Type 26 wins the Canadian Surface Combatant competition

On October 19, 2018, Canada selected the Type 26 as its future frigate. The Canadian Surface Combatant competition was disputed between three assosiations of companies:

- Type 26 proposed by British company BAE Systems in partnership with Lockheed Martin Canada;
- The Dutch frigate De Zeven Provincien proposed by Damen in collaboration with Alion Canada;
- The Spanish F-105 frigate designed by Navantia in partnership with Saab and CEA Technologies.

The Canadian program required for the construction of 15 new ships to replace the current 12 Halifax frigates and the former Iroquois class destroyers already withdrawn from the Royal Canadian Navy service.

Now, after selecting the winner, the Canadian government will begin negotiations with Lockheed Martin Canada, the main contractor, to determine the final design and assessment of the performance of the armament and the rest of the systems that will equip the ships.

There will also be negotiations on intellectual property rights, and an assessment of the company capability to deliver the project will be made.

If its concluded that the winning company cannot fulfill the agreed terms, the negociations will be held with the next highest ranked bidder.

The construction of the first ship out of a total of 15, will start in the early part of the 2020s, and the cost of the entire program is estimated to be between 55 and 60 billion Canadian dollars (about $ 45 billion).

Thus, Canada joins Australia and the United Kingdom, becoming the third state to be equipped with the frigate designed by BAE Systems. At the moment, the largest vessels in Canada's surface fleet are 12 frigates of the Halifax class.

Britain will operate eight such frigates, the first of them being already named HMS Glasgow. The first three units will enter Royal Navy service in 2020.

Type 26 was also the winner of the Australian Project SEA 5000 Phase 1 frigate program . Nine of those ships will enter service with the Royal Australian Navy, as Hunter class.

The nine ships will be built in Australian shipyards starting in 2020, with the firsts being expected to enter service by the end of 2020s.

The new frigates will replace those of the Anzac class, and wil join the three aerial warfare Hobart class destroyers of the RAN.

The entire program will have an estimated cost of 35 billion Australian dollars.

The other two finalists in the Australian program were the Evolved F-100 of Navantia and a modified FREMM design frigate from Fincantieri.

Type 26 has a length of 149.9 m and a displacement between 6,900 and +8,000 tons in full load, being conceived as a multi-mission ship with an emphasis on anti-submarine warfare.

It has a CODLOG (combined diesel-electric or gas) type propulsion, the vessel being powered by four Rolls-Royce MT30 gas turbines, four MTU diesel generators and two electric motors.

The ship is well equipped for air defence combat, with a 48-cell vertical launching system (VLS) for Sea Ceptor (CAMM) missiles. It also has a 24-cell Mark 41 (Mk-41) VLS capable of launching both Sea Ceptor air-defence missiles and Tomahawk cruise missiles.

This version, equipped with two vertical launch systems, is the Royal Navy variant, the United Kingdom being the only non-US operator of the Tomahawk cruise missile.

Source:

The Drive - www.thedrive.com
-  Canada Chooses BAE-Lockheed Proposal To Build Frigates Based On U.K.'s Type 26 Design / Author: Joseph Trevithick - The Drive