A recent award for the Defence Construction Canada team in Halifax will launch the first phase of a ship like no other—one made to operate on land, rather than sea.
The new Land-Based Testing Facility (LBTF) will be a ‘stone frigate’—a facility on land that allows the Department of National Defence to test and evaluate systems for use in the new Canadian Surface Combatants (CSC) being built for the Royal Canadian Navy.
“The facility is meant to support CSC as a program over the next 50 years,” said Peter Sarty, Program Leader with DCC in Halifax.
The award of the $485,000 modified design-build contract in September 2021 will move the requirements for this critical support infrastructure forward and will then proceed with design and construction of the 9,000‑m2 facility near Shearwater, Nova Scotia.
The LBTF will replicate the ship’s critical functions on land, so that operators can test and evaluate the many systems onboard the ship prior to the vessel being put into service.
“All the systems that make the ship unique will be featured in this building,” said Sarty.
That’s a big design project for the year ahead—time that will also be used for DCC and their clients to confirm plans for contract delivery, including creation of Indigenous Benefit Plans and meeting Greening Government Strategy targets.
Design is expected to take a year to complete, with construction to begin in 2023. The facility will need to be complete by end of 2025 to be ready for delivery of the CSCs.