Canada orders 7 patrol ships, but are they the best for Arctic waters?

Canada's Arctic/Offshore Patrol Ships (AOPS) have been in the pipeline for five years. Now, Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government has signed a CAN $9.3 million contract with the Nova Scotia-based Irving Shipbuilding to begin work on the vessels.

It's an important first step, as for a while the number of AOPS that Canada would acquire was in flux.

However, the amount of money represented by the contract is quite small, as the ships are estimated to cost $3.1 billion to acquire and a another $4.3 billion to maintain. With the funding from the initial contract, Irving Shipbuilding will review the existing blueprints for the AOPS and begin working on an execution strategy.

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