Navy commander says he wants a ‘Canadian from the core’ corvette fleet

OTTAWA — The commander of the Royal Canadian Navy says Ottawa is working to narrow down what it wants from a new fleet of continental defence corvettes it’s hoping to obtain by the mid-2030s.

Vice-Admiral Angus Topshee told The Canadian Press he’s looking for ships with a long range that pack a punch in combat and can also deal with Arctic ice.

That will result in a set of requirements unique to Canada’s military — and there’s likely no ready-made, off-the-shelf designs on the market.

Topshee said he wants the new fleet to be “Canadian from the core” to the “absolute maximum extent possible, so that we can control our own destiny” with the new ship platform.

“We want to be beholden to no one,” he said. “Absolutely built in Canada, Canadian combat management system, Canadian bridge integration, Canadian acoustics — all of the systems that make that ship, turn it from a ship into a warship.”

The navy is still in the early stages of its search for a dozen or more corvette warships that would be smaller than frigates — a procurement that’s likely to be worth tens of billions of dollars.

It will be one of the next major military procurement projects after the government settles on a new fleet of submarines.

The current Kingston-class coastal defence vessels are approaching the end of their lifespans, with eight coming out of service this fall and the rest retiring by 2029.

The retirement of the Kingstons could offer the navy some short-term relief from its current struggles with recruitment.

It also will leave the service searching for a dedicated vessel for mine-sweeping — a capability that’s not being built into the new River class destroyers.

The River class ships are large and advanced multipurpose surface destroyers made for the front lines of battle. They’re capable of air defence and anti-submarine warfare and come with a fair amount of American technology.

But while those destroyers — which are larger than their British equivalents — can travel across the globe, their thinner hulls could be vulnerable to Arctic ice.

The Navy’s Harry DeWolfe offshore icebreaker patrol vessels, meanwhile, are armed only with a 25-mm cannon.

“If it comes to responding to a threat in the North, the best option up there until we get our submarines is going to be something delivered by the Air Force. The challenge between those two (ships), the high-end combatant and the effectively non-combatant, is we’ve got a bit of a gap,” Topshee said.

“If a submarine knows that you can’t go there, where’s it going to go, right? So, what we need is … a ship that has got more combat power than the Harry DeWolf class of icebreakers, but isn’t the full cost and complexity of a River class destroyer.”

The combination of long range, ice capability and combat power similar to that of the Halifax class isn’t available in off-the-shelf designs, so a pre-existing ship design would have to be significantly modified.

Northern European navies need the same ice capabilities but don’t need to travel nearly as far as Canadian ships, while Australian ships travel great distances but don’t need to worry about ice.

“That’s why we’re in this unique place where I need range and ice capability and some combat power, and that package is probably going to be something that is a relatively unique Canadian requirement,” Topshee said.

The project is going through an internal process called “options analysis,” which means talking over the biggest technical trade-offs.

“In my perfect world, it would be a platform that’s under 105 meters long because that simplifies the infrastructure challenges and means it will fit easily into the Esquimalt and Halifax harbours without really changing the infrastructure,” Topshee said.

“But if it turns out I can get twice as much combat capability if I agree to go to a 120-meter vessel, then I might do that, right?”

David Perry, president of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute, said the navy will want smaller and simpler ships like this corvette class that can serve as a training pipeline, allowing crews to gain leadership experience and sea time without starting out on the navy’s most complicated assets in high-threat environments.

He also said there’s a strong chance this project can align with the current political climate in Ottawa, which is focused on building up domestic industry in the face of trade turbulence with the U.S.

“There’s an opportunity with this ship” to design and build something in Canada, Perry said.

“Given everything that the prime minister has said about ‘Buy Canadian,’ I can definitely see that direction being taken.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 22, 2025.

Kyle Duggan, The Canadian Press