It’s like any piece of ageing machinery, how well was it built in the first place? How well was it maintained? How hard was it used? But as it ages machinery breaks down more often, spends longer in maintenance, spare parts become harder and more expensive to obtain.
Hmm, interesting... like the sound of what they're after
Mate, you should have a read back through the various Canadian threads, it makes for very sad reading.
Thanks, I'll do just that.
You are being very polite and kind to our Canuck cousins @John Newman Are you after something? Yes you have pretty well much hit the nail on the head. It's very much a cultural thing with them. The obstinacy and arrogance of the French, mixed with the generosity of the Scots, and the temperament of the Irish. Everything has to be Canadianised and built in Canada. The Aussies like to have as many offsets as possible, but nothing like the Canucks.
If you really want to find out how bad Canadian Defence procurement is, read up on the project to replace the Sea Kings in the Maritime Helicopter role, it started in the 1980s, they finally began receiving CH-148s in 2018, in the same period Australia has replaced their Sea Kings and then replaced the replacement.
Yep it would be good in theory, but we would never have the capacity to make it worthwhile. It would be a boom and bust cycle with more bust than boom. However we possibly could have hulls built with machinery installed overseas, then shipped to NZ for fitting out here. It would have to be something thoroughly researched etc., to ensure that it was viable.
Well time will tell if our local build is worthwhile or not. It boils down to commitment to keep the fleet updated with a constant build program that keeps yards busy which in turn allows upgrading of shipyards and preservation of employee skill sets. This didn’t happen during the Halifax Class program and we are paying a heavy price to restore the capability. Hopefully it isn’t allowed to decay after building AOPS and frigates. The east coast yard should do ok but after the west cost yard builds the two AORs, I don’t see any future unless the government gives consideration to a couple of LHDs...very remote IMHO.
What is Canada's amphibious capability? ie; NZ with HMNZS Canterbury and expanding it with the proposed ESV by 2029. Aussie has a pretty decent capability for the size of their Defence force, the UK's is somewhat wonky.
Even with the number of large container ships and Cruise ships ect that New Zealand gets on a regular basis , having the capability to do repairs when not building ships can't work here? Surely there's a need for that?
Canada’s amphibious capability is zero.
We couldn't even keep two of the best builders of luxury sailing yachts afloat despite having a favourable exchange rate and world beating products.
Supertyacht building is a very competitive business. The egos of clients are focused on the prestige of the builder just as much as the cost. More importantly, governments will support military shipyards (and to a lesser extent commercial), but support for shipyards building rich guy toys, not too many votes to be gained doing that.
Alloy Yachts and Fitzroy were both very prestigious yards, with many awards to there names. Alloy at one point was the second largest builder of sailing yachts over 30m, the Italian yard Perini Navi was the largest.
Royal Huisman IMO would always have been larger than Alloy. RH and PN also manufacture exotic automated sail handling kit. RH’s Rondal subsidiary is the gold standard for this type of kit. Unlike many commercial yards, Royal Huisman and believe also, Perini Navi, have never had to beg their respective governments for bailouts. Anyways, back to naval stuff.
Alloy also built all there own deck gear and sail handling systems.Royal Huisman IMO would always have been larger than Alloy. RH and PN also manufacture exotic automated sail handling kit. RH’s Rondal subsidiary is the gold standard for this type of kit. Unlike many commercial yards, Royal Huisman and believe also, Perini Navi, have never had to beg their respective governments for bailouts. Anyways, back to naval stuff.