Canada’s Combat Ship Team Type 26 Frigate Selected as Preferred Bidder for CSC.

Canada’s Combat Ship Team (Lockheed Martin Canada Inc.) has been selected as the preferred bidder for the Canadian Surface Combatant (CSC) design. The Government of Canada and Irving Shipbuilding Inc. have notified Lockheed Martin Canada Inc. If all requirements are met, up to 15 Type 26 Frigates will join the Royal Canadian Navy. The design will be commissioned by the UK Royal Navy (8 frigates) and the Royal Australian Navy (9 frigates) as well.

Canada’s Combat Ship Team image.

While this represents a significant milestone in the competitive process, more work is required before a contract is awarded.

Lockheed Martin Canada Inc. must now go through the “due diligence process,” which includes:
- negotiations with the company on intellectual property rights
- an assessment of combat systems performance
- an assessment of the company’s financial capability to deliver the project, together with the verification of various other administrative matters

Should the preferred bidder not successfully demonstrate to Canada and Irving Shipbuilding Inc. that it meets all of the due diligence requirements, then the next highest ranked compliant bidder will become the preferred bidder. The new preferred bidder will then have to successfully demonstrate that it meets all of the due diligence requirements.

The identification of the preferred bidder follows a rigorous bid evaluation process. This process has been, and will continue to be, overseen by an independent Fairness Monitor. To date, the Fairness Monitor has submitted a series of interim reports on the Canadian Surface Combatant procurement process, and each of these reports have not identified any fairness deficiencies.

Type 26 GCS scale model in CSC configuration at CANSEC 2018. Navy Recognition picture.

More recently, the Fairness Monitor provided the following statement to Public Services and Procurement Canada:

“As the Fairness Monitor for the Canadian Surface Combatant project, we have monitored the evaluation of proposals submitted in response to the Request for Proposals and have identified no fairness deficiencies. It is our opinion that the evaluation of proposals was conducted in a fair manner. Decisions were made objectively and free from personal favouritism or improper influence, and the process encompassed the elements of openness, competitiveness, transparency and compliance with the Request for Proposals.”

A contract award is expected this winter, with construction beginning in the early 2020s.

The Canadian Surface Combatant project is the largest, most complex procurement ever undertaken by the Government of Canada. These ships will form the backbone of the Royal Canadian Navy and will be Canada’s major surface component of maritime combat power for decades to come.