You're making assumptions. What about TKMS building out a yard here. Like they've done in half a dozen other countries. They are quite good at it.
Other thoughts if this is the case then its a slam dunk for TKMS. It further supports my point from earlier about Canada wanting direct defence jobs instead of milk plant or natural gas investment.
Nope.
But... There was a German language article where TKMS spoke about Canada as being a partner not a customer. It was a very clear change in tone within the interview as they were talking about other TKMS projects/programs. The CEO corrected the interviewer. The overtones I took from things were TKMS were looking to diversify their industrial base as a hedge against Russian aggression and German economic/demographic headwinds.
Easy to attack German infrastructure from Russia, much hard to attack Canadian infrastructure from Russia.
Their bid on having us build the submarines ourselves reflects that.
From a geopolitical and strategic perspective TKMS building submarines in Canada (though fraught with risk) is a power move. It secures a manufacturing base/supply line away from Russia's easy reach into Europe, and does the same for German sub users in Asia against China (Singapore as an example off the top of my head). A number of South American countries also use German subs and this may mean that some of those countries (Chile for example) may be want to use our maintenance facilities.
This will allow Canada to be able to repair and resupply German submarines should their safe harbours come under threat and will allow us to integrate into any future TKMS submarine wins in the supply line.
It meets the criteria I set out in a previous post regarding industrial offsets actually applying to the defence contract it was supposed to work with. Also, outside chance this creates an NSS style continuous build program for submarines. If the RCN is going to become a submarine navy equivalent to the surface navy then this is very important.
Torp manufacturing I think was part of the bid as was Naval Strike Missile manufacturing (Norway threw in some incentives I'm pretty sure).
Fair enough. The sub circle is pretty small, and I know a few were pulling for KSSIII. Yah proof in the pudding. We'll see how the negotiations work out.
