The minister this morning announced a Streamlined Procurement process, that should see construction follow the completion of the Arctic Patrol vessels. The Announcement Stated that up to 15 ships would be built, and an off the self design would be chosen with some minor modifications Rather than continuing with the previous approach, which consisted of selecting a Warship Designer and a Combat Systems Integrator to work together to custom design the CSC. The new approach allows Canada to select and modify an existing warship design through a single competitive process.

A Request for Proposals to select a ship design will be released in summer 2016. While the opportunity for firms to pre-qualify will be reopened, the 12 firms that have already pre-qualified will not be required to reapply.

Minister foot also acknowledged that the 26billion price tag was low, not counting inflation and labor cost increases.

The CSC project’s objective is to recapitalize the Royal Canadian Navy’s surface combatant fleet by replacing the various warfare capabilities currently residing in the Iroquois-class destroyers and Halifax-class frigates, and providing the necessary integrated logistics support and infrastructure.