The Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) has cut the steel for its third Harry DeWolf-class Arctic and Offshore Patrol Ship (AOPS), the future HMCS Max Bernays.

The steel cutting was performed at Irving Shipbuilding’s Marine Fabricators facility and marked the start of the vessel’s construction.

RCN’s new 103m-long AOPS is named after the Canadian Navy chief petty officer Max Leopold Bernays, who served as the Coxswain of HMCS Assiniboine during the Battle of the Atlantic.

"We are equipping our navy and Coast Guard with the vessels they need, creating and sustaining jobs from coast-to-coast-to-coast, and re-invigorating a world-class shipbuilding industry here in Canada."

The future HMCS Max Bernays is the third AOPS currently being constructed as part of the country’s National Shipbuilding Strategy.

Canadian Public Services and Procurement Minister Carla Qualtrough said: “Today’s steel cutting is an important milestone for Irving Shipbuilding, Canada and the National Shipbuilding Strategy.



“We are equipping our navy and Coast Guard with the vessels they need, creating and sustaining jobs from coast-to-coast-to-coast, and re-invigorating a world-class shipbuilding industry here in Canada.”

Construction work on the first Harry DeWolf-class vessel, the future HMCS Harry DeWolf, commenced in 2015 and the ship is slated for delivery in 2018.

The AOPS is structurally assembled at Irving Shipbuilding’s Halifax Shipyard.

Construction of the Canadian Navy’s second AOPS, the future HMCS Margaret Brooke, is currently underway with 28 of the ship’s 64 units in the production stage.

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The final two vessels of the five-unit AOPS fleet are the future HMCS William Hall and the future HMCS Frédérick Rolette.

The Government of Canada originally launched the National Shipbuilding Strategy in 2010 in order to replace the existing surface fleets of the RCN and the Canadian Coast Guard.