OTTAWA – One of Britain’s leading defence companies says it could still work with Canada on building new warships, even though the Harper government has slammed the door shut on collaboration with its NATO ally.
A senior executive with BAE Systems told The Canadian Press it may be early days, but his firm and the British government hold designs for several warships – and they would be willing to share them with Canada in some sort of arrangement.
The overture comes in the face of the Conservative government’s repeated declarations that its one-year-old National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy will be a made-in-Canada enterprise.
And it will further anger Canadian shipyard workers, who have said that any collaboration with Britain would be bad for them.
Canadian ships will be built in two yet-to-be selected Canadian shipyards, the government maintains. It even went so far as to publicly rebuff the British government’s lobbying for a joint ship building venture earlier this year.
The Conservative government’s 20-year, $35 billion shipbuilding strategy will see two shipyards selected as prime contractors.
Alan Garwood, BAE’s group business development director, said it is understandable that Canada wants to develop its own domestic shipbuilding industry.
But he made clear that did not rule out collaboration between his firm and Canada in the future.
“We could easily envisage a relationship with a Canadian shipyard, which would give a design and manufacturing role for Canadian industry,” Garwood told a select group of journalists at this week’s CANSEC military trade show in Ottawa.
“Our message would be: when Canada’s ready, we’ll be ready to talk about a business and maybe government relationship. But that’s way down stream.”
BAE has sought ship building collaboration with Canada, and has also made overtures to Australia, Malaysia, New Zealand and Turkey. Garwood touted his company’s current venture to build navy patrol vessels for Thailand, which he recently visited.
Britain’s parliamentary secretary for defence, Gerald Howarth told his country’s House of Commons earlier this year that he was delighted that a “close discussion with the Canadians” was underway over developing a new generation of warship, the Global Combat Ship program.
The British High Commissioner to Canada, Andrew Pocock, subsequently told The Canadian Press that it makes sense for Ottawa and London to be discussing ways to co-operate on replacing aging frigates in their respective navies at a time of economic turmoil.
Defence Minister Peter MacKay’s spokesman publicly rebuffed the top diplomat, and ruled out any collaboration with Britain on building a new fleet of warships.
The public smack down surprised British diplomats.
Garwood struck a conciliatory note towards Canada’s shipbuilding ambitions, but also pointed out that the U.K. is an established warship builder.
“The fact that the Canadian government is going to affect a similar policy to consolidate down on the industry and build ships in Canada isn’t a surprise,” Garwood said.
“You have a lot of coast, a lot of territory to defend. So it’s absolutely understandable that’s the policy that the government’s proposing here,” he added.
“If Canada is in the market for some of the ships – like frigates – in the future, then there are designs both in our company and with the British government that would be eminently suitable.”
He said his government would be happy to talk to the two companies that eventually win the Canadian shipyard competition.
“I think it’s a bit early right now. We’ve got to wait and see what the Canadian government does in terms of sorting out who is going to have that military shipbuilding role.”
At the same CANSEC show, Public Works Minister Rona Ambrose reiterated that Canada would build its own new fleet of navy warships, and that the new ships would be a major job creator.
“The NSPS is the largest single military procurement in Canadian history,” said Ambrose.
“First and most importantly, we decided that new naval vessels would be built in Canada by Canadians. We all know that Canada’s marine industry is a key economic driver.”
Canada’s shipyards would build navy and coast guard vessels. Its major project will be replacing its 12 Halifax-class patrol frigates, launched in the 1990s, that are expected to reach the end of their life around 2025.
Planning has been underway for a replacement vessel, tentatively dubbed the Single Class Surface Combat ship, which would see different kinds of warships built on top of the same basic hull design.
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