HMCS Algonquin in 2004
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History | |
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Canada | |
Name: | Algonquin |
Namesake: | Algonquin |
Builder: | Davie Shipbuilding, Lauzon |
Laid down: | 1 September 1969 |
Launched: | 23 April 1971 |
Commissioned: | 3 November 1973 |
Decommissioned: | 11 June 2015 |
In service: | 1973–2015 |
Out of service: | 2015 |
Refit: | 11 October 1991 (TRUMP) |
Struck: | 2015 |
Homeport: | CFB Esquimalt |
Motto: | À Coup Sûr (With sure stroke) |
Honours and awards: |
Norway, 1944; Normandy, 1944; Arctic, 1944–45, Arabian Sea |
Fate: | Sold for scrapping 27 November 2015 to be completed in Liverpool, Nova Scotia |
Status: | Decommissioned and awaiting scrapping |
Notes: | Colours: Gold and azure blue |
Badge: | Sable, a base barry wavy argent and azure of four, from which issues an Algonquin hunter's arm embowed proper wearing arm and wrist bands argent and holding a fish spear in bend argent transfixing an eel or. |
General characteristics | |
Class and type: | Iroquois-class destroyer |
Displacement: | 5,100 tonnes (5,000 long tons) |
Length: | 129.8 m (425.9 ft) |
Beam: | 15.2 m (49.9 ft) |
Draught: | 4.7 m (15.4 ft) |
Propulsion: |
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Speed: | 29 kn (54 km/h; 33 mph) |
Range: | 4,500 nmi (8,300 km; 5,200 mi) |
Complement: | 280 |
Sensors and processing systems: |
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Armament: |
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Aircraft carried: | 2 × CH-124 Sea King helicopters |
Aviation facilities: | Hangar and flight deck |
HMCS Algonquin (DDG 283) was an Iroquois-class destroyer that served in the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) from 1973 to 2015.
Algonquin was the fourth ship of her class which is sometimes referred to as the Tribal class or the 280 class. She is the second vessel to use the designation HMCS Algonquin. Algonquin carried the hull classification symbol DDG.
Algonquin was originally designed to be primarily an anti-submarine destroyer. The Iroquois-class destroyers were the first ships in the Royal Canadian Navy (other than the Protecteur class) to carry multiple helicopters, and were the first ships to be powered entirely by gas turbines in a COGOG (Combined Gas Or Gas) arrangement. Algonquin underwent a major refit called the Tribal Class Update and Modernization Program (TRUMP) from 1987 to 1991 and emerged as an area air defence destroyer.
She was assigned to Maritime Forces Pacific (MARPAC) and was homeported at CFB Esquimalt.
On 26 October 1987, Algonquin entered the Tribal Class Update and Modernization Project refit, dubbed TRUMP, at MIL-Davie, Lauzon. Labour problems and contract disputes delayed completion of the work until 11 Oct 1991.
As a modernization concept, origins of TRUMP date back to the early 1980s. By the mid-1980s the Canadian Federal Government had decided on the necessity of upgrading the Iroquois-class ships and released a request for proposal, foreseeing complete refurbishment. The project resulted in a thorough refurbishment of the ship and modernization of mechanical, electronic and weapon systems.
Litton Systems Canada was selected as prime contractor and project manager after submitting a detailed 4000+ page proposal which emphasized, maximum automation and software engineering This aspect of the TRUMP was extremely important due to the desired high level of automation in real-time command and control functions on the refurbished ships. Software engineering military standards were fairly recent and not yet widely assimilated, so Litton had to exercise particular caution in the areas of software configuration management (SCM) and software quality assurance (SQA). Litton's Proposal to the Canadian Federal Government had a 250-page SCM and SQA policies section which was accepted without a single edit due to highly sensitive and farsighted work of the Advance Programs Division Technical Contract Team at Litton who established a massive and capable engineering force by 1988–89.