Canada's next submarine fleet decision coming by end of June
South Korean and German bidders square off for $10+ billion contract as Ottawa pushes unprecedented procurement speed.
The day's top stories, food & events — every morning at 7. Unsubscribe anytime.
The race to build Canada's next submarine fleet is entering its final stretch, with the federal government expected to select a winner by the end of June — a pace one defence CEO called "light speed" for military procurement.
Two qualified bidders, South Korea's Hanwha Oceans and Germany's TKMS, are competing for a contract to supply the Royal Canadian Navy with approximately 12 submarines, worth tens of billions of dollars. The federal government's internal analysis of the competing bids is expected to be complete by now.
Secretory of State Stephen Fuhr, Prime Minister Mark Carney's point person for military equipment purchasing, said the winner will be selected by end of June. "This could possibly be the biggest military procurement Canada has ever done, and Canada will have done a competitive process on submarines inside a year," Fuhr told journalists on May 27. "That is an unbelievable speed to do such a large procurement."
TKMS CEO Oliver Burkhard, visiting Ottawa for CANSEC, Canada's largest defence trade expo, noted that major navy combat ship procurements typically take longer than five years. "We have to accept as industry that this is maybe the new normal," he said.
The German company is pitching NATO interoperability — its subs would integrate with German and Norwegian fleets that track Russian submarine movements and share knowledge and equipment. TKMS is an established supplier to most of the NATO alliance's conventional fleet. "If Canada would choose us, then it's a proven, not a promised, approach," Burkhard said.
Hanwha, a South Korean defence manufacturer, has never exported a submarine but is hungry to enter the global market. The company has launched a nationwide advertising blitz, plastering ads around Parliament Hill and the Ottawa airport, and running a TV and online campaign voiced by Peter Mansbridge. CEO Glenn Copeland said Hanwha aspires to outfit the Canadian military with multiple systems and become a household name like LG and Hyundai.
The two firms have spent months fighting for the contract in what Burkhard described as the "third quarter" of the competition. The selection will reshape Canadian naval capacity for decades.