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Chris Pook said:I can accept a charge of 'catalogue shopping'. I will even accept being accused of 'situating the estimate' by deciding on a vessel first and then designing a concept of operations afterwards.
What I struggle with is that prior to the entry of the Svalbard concept into the discussion there was no Concept of Operations for the RCN in the Arctic. So then the RCN created a Concept of Operations that resulted in something close to, but not identical to, the Svalbard which seems to have resulted in delays and costs to produce a novel design.
I don't doubt that the AOPS will increase the RCN's presence in the North, and possibly even the Arctic, but wouldn't the original Svalbard design have done at least as well?
There actually was an idea of what they were to do if anything based on what the Kingston Class have been doing there for the last decade and what the original requirements were. Much of the concept of operations was based on lessons learned in the Arctic by the RCN, reaching back to HMCS Labrador. Concept of operations are written while ships are being built or sometime after as they often change. I would imagine the AOPS concept of operations will continue to be rewritten over the years as the class matures. I can't argue that the Svalbard design would have sufficed but that was based on what could be had in Canada for the budget the government provided. Building offshore was never an option and little appetite to build a direct copy.