CSC Provides ILS Support to Canadian Navy Orca Class Program

The Canadian Navy is currently accepting a fleet of ORCA Class vessels designed and built by Victoria Shipyards Co Ltd (VSL) based in Victoria, British Columbia. The primary role of these ships, designated as Patrol Craft Training (PCT), will be to provide basic and advanced navigation and seamanship training to Regular and Reserve Force naval personnel. The size, speed and modern navigation training aids of these vessels will enable the ORCA to simulate the operation of a major warship and thereby provide realistic training much more economically.

Providing an essential baseline for the logistics support of the ORCA fleet has been an important part of the overall project. This work has been undertaken by Computer Sciences Canada (CSC) Inc. which has extensive experience in providing Integrated Logistics Support (ILS) services as part of Canadian defence acquisition projects.

In support of the initial VSL proposal to the Department of National Defence (DND), CSC conducted a design-validation Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) of the proposed vessel and systems. Following contract award, further FMEA work was conducted as part of the Critical Design Review (CDR) process.

In both cases, the FMEA analysis demonstrated that all mission critical systems and equipments were protected from failure by design features such as condition monitoring, uninterruptible power supply, or system redundancy.

Once construction of the first ORCA Class vessel was underway, CSC was tasked to develop a preventive maintenance plan and schedule to detail required maintenance activities and logistics resource requirements.  CSC also developed a Class Manual that describes the vessel, its systems, and provides an introduction to each system's operation and maintenance.  

In conjunction with this activity, CSC developed two training courses to meet DND's requirement for Initial Cadre Training.  Each course is five (5) days in duration.  The first, an alongside course, takes advantage of the vessel's classroom as a training location.  This course was designed to familiarize DND personnel with ship characteristics, the operation and maintenance of its systems, as well as providing an introduction to the follow-on afloat training course.  The afloat course built on the alongside training and provides trainees with practical 'hands on' experience in ship operation and handling as well as emergency procedures.