Would everyones arguments that this class has little to no benefit be stayed if a class of 6 Corvettes were built? Retire the MCDVs as the corvettes come along, have 6 spare MCDVs to stretch out their life?
Jobs that would require speed, armament and defensive capability would be handed off to this corvette class. The North would be the domain of the AOPS, but the AOPS would have some small overlap between the job of the Corvette (ex. Caribbe). A balance that would allow a light presence up north, while having better capability offshore. Make these two classes replace the MCDVs, so you end up with a mixed class of arctic-capable, well armed and useful ships. The manning wouldn't be too much if the corvette had a small crew, if you chose an existing class like the Visby that's less than 1000t, you could have them built concurrent to the last few AOPS classes, but built at Davie.
Does this make any sense?
Using 6 of anything to replace 12 Kingston's doesn't make much sense. Remember the mantra of 1/3, 1/3, 1/3 - patrolling, preparing to patrol and in maintenance. Having 6 'corvette-like' ships means, most likely, 4 on the East Coast and 2 on the West - how will the 1/3 rule work then?
Getting 6 corvette-like ships in addition to the 6 AOPS is not a good replacement for the 12 Kingston's. The very nature of the 'A' in the AOPS has added a huge area of, in essence, 'net new' responsibility for the Navy. Yes, the Kingston's due 'go up north', but its close to a PR stunt then anything else. The fact that the AOPS are being built to spec for a specific Polar Class designation means that they should/will be going places, at times of the year, that the Kingston's could/should never go.
The time is coming, rather sooner than later, to put out the formal call to replace the Kingston's. With the new, stretched out timelines to start/finish the AOPS's to 2024 (at a cost of 800$ million for that single extra ship) - that's 5yrs from now to build 3 ships with a 'hot' production line - the 15 CSC's will take ALL of Irving's capacity to the end of the project in the early 2040's (God, is it really that long until the last CSC is turned over to the Navy!). The JSS's won't be in the water, completed, together for how many more years? And that CCG science ship is to begin when? The Dief? Notice how there is ZERO talk about then it will even begin, let only finish. All of this means that the Kingston's will go to Davie - full stop - now, some will say that there are some smaller yards that could build their replacements, but that will not happen, as they will not be modernized in anyway to take on this task (let alone be located in Quebec). It will go to Davie because there is NO other capacity to build minor warships left in Canada, given all of the above work.
And the Vic's? Don't forget that they will need to be modernized, as per the current plans, in the next 6-8yrs, who's going to do that work?
The time is here and now that our Naval assets, whatever they may be, need to be allocated proportional to both coasts going forward, the West coast cannot be the '2nd coast' anyone. This means, more assets, not less.