Canada’s Arctic and Offshore Patrol Ships (AOPS) project moved a step forward with the keel-laying ceremony of the future HMCS Max Bernays at Irving Shipbuilding’s Halifax shipyard. ‘Max Bernays’ is the third Harry DeWolf-class ship, as part of the country’s Defence Policy.
Concerning the country’s defence, the Government of Canada acquires six AOPS to make the Royal Canadian Navy stronger, while provides equipment to men and women with versatile ships. The ceremony was held at Irving Shipbuilding’s Halifax shipyard. The six ships will increase the capacity of the RCN to deploy its vessels in a fast paste, at Canada or abroad, enabling the Navy to use its fleet more effectively.
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Moreover, the construction of the third AOPS is moving forward. The first two of three mega-blocks will be transported to the construction point of the Halifax shipyard during spring 2020.
Also, when the vessel is complete, and presented to the Royal Canadian Navy, the future HMCS Max Bernays will be the first AOPS to join Maritime Forces Pacific. It will voyage through the Arctic and sail through ice sea up to one metre thick. The AOPS will also be capable of embarking a CH-148 Cyclone helicopter and will be used on a variety of missions at home and around the globe. AOPS is to help with coastal surveillance, search and rescue, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations and will be capable of integrating with a range of international partners.
Finally, Ms. Vicki Berg, a welder at the Halifax Shipyard, placed a coin in the keel to highlight the occasion, and it will remain in the vessel’s structure. The coin placed in the keel of the future HMCS Max Bernays is the fifth in the Royal Canadian Mint’s Second World War Battlefield series. It captures the Battle of the Atlantic, a time at which Chief Petty Officer Bernays performed the actions that earned him honours and a celebrated place amongst Canadian Naval heroes. It is claimed that the coin selected conveys a real sense of the dangers faced by those who voyaged between 1939 and 1945 and is a tribute to all the Canadians who fought in the longest campaign of the Second World War.
