naval affairs

NAC News – Edition 248

NAC News – Edition 248

Fellow Members:

Rod Hughes – Editor NAC News

rhughes@shaw.ca   (comments welcome to help improve this service)

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NOTICES

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CANADA

 

 

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OBITUARIES

The Executive Director NAC regrets to announce the following individuals who have passed recently:

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Response to Danish Ship Article

David Pugliese’s article in Defence Watch is regrettably misleading and

compares apples and oranges leading to the implied conclusion that Canada can

build naval ships off shore cheaper. The apple, a Danish Rasmussen-class

AOPV full load displacement is just over 2000 tons. The orange, a Canadian

Harry DeWolf-class AOPV displaces 6400 tons – literally three times as big,

hardly “a little bit smaller”. There are many reasons that Canada’s Harry DeWolf –

class are larger including the lack of fuelling facilities in the Canadian Arctic

requiring Canadian ships to have very long endurance, essentially twice that of

the Danish ship in mileage and crew support. The Canadian ship is bigger by

necessity and more capable. Thus comparing the Rasmussen and the Harry

DeWolf classes is comparing apples and oranges. Of note the Harry DeWolf

AOPV is based on the Norwegian Svalbard class which is about the same

tonnage.

A point on costing numbers, there is no way to identify all of the program costs,

which Canada uses by regulation, for the Danish ship as foreign companies and

governments tend not to reveal their program and sunk costs making their ships

appear to be cheaper.

Finally, Canada’s arctic environment is completely different from where the

Danish navy tends to operate. Canada operates in an archipelago where ice is

trapped and rafts up whereas the Rasmussen Class tends to operate in open

areas. This alone makes comparison futile as each operating environment

require different ship design and capability solutions. Thus, comparisons should

always be made about apples and apples to paint an accurate picture.

Ian Parker

Director Naval Affairs

Naval Association of Canada