Ah Canada, seriously you just cannot make this stuff up:
https://nationalpost...e-russian-fleet
The Canadian Surface Combatants program was originally sold to the Conservative government as costing around $14 billion. By the time it was announced in 2008, the plan to create a domestic shipbuilding industry had risen to $26 billion.
In the years since, DND has attempted to frustrate all attempts to gauge the costs to taxpayers but redoubtable parliamentary budget officers have kept pressing. In 2017, the PBO estimated the ships would cost $62 billion; in 2019, the figure was updated to $69.8 billion and most recently to $84 billion.
Such massive price inflation is partly because of delays — the first ship is not expected to be delivered before the end of the decade and the 15th and final vessel will enter service in 2048-49 — 40 years after the project was announced.
And my favorite part of the entire article:
Writing in the National Post on the weekend, retired naval commander Roger Cyr called the project “ludicrous.” He pointed out that changes to the original Type 26 frigate designed by Lockheed Martin and BAE Systems have added 900 tonnes to the design, making it double the weight of the Halifax class frigate it is replacing — with a commensurate increase in cost.
The modifications are being carried out to accommodate the demands of the navy, which wants an anti-submarine and anti-air warfare capability. However, as Cyr points out: “Surely our requirements are not so unique as to require changes so drastic that they would multiply the cost by three?” < --- Now_THERE_is a question!!!
He said DND should mix the Type 26 ships with smaller Type 31 frigates that could be bought for under $1 billion each. Currently, each of the 15 frigates on order will cost more than $5 billion each — more than the British spent recently building the Prince of Wales aircraft carrier.
Edited by AllseeingEye, 07 November 2022 - 08:51 PM.