French Shipbuilders Vies for Canadian Contract

A French naval defence contractor is meeting potential Canadian business partners for the construction of up to 15 new combat ships - Canadian Surface Combatant (CSC) - even before the feds choose a design. The ships will eventually replace the Navy's destroyers and frigates.

Officials with shipbuilder DCNS toured several Quebec companies this week as part of a networking opportunity organized by bureaucrats with the Economic Development Agency for the Regions of Quebec.

Patrick Boissier, president and CEO of DCNS, is trying to position the company to provide the design for the new ships to be built on the East Coast as part of the feds' $36.6-billion shipbuilding strategy. "DCNS wishes to become one of the country's prime naval partners," Boissier said in a statement. "To that end, the group opened an office in Ottawa last year to better meet the Canadian industry's needs."

DCNS makes the new FREMM multi-purpose frigate - a heavily armed ship that's larger than Canada's current combat ships, but also requires a smaller crew. Current plans call for the CSC to be configured to use the Cyclone helicopter, part of a problem-plagued program that has yet to replace the old Sea King helicopters.

French and Italian FREMM class ships can be configured to fly either the NH-90 or AW-101 maritime helicopter, which the feds have looked at as Cyclone alternatives. The French Navy showed off its first FREMM frigate, the Aquitaine, in Halifax last April. DCNS officials from France are expected to be in Canada later this month for more industry meetings.
[via]