by Darren
Scannell
The 12 ships of the KINGSTON class began building in the late 80’s for the Canadian Navy. The last vessel, SUMMERSIDE, was delivered in December 1998. These vessels were designed with a modular payload system in mind. There are several portable modules available for missions such as: bottom object inspection, minesweeping and route survey. The primary role is coastal surveillance and patrol, which includes: search and rescue, law enforcement, pollution control and resource protection. The ships are split between the east and west coast of Canada in the following manner,
These 6 ships are based on the East coast, out of Halifax, NS:
MM700 - HMCS KINGSTON
MM701 - HMCS GLACE BAY
MM704 - HMCS SHAWINIGAN
MM707 - HMCS GOOSE BAY
MM708 - HMCS MONCTON
MM711 - HMCS SUMMERSIDE
These 6 ships are based on the West coast, out of Esquimalt, BC:
MM702 - HMCS NANAIMO
MM703 - HMCS EDMONTON
MM705 - HMCS WHITEHORSE
MM706 - HMCS YELLOWKNIFE
MM709 - HMCS SASKATOON
MM710 - HMCS BRANDON
The MCDVs are crewed by a maximum of 34 naval reserve personnel, along with 2 regular forces members. The class is named after a variety of small to medium communities located within Canada's borders. The Route Survey Payload allows the ship to produce state of the art, high quality imagery of the ocean bottom with the use of multi-beam side scan sonar housed in a streamlined active body known as a towfish. This information is used for route mapping, detection and classification of mine-like objects and the optimization of ocean route planning. The Mechanical Minesweeping Payload provides the ship with a mine countermeasures capability against modern buoyant (moored) mines. Using either Oropesa or Team sweep configurations, the ship can "sweep" for the moored wire or cable and severe it with the use of explosive cutters attached to the sweep wires, causing the mine to rise to the surface where it can be disposed of. The Bottom Inspection Vehicle Payload enables the ship to inspect mine-like objects on the sea bed using sonar and video sensors mounted on a remote vehicle (ROV). This payload will be capable of supporting port inspection or explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) diving teams for mine clearance or EOD tasks.
Dimensions:
Length: 55.3m
Beam: 11.3m
Draft: 3.4m
Crew: 30-36
Weapons:
1 40mm Bofors gun
2 .50cal machine guns
Propulsion:
Diesel Electric with 2 Z-drives
5,000 nautical mile range
15 knot speed
