I am not sure that modernization is the right word here. The bottom line though is that this is overdue. The Canadian Navy is a fine organization that has managed to perform well with equipment that was well past it’s “prime”. Just keeping some of their current fleet operating is a testament to their abilities in the maintenance realm.
Canada has the longest coastline of any country. Recent moves toward modernizing the fleet are driven at least partly by Canadian experience of contesting sovereignty claims in the arctic and naval standoffs with Russian navy vessels.
The shipbuilding program is essential to sustaining Canada’s sovereignty and prosperity by safeguarding international trade as well as enforcing Canadian law, NSPS said.
This 30 year program will bring significant work to the shipyards in British Columbia, and elsewhere. It should also allow our friends to the north, to reassert their sovereignty in the increasingly crowded arctic waters.