The Single Class Surface Combatant Project is a naval procurement program for the
Royal Canadian Navy created to replace the aging
Iroquois-class
anti-air warfare destroyers and
Halifax-class multi-role
frigates. The
Iroquois and
Halifax ships have come to the end or are nearing the end of their service lives and require replacement. The
Iroquois class was originally scheduled for retirement around 2010 after 40 years in service; the ships were then expected to have their service lives extended until replacements were commissioned. However, all four have been decommissioned, the last being in March 2017. The
Halifax class is projected to end their service lives in the 2020s. The navy had investigated adopting the
active phased array radar (APAR), leading observers to suggest that APAR and the associated
SMART-L would equip the Single-Class Surface Combatant or upgraded
Halifax-class ships during the
Frigate Equipment Life Extension (FELEX) project. Upgrades to the existing
Halifax class with such a system would likely be difficult since the APAR requires its own mast and might make the
Halifax-class design top-heavy. In the 2010 Canadian National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy, $26 billion was planned for the construction of the 15 vessels of the Single Class Surface Combatant Project. The first ships were slated to become available in 2026. The initial plan called for separate bids for design and integration of systems aboard the vessels. The government later investigated merging those bids. On 26 October 2012 a letter of interest was published by Public Works and Government Services Canada to announce a session in which interested firms could find out the needs of DND for the new class and the project in general. The closing date was 5 November 2012. On 20 January 2015,
Irving Shipbuilding was named the prime contractor for the program. The role of the lead contractor gave Irving Shipbuilding overall control of the project, and the company had already won the right to build the vessels at its yard in
Halifax, Nova Scotia. This led to questions concerning the bidding process and the awarding of the contracts. In fall 2015, high increases in costs were reported, more than doubling to $30 billion from $14 billion for the new warships. The total cost of the naval ship building program rose from $26.2 billion to $42 billion in a study. This put in jeopardy the number of ships that could be produced and raised the prospect of ships with reduced capabilities. On 13 June 2016,
Minister of Public Services and Procurement Judy Foote announced that the government would buy and modify an off-the-shelf design for the new warships, instead of designing them from scratch. The minister said a competitive bid for an existing design would knock about two years off the process and save money. The nearly $2 billion saving in research and development costs would allow for more ships to be built and the integration of more advanced technology with increased capability, over the long term. It was originally anticipated that two CSC ship variants would have been acquired to replace the specific capabilities of the
Iroquois-class destroyers and
Halifax-class frigates. As originally intended, both variants would have the necessary combat capabilities to operate in air, surface and subsurface threat environments. A small number of ships (up to five) would have additionally incorporated the sensors, guided weapons and command and fire control facilities necessary to perform large-area air defence, along with having the facilities to be task force flagships. The remaining ships would have replaced the capabilities provided by the fleet of
Halifax-class frigates as a more general purpose/antisubmarine warfare variant. On 20 October 2020, Alan Williams (former Assistant Deputy Minister, Supply Operations Service in Public Works and Government Services Canada, and former Assistant Deputy Minister of Materiel at the Department of National Defence) released a paper examining the estimated life-cycle costs of Canada's Canadian Surface Combatants. Williams estimated that acquisition, operating and supporting the Canadian Surface Combatants throughout their life-cycle of approximately 30 years will cost between $213.5 billion and $219.6 billion. Approximately two-thirds of these costs are attributable to the long-term operations and support (O&S) costs of the CSC. This report caught the attention of the
House of Commons Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates. Additionally, the
National Shipbuilding Strategy was set to have a planned
Auditor General review in early 2021. This level of watchdog review and spiralling cost estimates drew parallels to Canada's
acquisition of F-35 Lightning II fighter jets. On 14 February 2025, a news article by David Pugliese presented concerns raised by defence industry officials that a Canadian-made command management system was not being installed as promised by Lockheed Martin Canada, raising concerns that upgrades and modifications to the ship would have to be accepted by the US government. ==Bids==