Canadian Forces College uses BMT Defence Services Ltd Aegir design in major exercise

The Canadian Forces College (CFC) has used BMT Defence Services’ Aegir ship data in its important joint expeditionary warfare exercise, ‘Determined Lance’. This postulates that two opponents are projecting force over several thousand miles to contest a large but fictitious island that is divided politically and of mutual vital interest.

Developed by BMT Defence Services and Skipskonsulent, Aegir is a family of fleet tanker and fleet replenishment naval taskforce support ship designs.

“The three Aegir-class variants we used – the 10, 18 and 26 – were a top-quality solution to my curriculum design aims,” says Commander Ken Hansen, former military Co-Chair of the CFC’s Maritime Studies Programme and now Military Defence Fellow at Dalhousie University. At the CFC, Cdr. Hansen was also responsible for the maritime elements of combined operations programmes.

“I had read about Aegir in Warship Technology and knew this new class of ship would compel senior-ranking naval, air and land force students to assess the advantages of three different levels of operational capability, and therefore logistical support,” says Cdr. Hansen.

“Aegir was a ‘good fit’ for providing the right kind and amount of logistical support to a tiered readiness force structure. This type of graduated system of response lends itself to new expeditionary models proposed by Canadian and other armed forces.

“While each of the three Aegir variants is clearly defined and instantly recognisable, which assisted my non-naval students, they also have a certain commonality. This helped all my students to analyse and focus on key characteristics such as speed, endurance, capacity, cargo types, number of transfer stations and pumping rates.

“Aegir is an excellent example of what can be produced by commercial industry at low cost and makes a very useful comparison with the pending multi-purpose Canadian Joint Support Ship. Aegir also has some in-ice capability, which is topical in Canada.”