HMCS Montréal begins first deployment as X-Ship

Royal Canadian Navy Press Release

Her Majesty’s Canadian Ship (HMCS) Montréal is now at sea on its first deployment as the Royal Canadian Navy’s (RCN) experimental ship.

A Cyclone helicopter approaches HMCS Montréal during SPARTAN WARRIOR 2016 off the east coast of North America in October 2016.

The modernized Halifax-class frigate deployed October 24, 2016 with a full schedule of missions including combat enhancement training, crew trials and operational testing and evaluation of the new Cyclone shipborne helicopter.

The experimental ship – or X-Ship – program is designed to advance innovative and leading-edge naval concepts in all areas of warship deployment, crewing and sustainment. Many of the trials conducted will focus on human factors such as variations of crew size and impacts on crew rest and performance, as well as some operational trials.

“We have been given the extremely important mission of setting the course for the future fleet in manning, innovation and air operations,” says Commander Chris Sherban, who adds “it’s an honour” to be Captain of the X-Ship.

As the sea portion of the X-Ship program gets under way, Montréal is transiting south with the rest of the Canadian Task Group – HMC Ships Fredericton, St. John’s and Athabaskan – along with Spanish Navy replenishment oiler ship Patino, conducting force generation and force development work.

According to Cdr Sherban, the first part of this trial is called the SCORE 217 trial, which will be used to validate a crewing model used by defence research scientists in Toronto.

This evaluation will require X-Ship to conduct a modified work-ups scenario with its full crew of 217. The scenario was specifically developed by the Directorate of Naval Personnel and Training in Ottawa, with experts from Sea Training (Pacific). Outside of the evolutions in the scenario, the crew will be asked to conduct watches, departmental work (including maintenance), meetings, fitness, meals, and so on, in accordance with their regular shipboard routine.

The crew will fill out daily questionnaires on their activities and wear actigraphs (sensors that measure activity) to monitor work/rest balance. The intent is to confirm that estimates made with respect to the time needed to complete evolutions and the time available for activities other than watches and evolutions is consistent with reality. This data will enable improvements to be made to the SCORE model and provide greater confidence in crew requirements for future platforms.

“The crew is very excited that their efforts will directly influence the structure and shape of the future fleet,” says Cdr Sherban. “As an example, defence scientists hoped that we would have 150 officers and sailors willing to conduct sleep and fatigue studies. We had 178 sailors volunteer.”

Although Montréal has a dedicated trial program, it will not be completely removed from everyday naval requirements and will continue to participate in scheduled engineering repair, docking work periods and fleet training exercises. The ship will increase its operational readiness with other RCN ships, as well as USN ships and Patino during exercise SPARTAN WARRIOR 16 in November.

“I have been blessed with an amazing bunch of young, dedicated and thoroughly professional men and women who understand how important our mission is and are equally as passionate as I to achieve mission success,” says Cdr Sherban. “The success of the X-Ship program rests on their shoulders and I could not have asked for a better crew to achieve it.”

After this deployment, Montréal will enter a work period until early January when it will return to sea in support of the Cyclone project. “We will be searching for the worst weather in the North Atlantic so that we can test the operating limits of the helicopter,” Cdr Sherban says.

Montréal is expected to continue trials as part of the RCN’s experimental program for five years.

HMCS Montreal named to "X-Ship" Program

Navy News / March 29, 2016

By Darlene Blakeley

For the next five years, Her Majesty’s Canadian Ship (HMCS) Montréal will have an exciting role to fill along with its regular naval requirements.

Montréal has been named the Royal Canadian Navy’s Experimental Ship – or “X-Ship” – a program designed to advance innovative and leading edge naval concepts in all areas of warship deployment, crewing and sustainment. 

An RCAF Cyclone Helicopter trains with HMCS Montreal in March of 2016. Photo: RCN/DND

“To do this, we have been allotted a five-year period within which to build and execute a program that builds on existing trial concepts and develops new ones,” says Lieutenant-Commander Lorraine Sammut, Senior Staff Officer Operations at the New Capability Introduction Detachment in Esquimalt, B.C. “Specifically, X-Ship will be tasked to conduct experiments that fall outside of normal fleet development activities, and be focused on supporting future classes of ships such as the Canadian Surface Combatant and Joint Support Ship.”

In the short term, many of the trials conducted will focus on human factors such as variations of crew size and impacts on crew rest and performance, as well as some operational trials.

“One of the driving tenets behind X-Ship is to explore crew modelling initiatives – future practices – that are forecasted to be employed in our next classes of ship,” explains LCdr Sammut. “One of the challenges we face is forecasting the level of human effort required to conduct a certain task, given that future ships will have increased levels of automation. To forecast the baseline, the navy, in partnership with Defence Research and Development Canada, uses a crew modelling prediction software and inputs what we already know to be true.”

Medium and long term horizons will see an increased focus on operational and technical type trials, including structural health monitoring, environmental effects on the ship and information systems trials.

“In the long term, we anticipate that the conduct of naval operations will be shaped by the data collected from these experiments and trials,” says LCdr Sammut. “As we move towards new ship design, one emerging trend is the shift to increased automation across a variety of systems. By default, increased automation equals decreased crew size and a requirement to employ specialized teams depending on the mission at hand.”

Crewing configuration will vary over the five-year program and is dependent on the crewing experiment being conducted at the time. Notwithstanding, X-Ship will remain crewed by Canadian Armed Forces personnel, and outside of the crew experiments being conducted, Montréal will be crewed as usual for Halifax-class frigates.

In support of future platforms like Canadian Surface Combatant where crew size is forecasted to be smaller than the current frigate model, one crewing concept being tested early in the program is a reduced crew complement.

“The goal behind any crewing model is to arrive at an appropriate and sustainable complement to execute the variety of normal readiness tasks encountered during naval operations,” says LCdr Sammut.

The innovative X-Ship program will benefit the RCN in many ways as streamlining capabilities and finding new efficiencies allows increased effectiveness across a wide array of naval operations.

“In the same vein, it also allows the RCN to determine, with some empirical accuracy, where certain concepts fall short and the diversity of operational effectiveness is potentially compromised, thus requiring further work,” explains LCdr Sammut. “Either way, providing a platform to advance innovative efforts is a tremendous win in the eyes of force developers and our operational community. Likewise, and on the heels of our successful modernization of the Halifax Class, it allows the RCN to align itself with those successful advances made by our allied partners.”

Although X-Ship will have a dedicated trial program, it will not be completely removed from everyday naval requirements and will continue to participate in scheduled engineering repair, docking work periods, fleet training exercises and support to the new shipborne Cyclone helicopter.

“In fact these opportunities lend a considerable hand in providing the appropriate test environment for many of the trials to be conducted,” says LCdr Sammut.

In recognition of the unique nature of the program, Vice-Admiral Mark Norman, Commander of the RCN, has directed that a special badge be designed for X-Ship. Details about the badge and what it will look like are expected to be announced in the coming months.

It’s a busy and exciting time for Montréal crew members and supporting staff ashore as the frigate moves forward with the X-Ship program, leading the RCN in ground-breaking experiments and trials.