Loose lips build ships
On the last day of January, Conservative MP Eric Ollerenshaw rose in the U.K. House of Commons to interrogate fellow Tory Gerald Howarth, Under Secretary of State for the Ministry of Defence. “Does the Minister agree that there is a real potential for increased defence exports and the increased jobs that they would bring to every part of the country?” he demanded. “Perhaps he sees the Type 26 global combat ship as a perfect example of that potential.”

To no one’s great astonishment, Mr. Howarth did. “The global combat ship frigate program does indeed present a tremendous opportunity for the United Kingdom to put the policy into practice. I am delighted to say that we are in close discussion with the Canadians,” he replied.

Canada, Brazil, Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand and Turkey are apparently all prospective partners in the Type 26 replacement project, with BAE Systems holding a four-year deal worth £127 million for project development.

The Canadian government’s position is that this country is holding discussions with the U.K. about a number of shipbuilding issues, including interoperability and best practices.

Two years ago, there was a brief flurry of excitement about talks between Canadian and Dutch officials on joint support ships, which led to concerns that the government might end the “build Canadian ships in Canada” policy. The official line then sounds much like the official line on talks with the U.K. now. Ships may be expensive but talk is not.

Government procurement: Going once, going twice
The Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries (CADSI) used its 3rd annual Small and Medium Enterprise networking day on February 16 to ask supplier companies for advice on two related projects aimed at improving the procurement system.

Part one is a document that will, as CADSI vice-president Janet Thorsteinson said, “attempt to describe the government procurement process from soup to nuts and this is because it can be an arcane art, as some of you know. We would like to have a document which would be useful to our members.” To that end, the association wants to know the three things that suppliers find most challenging about Canada’s procurement process.

The second document is a parallel paper that Thorsteinson said had the informal working title, “Myth Busters from the Private Sector.” The document will be presented to people within government to help them understand the burdens placed on the private sector by the current procurement system.

As an example, Thorsteinson mentioned excessive risk allocation to the private sector as a factor that can result in unnecessarily expensive bids, or no bids at all. “We also talk to people about the idea that ‘profit’ is not a four letter word and that companies need to make a profit in order to remain in business in order to meet their shareholders’ needs, in order to recapitalize to be able the needs of the Canadian government. So these are some of the ideas that we have been tossing around internally.”

Suggestions for both documents should be emailed to janet@defenceandsecurity.ca.

In Brief
Through a teaming agreement with General Dynamics Land Systems-Canada, BAE Systems-Land Systems South Africa won a $130 million contract for survivability and mobility upgrades to its RG31 Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles…

Aeroquest International completed the acquisition of the Mapcon Mapping group of companies from Ottawa-based OSI Geospatial for approximately $1.15 million. Mapcon provides LiDAR, photogrammetry and related geomatic services…

Atlantis Systems Eduplus of Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, in partnership with Ocean Software of Australia and Canadian-based integrator Accenture, will support the implementation of the FlightPro Management System to all air force units…

Following a $2.3 million investment, Harris Canada in January opened its expanded Calgary avionics operation, which supports work under a six-year, $273 million services contract for the CF-18 Avionics Optimized Weapon System Support program…

Thales Canada won DND’s Tactical Control Radar contract and will supply and integrate two Ground Master 400 (GM 400) radars with a suite of communications and operator control systems…

Rheinmetall Canada will integrate BAE Systems’ uncooled thermal weapon sights with the 40mm grenade launcher’s fire control system as part of the army’s Close Area Suppression Weapon System…

In a move to separate its sonar and underwater robotics businesses into two distinct private companies, St. John’s-based Marport Deep Sea Technologies has spun off its underwater robotics division, creating a new wholly-owned subsidiary company called Marine Robotics…

General Dynamics Land Systems-Canada received a $138 million contract from the U.S. Army TACOM Life Cycle Management Command for 82 light armoured vehicles (LAV).