can relocate toward threats. They can also move out of the way of big chunks of ice that drag across the bottom.

Five Marine Vehicles Behave As One Ensemble: Full Supra Vehicle Successfully Tested for the First Time In Azores


(Source: NATO Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation; issued Sept 16, 2014)
 


From 8 to 18 September 2014, the Center of IMAR of the University of the Azores is hosting the sea trials of a new type of robotics-based distributed sensor system, aimed at affording marine scientists and commercial operators a revolutionary tool for marine habitat mapping in complex 3D environments. The tests are performed in the scope of the European Commission research project MORPH (Marine Robotic System of Self-Organising, Logically Linked Physical Nodes).

Launched in February 2012, the 4-year research project MORPH is partly funded by the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme with a budget of 8,5 million Euros.
The major goal of the project is to develop a distributed robotic underwater system carrying complementary sensors for complex underwater mapping missions. At the core of the innovative solution adopted is the concerted operation of a number of relatively simple, affordable vehicles, capable of cooperating seamlessly and behave as an ensemble, yielding a "MORPH Supra Vehicle".

The role of CMRE within MORPH is to provide the communication infrastructure between the individual modules (vehicles). The ability to share data between submerged vehicles is in fact crucial for the implementation of cooperative control schemes. CMRE is exploring novel techniques that allow embedding location awareness into the underwater communications network, solving both the problems of inter-vehicle data exchange and relative positioning.

For the Azores trials, research engineers, marine biologists, and commercial partners are working together to meet the formidable challenge of affording scientific and commercial end-users an advanced mapping system capable of accessing inhospitable areas and operating under scenarios that defy current technology; e.g., to perform underwater surveys over high-relief seafloor with complex 3D structures (canyons and rugged cliff areas) in the presence of reduced visibility and natural unforeseen obstacles.

To prove the concept of a MORPH Supra Vehicle, the tests is taking place in the beautiful setting of "Baia de Porto Pim", in Faial Island (Azores). The area is perfect to operate a MORPH ensemble of five vehicles for the first time, undergoing cooperative motion while acquiring video and sonar data to map the sea bottom.

What is so special about the MORPH Supra Vehicle is that its building blocks (a set of small robotic marine vehicles) operate in a cooperative manner, as if they were a single, powerful vehicle, capable of carrying advanced, complementary sensor suites, and reacting to environmental conditions in real time.

The Azores trials focus on the execution of an optical and acoustic survey mission with one surface and four underwater vehicles moving in formation and avoiding obstacles detected online.

This is an important step towards the execution of the final scenario mission, planned for 2015 in the Azores, where the system will be used to perform an underwater survey to acquire data and map black coral communities growing in an underwater cliff in Monte da Guia, Faial Island.

The MORPH system developed in the scope of the project is expected to offer an innovative solution to a number of problems in field applications such as: environmental monitoring, exploration of marine resources, archaeological surveys, harbour protection, monitoring of industrial infrastructures (offshore wind power installations, pipeline), and sea mine detection, to name a few. From an engineering standpoint, the problems that are being addressed and solved are at the forefront of underwater robotics technology, namely in what concerns cooperative mission programming, navigation, and control, as well as acoustic communications and vision-based habitat mapping.

In addition to CMRE, the MORPH team participating in the trials consist of 35 scientists from five countries and nine member organizations: ATLAS ELEKTRONIK (Germany, coordinator), IMAR (Institute of Marine Research, Portugal), Instituto Superior Tecnico (IST, Portugal), Jacobs University Bremen (Germany), Ilmenau University of Technology (Germany), Ifremer (France), Universitat de Girona – Computer Vision and Robotics Research Institute (Spain), Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche - Istituto di Studi sui Sistemi Intelligenti per l'Automazione (CNR-ISSIA, Italy).

 

[Colin Parkinson]

I did some support work in the 90's to the SFU's Underwater Research lab where they were trying to deal with that communication issues.