The Canadian Department of National Defence (DND) has awarded a modification contract to Babcock to provide in-service support for the Royal Canadian Navy’s fleet of four Victoria-class submarines.
The $531m five-year extension order represents the first option under Victoria in-service support contract secured in June 2008 by Canadian Submarine Management Group, a joint venture between Babcock International Group and Weir Canada.
The initial contract, valued at $370m for five years, involved long-term, performance-managed maintenance activities and technical support to the Victoria-class fleet and had options to provide for up to ten additional years of submarine fleet support.
Under the recent contract, the company will provide material acquisition, repair and overhaul, and engineering services for more than 200 systems of each submarine.
National defence associate minister Kerry-Lynne D Findlay said: "The extension of this contract is an important investment in sustaining a key operational capability for our Canadian armed forces."
The in-service support contract will enable the fully operational submarines to maintain a steady state by 2014, while work under the contract will be performed at Victoria Shipyards in Esquimalt, British Columbia, Canada.
HMCS Victoria and HMCS Windsor, the first and second submarines of the class are currently operational with the Canadian Navy; while the fourth submarine HMCS Chicoutimi is undergoing docking period, which is scheduled to complete later this year followed by sea trials.
The company is expected to start extended docking work periods on all four Victoria-class submarines on a cyclical basis following completion of refit programme on third Victoria-class submarine HMCS Corner Brook.
Armed with two submerged signal ejectors (SSE), small vertical discharge tubes, which can launch either acoustic or bubble decoys, the 70.3m-long and 7.6m-wide submarines feature passive Condor Systems Sea Search II electronic support measures (ESM) unit.
The 2,168t submarine also features CK 35 search periscope, CH 85 attack optronic periscope, global positioning system, a Kelvin Hughes Type 1007 and a Foruno portable navigation radar.
Image: Canadian Navy’s Victoria-class submarine conducting mission at sea. Photo: file image.
