Thales awarded 35-year RCN ISS contract

DND Press Release

Canada has chosen Thales as the prime contractor for In-Service Support (ISS), refit, repair, maintenance and training to both Arctic and Offshore Patrol Ships (AOPS) and Joint Support Ships (JSS).

Known as AJISS, the contract includes an initial service period of eight years for up to C$800 million with options to extend services up to 35 years – for a total value of C$5.2 Billion, making it the largest ISS contract in Canadian history.

(As part of its 2017 order intake, Thales will book the management portion for the 1st phase of this contract at less than C$60 million.)

This contract builds on Thales’ experience in providing in-service support to every major Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) platform for the past 50 years, including ISS for systems onboard Victoria-class submarines, Kingston-class maritime coastal defence vessels, Iroquois-class destroyers, and Halifax-class frigates.

Artists Rendering of a RCN Arctic and Offshore Patrol Vessel of the Harry DeWolf Class © Irving Shipbuilding Inc. 2015 

Thales will leverage its Canadian expertise in project management, systems engineering and integrated logistics support to lead the development of a new Canadian supply chain that will offer comprehensive in-service support for all systems and equipment of these fleets over their operational lifetime, ensuring they are mission-ready, on time, every time, from coast to coast to coast.

This in-service support contract will create an important collaboration with RCN staff. With such a contract, Thales will work closely with the Navy's support facilities and personnel.

Over its 35-year duration, this contract will generate economic benefit of more than $250 Million CAD in Research & Development for Canada, leveraging the creativity of both industry and academia and sparking innovation in areas such as predictive maintenance, life-cycle management and logistics support analysis.

With over 16 years of performance-based ISS experience with the Royal Australian Navy in a relational contracting model, Thales will also transfer knowledge of existing and innovative ISS-ready solutions from Australia to Canada. Since 1989, the Australian Government, with the Royal Australian Navy and industry, have trusted Thales to manage, maintain and upgrade its naval assets at the most important ship repair facility in the Southern Hemisphere, the Garden Island Naval Base in Sydney.

Thales’ proven and award-winning ship service and maintenance model has consistently exceeded material readiness requirements and exceeded operational availability targets by as much as 30 per cent. Thales has provided ISS to navies in Singapore, New Zealand, USA, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, Papua and New Guinea, and Tonga.

Mark Halinaty, Thales' Country Director in Canada, remarked that the company is committed to "empowering Canadian industry to support this program for decades to come." He noted that through this contract, Thales "will create jobs across Canada and will ensure that the ships are mission-ready.”