Canada seeking supply ship for its Navy

TORONTO, June 24 (UPI) -- The Canadian Department of National Defense has reportedly started talks with Chantier Davie on providing the Royal Canadian Navy with a supply ship.

The ship could possibly be a retrofitted private ship, which would fill a capability gap in supplying deployed RAN vessels with fuel and supplies following the scrapping of two supply ships last fall.

The HMCS Protecteur and HMCS Preserver were taken out of service as a result of fire damage and hull corrosion, respectively. Since then, the navy has relied on foreign naval vessels supplying its deployed vessels while at sea.

The Toronto Star newspaper said announcement of the preliminary with the shipyard was announced by Defense Minister Jason Kenney on Tuesday.

"These unexpected circumstances have created an urgent need for Canada to obtain refueling capability in the short-term to bridge the gap," Kenney told a news conference.

The government has a $2 billion plan (about US$2.1 billion) to build two new resupply ships but they won't enter service until at least 2021, the newspaper quoted the minister. The sudden loss of the two ships have hurt the "capacity and capability" of the Royal Canadian Navy.