Babcock Canada has awarded Seaspan Victoria Shipyards a six-year sub-contract extension to keep supporting the Victoria In-Service Support Contract (VISSC), the program that sustains the Royal Canadian Navy's Victoria-class submarine fleet.

Babcock is the VISSC prime contractor and calls the program the nation's only industry-led submarine in-service support solution. Keeping Seaspan in place locks in continuity on a program the government wants to run without interruption as Canada moves toward its next submarine fleet.

The Seaspan extension follows a six-year contract extension the Government of Canada awarded to Babcock earlier this year, which carries an option to extend further through the Victoria-class fleet's end of life. Seaspan's work under the sub-contract takes place at the government-owned Esquimalt Graving Dock in Victoria, B.C.

"Babcock is proud to be Canada's submarine sustainment partner, entrusted to establish and deliver the key industrial component of Canada's submarine sustainment enterprise," said Tony March, CEO of Babcock Canada. "The submarine sustainment enterprise is an essential sovereign and collaborative capability that will ensure a smooth transition between fleets and the delivery of available, capable, and safe submarines to the Royal Canadian Navy for decades to come."

Babcock has held the VISSC role for more than 18 years. Over that span, the company says its work has contributed over $3.2 billion in GDP impact to Canada, supported more than 1,500 jobs annually, and built a supply chain of over 450 Canadian suppliers.

Babcock frames the extension as groundwork for the Canadian Patrol Submarine Project (CPSP), the program that will eventually replace the Victoria-class fleet. The company says it is positioning its workforce and supply chain to support the expanded fleet when new submarines begin arriving in the 2030s.

With both the prime contract and the Seaspan sub-contract now extended, the submarine sustainment enterprise is set through the transition period between fleets, with the option to extend again through the Victoria-class boats' service life.