The Canadian government is expected to announce its preferred bidder for the Canadian Patrol Submarine Project ahead of next week’s NATO summit in Ankara. The winner will secure a generational procurement expected to shape Canada’s undersea warfare capabilities for the next five decades, while the losing bidder will see years of political engagement and industrial lobbying come to an abrupt end.

Canadian Defense Minister David McGuinty’s recent confirmation that Ottawa has rejected a split-fleet approach and the competition is now between South Korea’s Hanwha Ocean and Germany’s ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS).

For South Korea, the project has become more