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If a topic of this nature has been posted before then please forgive me, i've been thinking alot for a good while now of the long time period before the SCSC (hopefully) becomes a reality. Knowing the history of Canadian governments I think all would agree that the longer a project takes to move from idea to reality the greater the danger of it falling prey to political whims and being axed. While we have a government now that seems to take the armed forces with much greater seriousness, there's no guarantee that will be the case a decade or two or even five years from now.
Bearing the above in mind why is there a need to go the long, arduous as well as fiscally and therefore politically uncertain route of creating an entirely new ship from scratch. I'm using the Royal Australian Navy as an example here, they have had considerable success in taking an existing ship design and "Australianizing" it (hmm, think I just invented a word ;D) to meet their needs. This approach is quicker, more cost effective and still provides plenty of employment for local defence contractors and shipyards.
The RAN's new AAW destroyer is based on the F100 class frigate (note that they were able to take an existing frigate design and modify it to suit their requirements for a guided missile destroyer). Even the patriotically named ANZAC class is based on the German Meko 200 class, and I am yet to hear of any dissatisfaction expressed by either the Aussies or the Kiwis with their ANZAC frigates. Canada should do the same, take an existing and therefore already tested and proven design, "Canadianize" it and get new ships with cutting edge next generation capabilities to the fleet faster, and more cost effectively while still providing opportunities for Canadian companies and shipyards (once it's well built Canadian shipyards and the navy can justifiably take pride in it regardless of the designs' origins). There are many of you on army.ca who have much more experience on naval matters than I do, I would gladly appreciate your input on this.
Bearing the above in mind why is there a need to go the long, arduous as well as fiscally and therefore politically uncertain route of creating an entirely new ship from scratch. I'm using the Royal Australian Navy as an example here, they have had considerable success in taking an existing ship design and "Australianizing" it (hmm, think I just invented a word ;D) to meet their needs. This approach is quicker, more cost effective and still provides plenty of employment for local defence contractors and shipyards.
The RAN's new AAW destroyer is based on the F100 class frigate (note that they were able to take an existing frigate design and modify it to suit their requirements for a guided missile destroyer). Even the patriotically named ANZAC class is based on the German Meko 200 class, and I am yet to hear of any dissatisfaction expressed by either the Aussies or the Kiwis with their ANZAC frigates. Canada should do the same, take an existing and therefore already tested and proven design, "Canadianize" it and get new ships with cutting edge next generation capabilities to the fleet faster, and more cost effectively while still providing opportunities for Canadian companies and shipyards (once it's well built Canadian shipyards and the navy can justifiably take pride in it regardless of the designs' origins). There are many of you on army.ca who have much more experience on naval matters than I do, I would gladly appreciate your input on this.