Royal Canadian Navy auxiliary oiler replenishment (AOR) vessel Asterix has entered service after completing sea trials and testing.
Asterix performed daily replenishment-at-sea (RAS) exercises with the RCN and conducted extensive RCAF CH-148 Cyclone helicopter operations to prove and demonstrate its capabilities. Exercises ranged from dual RAS operations to helicopter landing, take-off and vertical replenishment trials.
“To deliver the first Canadian naval ship in over twenty years, the first supply ship in almost 50 years, and to reach FOC so efficiently and in such a short period of time is a testament to the hard work, dedication and dynamism of the teams at Davie and FFS,” Spencer Fraser, CEO of Federal Fleet Services commented. “We are all very proud of our achievement and appreciative of the professional support we have received from DND and PSPC.”
MV Asterix is an ice-strengthened containership converted into a naval support vessel. During the conversion, the ship was stripped down to its keel and rebuilt in a modular fashion, installing the same key Canadian military systems that will be installed on Canada’s future naval fleet such as OSI of Vancouver’s Integrated Tactical and Navigation System, L3 MAPPS of Montreal’s Integrated Platform Management System and Hepburn of Toronto’s Replenishment-At-Sea Systems.
Like the Joint Support Ship, the ship is capable of being fitted with a range of active and passive self-defence systems, including three Raytheon Phalanx 20mm Close-In Weapon Systems.
The ship will remain under the ownership of Federal Fleet Services and be operated by a mixed crew of Canadian merchant seafarers and Royal Canadian Navy personnel for at least the next 10 years. The ship has a service life of 40 years.