CDR recently sent Senior Staff Writer, Joetey Attariwala, to North Vancouver to visit Seaspan Shipyards to get an update on JSS1 HMCS Protecteur, the first Joint Support Ship that is being built for the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN). Visit CDR’s Youtube page for an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the progress being made on JSS1.

The Protecteur is the first of two Joint Support Ships (JSS) that are being constructed by Seaspan and will replace the former Protecteur class Auxiliary Oiler Replenishment vessels. Once delivered, the vessel will provide fuel, food, supplies, water, maintenance and medical facilities in support of Canada and its allies.

Today, there are over 2,000 Seaspan employees involved in the construction and development of Joint Support Ship 1 (JSS1); and JSS2, the future HMCS Preserver. 

Watch the JSS TOUR below:

JSS1 HMCS Protecteur – NAMING & LAUNCH CEREMONY

On December 13, 2024, Seaspan hosted the official naming and launch ceremony for JSS1 at its Vancouver Shipyards. The future HMCS Protecteur is the longest naval ship ever built in Canada at nearly 174 metres long and is the fifth ship designed, built and launched by Seaspan under the National Shipbuilding Strategy (NSS). Present at the ceremony was Prime Minister Justin Trudeau; Minister Jonathan Wilkinson, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources; Vice-Admiral Angus Topshee, Commander of the Royal Canadian Navy; Seaspan shipbuilders, suppliers, and members of the Royal Canadian Navy; as well as Teri McKinnon, the ship’s sponsor, to celebrate this distinguished milestone.

A week following the ceremony, the vessel was lowered into the water at Seaspan’s Vancouver Drydock, officially marking the vessel’s launch. It was then escorted back to Vancouver Shipyards by a fleet of Seaspan tugboats, where it will remain while work is completed to prepare the ship for commissioning and sea trials in late 2025.

We visited Seaspan on a very cold and rainy day, which is not uncommon for North Vancouver in Winter, and we were able to get a firsthand appreciation for the ship and its build status. The length of the JSS is almost the same as the Berlin class on which it is based, but the internal systems are significantly different. From afar, the ship looks complete, but a closer look shows considerable outfitting work yet to be done, followed of course by a detailed process to commission systems. To that goal, we witnessed hundreds of Seaspan employees working diligently all over the ship to complete its construction. The scale of the work is impressive, as are some of the metrics of the build of the ship, which we learned has over 750 kilometers of cable on board, and 16,000 individual pipes, and that doesn’t include small bore pipes. Yet to be installed to the ships’ king posts are the hoses and span wires that will form the Replenishment at Sea gear on the ship — this will be done by subcontractor Hepburn Engineering in due course.

READ: SHIPBUILDING – Seaspan Shipyards

JSS1 HMCS Protecteur CAPABILITIES

With a maximum complement of 239 personnel, these ships will be able to hold up to 6,875 tonnes of marine diesel, and 1,037 tonnes of aviation fuel, enabling a Naval Task Force to stay on missions for extended periods.

The JSS will also be equipped with a large hangar capable of supporting two RCAF CH-148 Cyclone helicopters, two dual-purpose (liquid or solids) Replenishment at Sea Stations, an enhanced maritime hospital, two Close-In Weapon Systems, four Naval Remote Weapon Stations, and storage capacity large enough to carry a wide array of supplies for a variety of missions, including armoured and support vehicles, food, water, and other supplies for humanitarian assistance or disaster relief.

“There are often challenges with first-in-class vessels and constructing JSS1 has included many unique and interesting challenges to overcome as a team,” said Callum Vause, JSS Delivery Director at Seaspan. “Whether it’s getting supply chain equipment and materials here on time, whether it’s coming through the COVID pandemic, or whether it’s integrating multiple system designers to come together as one. Most of those challenges are not unique to this class or this shipyard or even this country. It’s common in shipbuilding for the first of class to encounter design and integration issues, but the pleasing thing is the teamwork required to overcome some of those challenges gels the team together. Learning from that, JSS2 is where we are going to show incredible improvement from the first ship to the second ship in the class.”

LOOKING AHEAD TO JSS2

“We have created efficiencies between JSS1 and JSS2 and have built capacity within our shipyard to deliver these large, complex, multi-mission vessels,” Vause told CDR. “We are able to outfit more in the earlier stages of manufacturing, before the blocks are consolidated together, and we have an accelerated schedule for JSS2 when you compare it to JSS1. So today, we have nearly 75% of JSS2’s blocks under construction, and we’re spending over 35% or less hours on block fabrication.”

The latest significant milestone on JSS2 (Preserver) was the installation of the ship’s two main engines and gearboxes which are some of the largest and most important pieces of equipment on the ship. JSS2 is expected to be structurally consolidated by the end of 2025, with a launch scheduled for 2026.

The launch of Protecteur in December 2024 is the biggest milestone to date for Seaspan Shipyards and is also an important marker of success for the NSS. Seaspan has made incredible progress on the Protecteur but as seen onboard, there is still a lot of work to do to prepare for sea trials at the end of 2025, followed by a progressive delivery process to the RCN in 2026.

You can watch our exclusive tour of HMCS Protecteur on CDR’s Youtube page youtube.com/@CanadianDefenceReview.

Joetey Attariwala is CDR’s Senior Staff Writer