Posted: Jan 22, 2021 6:00 AM AT | Last Updated: January 22
The centre block of the future HMCS Max Bernays will be moved out of the Irving Shipyard assembly hall today. (Paul Palmeter/CBC)
It s been a massive shipbuilding project that has kept the Irving Shipyard in Halifax very busy for the last five years.
Over the next two days the centre and stern mega-blocks of the future HMCS Max Bernays, Canada s third Arctic and Offshore Patrol Ship (AOPS) for the Royal Canadian Navy, will be transported outside of the assembly hall. It was good to be able to pull off a significant amount of work and to pull it all off in the middle of a pandemic with everyone working together, said Irving Shipbuilding president Kevin McCoy. This third ship really represents a transition for us.
Can Canada keep up with a global icebreaker boom?
Russia, China and the United States are racing to build big ships meant to slice through ice in an Arctic region rich in natural resources and new shipping lanes. Canada s backyard is at stake.
December 17, 2020 CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent in seen in the Gulf of the St. Lawrence escorting a cargo ship through a path of ice in February 2020 (Courtesy of Canadian
Coast Guard)
Joe Clark wasn’t the first Canadian politician to promise the world’s most powerful icebreaker, and he won’t be the last. Clark, as foreign minister in 1985, staked his expensive pledge to build a ship that could slice through ice as thick as 2.5 m on the premise that the federal government was “not about to conclude that Canada cannot afford the Arctic.” That ship never got built. Today, as the climate warms, foreign icebreakers are exploring the Arctic for natural resources and asserting themselves in a region Canadians have long claimed is Canada.
BMT celebrates a year of ship design achievements
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, BMT has continued to work collaboratively with its maritime customers and partners to deliver a near business-as-usual service, and as the year draws to a close the business is celebrating a year of successful and diverse ship design project milestones and contract awards from across the globe.
From concept and design through to in-service support, throughout 2020 BMT has provided engineering consultancy for national governments on their naval procurement programmes. This includes helping to define specifications or requirements for maritime assets and reviewing evolving designs; in September, BMT was awarded a contract to conduct industry studies to advance the design of the next generation of U.S. Navy Auxiliary General Ocean Surveillance Ship (T-AGOS(X)). BMT is the Prime Contractor partnered with Philly Shipyard. BMT and Vard Marine also celebrated the acceptance of HMCS Harry DeWolf, an Arctic