At CANSEC 2023, Vard Marine Inc. (VARD), a Fincantieri company, proudly launched VIGILANCE, as their solution to replace the Royal Canadian Navy’s (RCN) Kingston Class Maritime Coastal Defence Vessels (MCDV) under Pillar Two of Canada’s National Shipbuilding Strategy (NSS). In conjunction with Team Vigilance partner companies Thales Canada, Ontario Shipyards, SH Defence, and Fincantieri, VIGILANCE will provide the RCN with a lightweight and operationally flexible military asset that is highly capable and globally deployable. VIGILANCE can perform all the roles of the existing MCDV, while also fulfilling crucial naval warfare duties beyond the capabilities of both the MCDV and the Arctic and Offshore Patrol Vessels (AOPV).
This collaboration ensures Team Vigilance can meet the needs of the RCN’s future Multi-Mission Corvette program with a tailored naval solution, striking the optimum balance between capability and cost, while also maintaining the life-cycle cost advantages VARD’s naval designs are known for.
As a part of the ongoing effort, Team Vigilance continues to assemble a broad coalition of Canadian companies that can offer important services and vital equipment to the program. Building a robust coalition is key to the core objective that VIGILANCE be designed in Canada, built in Canada, and equipped in Canada. To this end, Team Vigilance launched their Preferred Suppliers Program at DEFSEC 2023 in Halifax last October.
SSI introduced as a Preferred Supplier to Team Vigilance at Mari-Tech 2024
This May at Mari-Tech 2024 in St. John’s, NL, Vard Marine and Ontario Shipyards announced SSI, a global leader in shipbuilding software solutions, as a preferred supplier. This partnership leverages SSI’s innovative digital shipbuilding platforms to enhance Team Vigilance’s design, engineering, and production capabilities, reinforcing SSI’s commitment to supporting digital transformation across Canadian shipbuilding.
Joining Team Vigilance as a Preferred Supplier allows SSI to share their decades of shipbuilding technology expertise and experience supporting digital transformation for military ship designers and builders. This announcement also further cements SSI’s role as a key player in enhancing Canada’s sovereign naval capabilities.
SSI has been at the forefront of digital shipbuilding transformation for over 30 years, offering specialized software, services, and expertise tailored to the unique needs of shipbuilders. SSI’s flagship products, ShipConstructor and ShipbuildingPLM, are integral components of their Digital Shipbuilding Platform. This comprehensive, open architecture solution integrates seamlessly with other systems, ensuring a unified source of truth for shipbuilding project information throughout the entire lifecycle.
Adopting the SSI solution will give all Team Vigilance partners and Preferred Suppliers a unified connection to a digital twin for the entire Vigilance class, as well as for the individual vessels as they are designed, built, and set into service. Simultaneously, it will provide the RCN, and their selected in-service support partners, access to the digital thread required to execute maintenance, repair, and overhaul activities, giving them a modern and complete overview of their vessels – both as-built and as-maintained.
David Males, Director of Business Development for SSI, stated, “At SSI, we are thrilled to join Team Vigilance as a Preferred Supplier. Our commitment over the past 34 years has been to drive forward the digital transformation in shipbuilding, and this announcement is an extension of that. We are proud to support Canadian shipbuilding through our innovative technologies and comprehensive expertise working with defense designers and builders. Joining Team Vigilance further cements our role as a key player in enhancing Canada’s naval capabilities.”
Alicia Nash, Vice President of Operations at Ontario Shipyards, said, “As we work towards the revitalization of the shipbuilding industry in Ontario, a critical component will be the adoption and implementation of cutting-edge technology in the shipbuilding process. With the addition of SSI to Team Vigilance, we ensure that we have a strong foundation of technological expertise, which will allow us to successfully deliver the future Multi-Mission Corvette for the Royal Canadian Navy.”
Derek Buxton, Vice President Business Development, Vard Marine Inc., said, “The SSI software suite offers a complete solution for design, engineering and construction. It is the only home-grown Canadian solution of its type and SSI has achieved huge export success, being for the design, construction, and sustainment of defense projects across North America and in shipyards around the globe. Being true to our core motivating principle that VIGILANCE will be designed, built and equipped in Canada, we are very pleased to announce that the SSI solution will be deployed at Ontario Shipyards if we are selected to deliver the Vigilance Class to the Royal Canadian Navy.”
About Ontario Shipyards
Ontario Shipyards is the largest Canadian ship repair and construction company on the Great Lakes, operating three shipyards across Ontario. Ontario was once the epicentre of shipbuilding in Canada. Dating back to WWI. Ontario shipyards have built hundreds of military and commercial vessels over the past century, including more than forty flower-class corvettes, between 1941 and 1944. Building on this rich shipbuilding history in the province of Ontario, our vision is to be recognized as Canada’s most reliable provider of ship repair and maintenance services and become a meaningful partner in the shipbuilding industry. For more information, visit https://onshipyards.com .
About Vard Marine Inc.
Vard Marine is a consulting naval architecture and marine engineering company with Canadian offices in Vancouver and Ottawa and employees situated in seven Canadian provinces. The company offers professional ship design, engineering, and shipbuilding technology services, and its vessel design portfolio ranges from offshore construction, supply, and patrol ships, to icebreakers, research vessels and ferries. Vard Marine is an international reference player in the design of offshore patrol vessels having delivered designs for the US, UK, Canada, Ireland and New Zealand, among many others. Their most recent designs include the Argus-Class Offshore Patrol Cutters for the US Coast Guard and the Harry DeWolf-Class Arctic and Offshore Patrol Vessels for the Royal Canadian Navy. More information on Vard Marine can be found at https://vardmarine.com.
About SSI
SSI delivers software, services, and expertise for the business of shipbuilding. We take advantage of the rapidly evolving technologies that define the future of the industry and understand how to implement them specifically for shipbuilders. For over 30 years, our team has been globally recognized for our specific solutions for the design, engineering, construction, and maintenance of shipbuilding projects. SSI has built an open Digital Shipbuilding Platform consisting of SSI ShipConstructor and ShipbuildingPLM. In combination, they provide a platform that acts as the source of truth for shipbuilding project information across the lifecycle and serve as the hub of other platforms in the shipyard. Learn more at https://www.ssi-corporate.com.
Ted Kirkpatrick, Director of Business Development at Ontario Shipyards, presenting the official Team Vigilance Preferred Suppliers logo to David Males of SSI.