From an enormous ad blitz featuring Canadian broadcast icon Peter Mansbridge to a cupboard minister calling on shipbuilders to cough up a automobile plant, the transient race to interchange Canada\u2019s aging submarine fleet turned heads in additional ways than one.<\/p>\n
The unusually short competition to construct the navy\u2019s next submarine fleet appeared to give attention to the whole lot however the boats themselves \u2014 though the 2 vessels within the running are, in some ways, very different.<\/p>\n
At no point through the two-year-long procurement competition did the federal government ever really talk in regards to the boats\u2019 capabilities. The navy made it clear very early on that either model would do exactly high quality.<\/p>\n
With the July NATO summit right across the corner, the Liberal government is anticipated to announce its chosen supplier for as much as 12 submarines in the approaching days.<\/p>\n
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It\u2019s an enormous order, value tens of billions of dollars \u2014 enough to be a focus for South Korean manufacturer Hanwha as Seoul aspires to make itself the fourth-largest defence exporter on the earth.<\/p>\n
Hanwha launched an enormous ad campaign, plastering airports in Canada with advertisements and hitting broadcast TV and streaming platforms to showcase its KSS-III.<\/p>\n
Even its competition \u2014 a European market leader chargeable for supplying most of NATO\u2019s conventional submarines \u2014 took note of the ads that appeared as far-off from the coasts as Winnipeg and Calgary.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is nuts, truthfully,\u201d said Oliver Burkhard, CEO of rival bidder TKMS, in an interview on the CANSEC military trade show in May. \u201cWe\u2019re not used to this.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\tA scale model of a TKMS (ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems) HDW Class 212CD submarine is shown on the Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries annual defence industry trade show CANSEC, in Ottawa, on Wednesday, May 27, 2026.\t\t\t\t<\/span>
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\t\t\t\t\tTHE CANADIAN PRESS\/Justin Tang\t\t\t\t<\/cite>
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His typical competitors \u2014 French, Spanish, Italian, British and Swedish submarine makers \u2014 \u201cdon’t do that,\u201d he said. Submarines aren\u2019t speculated to be so visible, in any case. These competitions often give attention to what the subs can actually do, and the sales pitches are aimed squarely at governments \u2014 not everyone.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThat is unusual. Allow them to try it,\u201d he added. \u201cIn the event that they have success, then possibly say this was an enormous strategy and now we have won this due to our promoting. In the event that they don’t win it, then they’re the more popular one who has lost \u2026 the preferred loser.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Hanwha will not be a typical competitor. While it has never exported subs before, it boasts of its massive shipyard facility and has offered Ottawa a breakneck delivery schedule.<\/p>\n
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Hanwha says it’s making a long-term play with the ads. It\u2019s a household name in Korea but not yet known in countries like Canada as a top defence supplier, said its Canadian CEO Glenn Copeland.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s about brand recognition and it\u2019s about understanding what our capabilities are, and as people have understood, it\u2019s a reasonably powerful company,\u201d Copeland said in an interview days after the massive defence trade show.<\/p>\n
He said the ads also \u201cactually got the eye\u201d of several levels of presidency and resulted in a variety of knocks on their door.<\/p>\n
Hanwha is likely to be latest to exporting subs but its boats are already getting used by the Korean navy. One sailed to Esquimalt, B.C. in May.<\/p>\n
The TKMS model 212CD sub is the firm\u2019s latest design and has yet to start out rolling off assembly lines. It offers cutting-edge engineering from a long-established manufacturer.<\/p>\n
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While all subs are quiet, the 212CD has a diamond-shaped hull designed to make it less detectable by sonar.<\/p>\n
The TKMS campaign for the sub contract has focused on the incontrovertible fact that Germany and Norway, NATO alliance countries, are buying the identical model. Interoperability \u2014 doing things like training and repairs together \u2014 is a stated goal of the alliance.<\/p>\n
While the main points of the bids remain classified, the general public side of the Korean campaign has wowed some observers.<\/p>\n
\u201cKorea has gone all-out to win this,\u201d said Paul Mitchell, a professor of defence studies on the Canadian Forces College. \u201cIn some ways, I feel it\u2019s theirs to lose.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\tRoyal Canadian Navy host the Republic of Korea Navy KSS-III, often known as Dosan Ahn Chang-ho, during a welcome ceremony at CFB Esquimalt in Esquimalt, B.C., on Monday, May 25, 2026.\t\t\t\t<\/span>
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\t\t\t\t\tTHE CANADIAN PRESS\/Chad Hipolito\t\t\t\t<\/cite>
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Early on, Hanwha pitched an aggressive delivery timeline \u2014 4 boats within the water by 2035, then one boat per 12 months. The Germans then revised their very own schedule to hurry up deliveries late in the sport.<\/p>\n
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Hanwha\u2019s KSS-III is an even bigger, more spacious boat than the 212CD, something that may affect modifications and range.<\/p>\n
Designed to maintain North Korea in check, it also comes with an added capability to vertically launch ballistic or cruise missiles from the ocean to hit land targets \u2014 something the German boats don\u2019t have.<\/p>\n
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