Ottawa asks defence contractors to make pitches for new submarine fleet

The federal government is asking defence contractors in allied nations about the sorts of submarines and maintenance capabilities they could offer Canada.

A request for information (RFI) — the first step in the formal process to replace the navy's four-decade-old Victoria-class submarines — was issued Sunday on the federal tendering website.

At the recent NATO summit in Washington, the government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced it would proceed with the project but did not offer any concrete timelines.

The idea of acquiring new submarines was mentioned in last spring's defence policy update only as a possibility. But Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Defence Minister Bill Blair insisted in the aftermath of the policy's release that the project was more a question of when and how much, rather than if.

Still, the request for information does not commit Canada to moving forward. The RFI states responses to the fact-finding note "do not impose any obligation or constitute any commitment on the part of Canada to issue a Request for Proposal" — which would be the next step in replacing the fleet.

The federal government says it is looking to buy up to 12 conventionally powered submarines with under-ice capability.

There's no price tag on the proposal at the moment. The RFI will, among other things, help defence planners decide whether the country can afford that many boats and what would be required to sustain such a fleet.

The RFI expires on Nov. 18, 2024 and will include one-on-one consultations with submarine builders.

A statement issued by Blair's office Monday said that Canada's current submarines are expected to reach the end of their service life in the early 2030s.

"To avoid any gap in Canadian submarine capabilities, Canada anticipates a contract award by 2028 with the delivery of the first replacement submarine no later than 2035," the statement said.

Canada has never had the capacity to build its own submarines and has always purchased them abroad.

South Korea, Japan, Sweden and both Germany and Norway (working together) have reportedly expressed interest in selling Canada its next generation of submarines.

The statement from Blair said that consultations continue "with officials from allied and partner countries, and companies and navies in Europe and Asia that currently have or are in the process of building submarines that may meet Canada's requirements."

Germany and Norway are in the midst of a joint submarine-building program. Blair signed a letter of intent to establish a trilateral maritime partnership with those two countries at the recent NATO summit, but he insisted it does not commit Canada to joining their submarine partnership.

Defence expert Dave Perry, a frequent critic of the glacial pace of Canada's military procurement process, said the release of the information request is a pleasant surprise.

"Since this commitment that we were going to do this was made when we were already into the summer, with ... both summer vacation time as well as military leave, it's really impressive to see that they pushed this along in just a couple of months," said Perry, president of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute, an Ottawa-based foreign policy research group that hosts conferences that are occasionally sponsored by defence contractors.

Perry said the challenge facing the defence department is to get a full request for proposals out the door within the next year, before the coming election.

"I hope that there's a view in the bureaucracy that they're going to try and knuckle down and get an RFP released, an actual solicitation document that's pretty ambitious," he said.

"But I think if you want to keep to the 2032 or 2035 schedule, the navy's got to get moving on this, if you actually want to see Canadian submarine of any particular type that's new in the water, early in the 2030s."