Halifax lives in hope

If the Halifax lead team is selected to design and build joint supply vessels for the Canadian navy, it would mean sustained work for team members, an Irving spokeswoman said Monday. This follows an announcement by the federal government that $2.6 billion program to build and maintain three new joint supply vessels.

The Irving-owned Halifax Shipyard is the lead yard in a bid against three other groups to win the design contract. The Irving team includes the Davie Shipyard in Quebec, General Dynamics Canada, Lockheed Martin and Fleetway Inc. It?s the largest contract to be awarded since the frigate program, and therefore very important to the Halifax Shipyard. The yard currently employs approximately 500 people primarily on repair work and carry out almost all the frigate refit work.

The project will deliver three multi-role vessels with much more capability than the Protecteur class. In addition to being able to provide at-sea support (refuelling and re-supply) to deployed naval task groups, they will also be capable of sealift operations and support to forces deployed ashore. A request for proposals will be issued soon and will trigger the process to select two industry teams for the project definition phase. The two selected teams will each receive an $11.1 million contract to develop proposals for preliminary ship design, project implementation and in-service support. Based on these plans, one team will be selected in 2008 to build the three ships, with delivery of the first ship targeted for 2012.