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Scott Taylor: Royal Canadian Navy set to lose a vital asset

Asterix lease should be extended indefinitely

A recent headline in the Ottawa Citizen caught my attention. It read, “Company calling on Canadian government to keep Asterix resupply ship: Asterix has supported the Royal Canadian Navy since 2018.”

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As someone very familiar with the MV Asterix saga, it is not surprising that the owners would want to continue the leasing arrangement with the Royal Canadian Navy beyond the current end date in 2028.

What is surprising is that the Canadian government is preparing to walk away from this proven asset, while the joint support ships being built to replace the MV Asterix are yet to be completed.

The MV Asterix is a privately owned commercial vessel that was reconfigured into a navy resupply ship as a stopgap temporary measure.

The contract was signed with Davie Shipbuilding in 2015, and following a conversion MV Asterix began supporting the navy in 2018.

For the record, it was delivered on time and on budget, which at $659 million was considered a rare bargain. At that juncture, the navy had been operating without a single auxiliary oiler replenishment ship (AOR) since October 2016, when HMCS Preserver was paid off after 46 years in service.

Two........

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