All for one: Norway, Germany sell Canada on shared submarine fleet

All for one: Norway, Germany sell Canada on shared submarine fleet

Willingness to give up production slots shows they're serious about winning: analyst

Both Norway and Germany invoked an all-for-one, one-for-all approach as they this week sharpened their public and private pitches for Canada to select the Type 212CD as the navy's next submarine.

Both long-standing NATO allies, the two European powers are now putting more emphasis on what it means for Arctic and North Atlantic security for three nations to operate the same boat.

"We are thinking of the submarine fleet not as a Norwegian fleet and a German fleet and a Canadian fleet, we were thinking of a common fleet," Marte Gerhardsen, the state secretary to Norway's minister of defence, told CBC News in an interview this week.

The Canadian navy is in the market for 12 conventionally powered submarines.

The government of Prime Minister Mark Carney is expected to make a decision by the end of June on which proposal to accept — a bid by Germany's ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS), or South Korea's Hanwha Ocean.

Should Canada decide in favour of the Type 212CD, the combined orders of all three nations would total 24 boats — making it the largest conventional submarine fleet in the world.

Everything, Gerhardsen said, would be interchangeable — from spare parts and supplies to training and even crews.

"We would both be cost-effective and very, very powerful," said Gerharden, who noted, if Canada ever faced a threat in the Arctic, having the backing of two other navies with the same boat would be a major military advantage.

"If Canada is in need, you're not alone. You have two other countries with a large fleet that will come to rescue. So, it's kind of a really strong insurance."

Germany this week revealed that TKMS has the capacity to deliver four Type 212CDs by 2036. It had, until this point, been reluctant to commit to a precise timeline.

Germany's submarine bid pledges $86B investment, jobs in Canada

In order to meet the goal, both Norway and Germany had to each give up one of their own boats in the production line — a measure Gerhardsen said the Norwegian navy can live with as long as production is made up further down the line.

"We really, really want to get Canada as a partner in this project and we want to help Canada out," Gerhardsen said.

"We know that Canada needs submarines fast. So we looked at the time schedule and to see how we could fit Canada in so that they don't have to wait until we finish with our submarines."

The decision to give up production slots in the short term is significant, said Jordan Miller, a corporate executive and defence analyst.

He added that the absence of a delivery timeline was one of the weakest points in the German-Norwegian pitch.

"South Korea famously delivers on time and it delivers with aggressive timelines," said Miller, who noted that other allies who've ordered from South Korean defence contractors got what they wanted on time and on budget.

Korean submarine on display in bid for Canadian contract

"We know that Poland ordered a series of self-propelled artillery pieces and they arrived on time. We know that the Hanwha proposal for the submarines was also much faster than the competing proposal.

"So yeah, I think it's fair to assume that TKMS saw that as a relative limitation of their proposal compared to the one that South Korea was putting forward."

Miller said, from everything he's seen this week, it is clear the Germans and Norwegians are "very, very serious about winning the bid."

Hanwha Ocean and South Korea have been slick in their promotion, with a high-profile campaign that included a visit by brand new KSS-III submarine to Victoria last weekend.

Senior reporter, defence and security

Murray Brewster is senior defence writer for CBC News, based in Ottawa. He has covered the Canadian military and foreign policy from Parliament Hill for over a decade. Among other assignments, he spent a total of 15 months on the ground covering the Afghan war for The Canadian Press. Prior to that, he covered defence issues and politics for CP in Nova Scotia for 11 years and was bureau chief for Standard Broadcast News in Ottawa.