Canada likely to name submarine winner ahead of NATO summit

Canada will announce the winner of the Canadian Patrol Submarine Project (CPSP), a mega-initiative to build up to 12 submarines for the Canadian navy, on Monday, Canadian local time, with Korea's Hanwha Ocean and Germany's TKMS vying in the fierce contest. 

Both Korean and Canadian media outlets reported that Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is expected to unveil the decision in Halifax before departing for the NATO leaders' summit in Turkey, which begins Tuesday.

The announcement will likely name a preferred bidder rather than guarantee a signed contract, with negotiations potentially taking years to finalize, Carleton University professor Philippe Lagassé told the newspaper.

Ottawa has said both submarines, Hanwha Ocean's KSS-III Batch II and TKMS's Type 212CD, meet its requirements, leaving economic benefits as the deciding factor.

Hanwha has promised more than 70 billion Canadian dollars ($49.3 billion) in trade and investment and more than 25,000 jobs annually between 2026 and 2044, while Germany says the TKMS bid would add 86 billion Canadian dollars to Canada's GDP over the life of the deal.

Canada's defense minister recently downplayed speculation of a split order, signaling a single supplier, according to Canadian broadcaster CTV.

"If you split a fleet of any kind, you end up in many ways with compounding costs. You need to service, you need to maintain, you need to sustain two different fleets. That's a more complicated matter for any country," Minister of National Defense David McGuinty said from Tokyo, where he was taking part in a trade mission. "But we're evaluating all these things, and we'll see when we get there."

For Hanwha, whose submarine customers to date are Korea and Indonesia, a win would mark Korea's first major submarine export to a Western navy. TKMS has sold boats to some 20 navies. A KSS-III submarine sailed to British Columbia in May in a show of the boat's range, docking at Canadian Forces Base Esquimalt.

BY KIM MIN-YOUNG [[email protected]]