page_title: Canada-class submarine
section_title: Proposal and design
hierarchical_section_title: Canada-class submarine / Proposal and design
caption_attribution_description: English: Silhouette of a Trafalgar class SSN
context_page_description: The Canada-class submarine was a proposed class of ten nuclear-powered attack submarines to be built for Canadian Forces Maritime Command, with an option for two more. Announced in 1987, the class was intended to provide Maritime Command with a method for monitoring Canada's Arctic Ocean area while establishing Canadian sovereignty in the area. The announcement suffered significant public and private criticism and the project was cancelled before any of the submarines could be built.
context_section_description: On 6 June 1987, the Canadian White Paper on Defence was tabled in the House of Commons. The White Paper recommended the building of 10 to 12 nuclear-powered submarines, to be stationed on patrol routes in the Northeast Pacific, Arctic and Northwest Atlantic Oceans. Due to their greater speed, range, and ability to operate underneath the Arctic ice, nuclear submarines were preferred . The goal was to build up a three-ocean navy, assert Canadian sovereignty over Arctic waters, and enhance contributions to NATO operations. The demand for a vessel that could monitor the Arctic was born out of the cruise of the American icebreaker USCGC Polar Sea in 1985 through the Arctic, of which part took it through Canadian territorial waters. The first of the submarines would be expected to enter service in 1996.
  The intent was to build the submarines in Canada to an existing NATO design. CASAP and NSOS were merged to form a group to select the submarine design. The group developed the Statement of Requirement (SOR) needed for the evaluation of designs. The SOR called for a safe, reliable design that had modern anti-submarine warfare and under-ice capability, being capable of breaking through ice up to 3 metres (9.8 ft) thick. The SOR placed less emphasis on  hydrodynamic performances or anti-ship and inshore operational capabilities. They also needed to have a low noise and radiation signatures, the most modern passive sonars and command, control and communications systems. The SOR also stated that the submarine have six torpedo tubes and be able to fire the Mark 48 torpedo.
  By 1988 Maritime Command was looking at purchasing the design of either the French Rubis class or the British Trafalgar class. However, neither design met the SOR, with the Rubis class being noisy underwater and slow and the Trafalgar class having only five torpedo tubes and requiring US permission to transfer the nuclear propulsion technology. However, the French brought back a revision to their design, added an "ice pick" so the submarine could operate under ice and were developing a modification for their torpedo tubes which were too short to use the Mark 48 torpedoes. The British Trafalgar design team did not take Canada's plan seriously and the French Rubis design also came with the caveat that the first 4–5 submarines would have to be built in France.
  In Fall 1987 the British and French put their respective designs on display, with HMS Torbay and the French submarine Saphir sailing to Halifax, Nova Scotia for close inspection. As the program advanced, the Department of National Defence encouraged the bidding companies to form consortiums in order to please the politicians. Opposition however, also began to strengthen against the program.
caption: A silhouette of the Trafalgar class
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