Katherine Bickford

HMCS Chicoutimi open house at CFMETR in Nanoose

HMCS Chicoutimi (SSK 879), is a Royal Canadian Navy Victoria-class long-range hunter-killer (SSK) submarine.

The former HMS Upholder was laid up by the Royal Navy in June 1994, and accepted by Canada and named Chicoutimi in a ceremony in Faslane on 02 October 2004.  While sailing for Halifax on Chicoutimi suffered a major electrical fire, resulting in total loss of power and propulsion, and the death of one crew member and injury of nine others.

Over 10 years after the fire, the repaired and refitted HMCS Chicoutimi was commissioned into the Royal Canadian Navy on 03 Sep 2015.

• Builder: Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering Ltd & Cammell Laird
• Laid down: November 1983
• Launched: 2 December 1986
• Displacement: 2,455 tonnes
• Length: 70.26 metres
• Beam: 7.2 metres
• Draught: 7.6 metres
• Propulsion:
  • Diesel-electric- 1 shaft
  • 2 × Paxman Valenta 2,035 hp (1.517 MW) 1600 RPA SZ diesels (3.035 MW total)
  • 1 × GEC electric motor (5 MW)
• Speed: 12 knots surface, 20 knots submerged
• Range: 8,000 nmi (15,000 km; 9,200 mi)
• Sonar:
• Type 2040 active/passive bow
• Type 2041 micropuffs
• Type 2007 flank, Type 2046/CANTASS MOD towed array
• Type 2019 active intercept
• Fire Control: Lockheed-Martin Librascope SFCS Mk 1 Mod C
• EW: Condor Systems Sea Search 2 radar warning receiver
• Radar: Kelvin Hughes Type 1007
• Armament: 6 x 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes (18 Mark 48 torpedoes)
• Crew:  48