Underway said:
As the project moves forward I'm sure it will cost to much for some of the stuff, and some requirements will magically disappear. But that's a problem with the procurement system, not with the original requirements generally.
But that is , IMO, part of the problem. When it comes to planning, you can both under-plan, AND over-plan. I think we over plan procurement. We spend way way too much time dotting the i's and crossing the t's in order to come up with the perfect list of exactly what Canada needs going further. That takes a lot of time and effort, and as a result, adds years to our procurement process. The reality is, we will NEVER be able to afford enough platforms with enough capability to perfectly address any potential future requirements, and like you said, budget constraints will force the removal of whatever capability addresses the "least important" requirement. Further, future requirements will change as the world changes, our government changes, priorities change, etc.
I honestly believe that there is very little substantial difference between one modern warship and another. Everyone these days is using a warship between 4000 and 8000 tons. Every warship out there has either a PESA or AESA radar, or both, a hull mounted sonar, a tower array, an ESM suite, a main gun, a VLS with both short and medium range anti-air missiles, quad-packed medium/long range anti-ship missiles, and a CIWS. The biggest difference between them is whether you want a platform focused on anti-air, anti-submarine, or general purpose. The point is, I bet you I could simply pick a class of ship from among a half-dozen or so ship classes that our NATO allies use, and THAT ship class would be capable of fulfilling 90% of the missions we would ever send it on without any modifications. Why go through the mountains of effort, money and time when I could simply say "just give us 15 FREMM class, 12 of the French type, and 3 of the Italian type"?