Kongsberg-led venture to design future Mid-Shore Multi-Mission Vessels for the Canadian Coast Guard
Noah Note
A Kongsberg-led team will develop the six new Mid-Shore Multi-Mission vessels for the Canadian Coast Guard, the PMO has confirmed in a statement today from Norway. The Team of Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace, Salt Ship Design, and the Ottawa-based Adaptive Marine Solutions Inc have been awarded a $9.6 million contract to carry out design work for the future Mid-Shore Multi-Mission vessels.
The Mid-Shore Multi-Mission (MSMM)vessels will replace the three mid-shore science vessels (Limnos, Otter Bay, Vector) while also filling the future gap in CCGs medium-sized utility fleet, as many of the current fleet are being replaced by much different, much larger vessels.
The MSMM are expected to be 45 to 50m in length and a tonnage of < 1000MT. They will have a range of up to 3000nm and an endurance of up to 17 days. The MSMM will also be Ice-Strengthened with the class expected to be rated at minimum Ice Class-1C per DNV standards.
Ice Class 1C signifies that a vessel is designed and strengthened to navigate in light ice conditions, specifically characterized by first-year ice with a thickness of up to 0.6 meters. Per DNV standards, this classification confirms that the ship's hull, propeller, and steering gear are reinforced to withstand the thermal and mechanical stresses of ice interaction.
The MSMM will operate year-round within the Canadian waters of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Great Lakes, and the St. Lawrence Seaway. On the Atlantic Coast it will be limited to as far as 60° North latitude during the summer months. The majority of the missions will be carried out in the mid-shore range.
The primary tasks for the MSMM fleet will include supporting Ecosystem and Marine Science, Hydrographic Surveys, supporting Aids to Navigation, and helping support SAR activities.
The fleet will also have several secondary tasks on top of these including Light Icebreaking, Maritime Security activities, Conservation and Protection Enforcement, Environmental Response, supporting the Vessels of Concern program, and Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief.
While not confirmed also it is expected that the Kongsberg-led design will be based off the companies Vanguard family, something that they and Salt Ship Design have been trying to get off the ground for several years now.
Developed by Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace in partnership with Salt Ship Design, the Vanguard family blends commercial shipbuilding standards with military-grade technology to drastically cut costs, aiming for about 50% less than traditional warships, while speeding up build times to as little as two years.
Vanguard features an open architecture designed to quickly integrate new capabilities without extensive refits. Larger variants of Vanguard feature a hangar optimised with both an elevator and integrated handling system in order to quickly swap payloads for various tasks, essentially able to utilize it as a Multi-Mission Bay.
Their focus around being a ‘plug-and-play' platform, relying on quick reconfiguring, containerization of systems, and a high degree of automation will be familiar to those of you following our coverage of the Vard Vigilance family. The two share remarkably similar concepts, with similar choices in how they're produced.
Vanguard takes that steps farther than Vigilance, with a much larger, more scalable family with the family able to quickly be adapted to a multitude of different roles across various sizes. Kongsberg has also been looking to position Vanguard as a potential option for the Continental Defence Corvette.
Vanguard is very much an interesting vessel. It is currently being positioned for the Norwegian P1118 program that aims to deliver up to 28 standardised vessels to the Royal Norwegian Navy.
The Royal Navy is also looking thr leverage Vanguard as a possible option for at-least three new Offshore Support Vessels (OSV) as part of the Mine Hunting Capability (MHC) Block 2 initative. The Ministry of Defence awarded a new contract to Kongsberg in October to investigate the feasibility of the company's Vanguard platform in that role.
A lot of this had been further cemented as part of the Lunna House agreement, something I have argued Canada should aim to be included in as a partner. Lithuania has also expressed interest in Vanguard as a potential future platform.
It is a hit surprising to see Vanguard positioned here, as I was not expecting it to be in the table. That doesn't mean I'm not happy. After trashing the previous Strategic Partnership last post we have some solid movement to cooperate of another common vessel design.
Leveraging partners existing designs isn't new mind you, however I am happy to see that Norway and Canada are again potentially looking at another platform that can be utilized to foster cooperation and build up each others respextive industrial bases. Assuming Norway also selects Vanguard (and maybe the UK?) this would mean that our collective North Atlantic would have a second common platform being utilized by all three of us beyond the Type 26.
Of course MSMM is designed as a domestic-focused vessel. You won't see them running across the Atlantic, however, it is still a major step in the right direction and still provides opportunity to collaborate on a united platform. Certainly it gives more justification for Canadian participation deeper in the Lunna House framework.
We'll have to see exactly what the final configuration of this Vanguard variant looks like, same with the proposed Vanguard being offered for the Continental Defence Corvette. It presents a very unique opportunity for a common vessel family to be in service between the CCG and RCN. I would also argue that a replacement of the CCG Hero-class and Orca Renewal should also aim to try and align, however that doesn't seem as likely right now without someone compromising.
Either way this is a significsnt accomplishment for the CCG. MSMM was one of the last major vessels still oit there for design. An RFI is also out for thr build contract that will downselect a yard to construct the future MSMM. There is significant opportunities for a Medium Yard to take that, and potentially look at further developing that as a future CDC bid?
Time will tell there but I'm happy after a bit of dissapointmemt today that we'll be seeing at least one major avenue of cooperation being announced here. It is a great step in the right direction.
That is a LOT of different configurations they have visualized there. One thing I'm not clear on: what is the commonality between all these very different looking platforms? What makes them a single family of ships? It doesn't look to be a shared hull, or even rough dimensions. The CDC and orcas and the heros are a quite disparate group of vessels, I would have thought.
I agree, a vessel in the same family replace the problem plagued Mid-Shore Patrol Vessels (Hero). Seems to be a natural fit.