The Arctic and Offshore Patrol Vessel AOPV 433 HMCS William Hall has been launched at the Halifax Shipyard in Canada.

She became the fourth in the series of eight units. Six vessels are intended for the Royal Canadian Navy, two more will be built for the Coast Guard. The ships are built under the AOPS (Arctic Offshore Patrol Ship) program.

HMCS William Hall will remain alongside the Halifax Shipyard while being completed and refitted. Then the ship will go on sea trials.

The ship is to be handed over to the Royal Canadian Navy in 2023. She was laid on February 17, 2021.

The AOPS ship project was developed by BMT Fleet Technology and STX Canada Marine based on the project of the Norwegian Coast Guard ship W 303 Svalbard, commissioned in 2001.

The ships of this project are capable of operating under conditions of first-year ice up to 120 cm thick, and will operate in the Arctic from June to October, ensuring a longer presence of the Royal Canadian Navy in the north.

The Canadian government signed an agreement with Irving Shipbuilding Inc for the construction of Arctic Offshore Patrol Ship (AOPS) on January 16, 2015. The value of the deal was 3.1 billion Canadian dollars ($2.56 billion).

430 Harry DeWolf became the main arctic patrol ship of the Royal Canadian Navy. She is the first in the series.

Tactical -technical characteristics of the project:

Displacement: 6615 tons
Length: 103 m
Beam: 19 m
Ice class: Polar Class 5
Installed power: 4 × MAN 6L32/44CR (4 × 3.6 MW)
Propulsion: diesel-electric; two shafts (2 × 4.5 MW (6000 hp))
Speed:
– open water: 17 knots
– icebreaker: 3 knots
Range: 6,800 nmi (12,600 km)
Armament: 1 × 25 mm BAE Mk.38, 2 × M2 Browning
Aircraft carried: Sikorsky CH-148 Cyclone or Bell CH-146 Griffon helicopter
Boats and landing craft carried:
– two 8.5 m multirole (rescue) speed boats
– ABCO Industries 12-meter landing craft
Vehicle Compartment: can accommodate pickup trucks, ATVs, and snowmobiles

The program for the construction of large Arctic patrol ships of the AOPS (Arctic Offshore Patrol Ship) icebreaker type was approved back in 2007 – one of the main parts of the National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy (now the National Shipbuilding Strategy) adopted by the Canadian government in 2010.

These ships are currently the largest to be built for the Royal Canadian Navy in 50 years.