HMCS ''Harry DeWolf'' (AOPV 430) is the

lead ship The lead ship, name ship, or class leader is the first of a series or class of ships that are all constructed according to the same general design. The term is applicable to naval ships and large civilian vessels. Large ships are very comple ...

of its class of

offshore patrol vessel A patrol boat (also referred to as a patrol craft, patrol ship, or patrol vessel) is a relatively small naval vessel generally designed for coastal defence, border security, or law enforcement. There are many designs for patrol boats, and th ...

s for the

Royal Canadian Navy The Royal Canadian Navy (RCN; , ''MRC'') is the Navy, naval force of Canada. The navy is one of three environmental commands within the Canadian Armed Forces. As of February 2024, the RCN operates 12 s, 12 s, 4 s, 4 s, 8 s, and several auxiliary ...

(RCN). The class was derived from the

Arctic Offshore Patrol Ship ''Harry DeWolf''-class offshore patrol vessels are warships of the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) built within the Government of Canada Arctic and Offshore Patrol Ship (AOPS) procurement project, part of the National Shipbuilding Strategy. In July 2 ...

project as part of the

National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy The National Shipbuilding Strategy (NSS), formerly the National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy (NSPS), is a Government of Canada program operated by the Department of Public Works and Government Services. The NSS was developed under the Steph ...

and is primarily designed for the patrol and support of Canada's Arctic regions. Named after Vice Admiral Harry DeWolf, a former head of the RCN, the vessel was ordered in 2011,

laid down Laying the keel or laying down is the formal recognition of the start of a ship's construction. It is often marked with a ceremony attended by dignitaries from the shipbuilding company and the ultimate owners of the ship. Keel laying is one ...

in 2016 and launched in 2018. The vessel completed contractors

sea trial A sea trial or trial trip is the testing phase of a watercraft (including boats, ships, and submarines). It is also referred to as a "shakedown cruise" by many naval personnel. It is usually the last phase of construction and takes place on op ...

s in July 2020, was delivered to the RCN on 31 July 2020 and began post-acceptance sea trials. ''Harry DeWolf'' was commissioned on 26 June 2021.

Design and description

The s are designed for use in the Arctic regions of Canada for patrol and support within Canada's

exclusive economic zone An exclusive economic zone (EEZ), as prescribed by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, is an area of the sea in which a sovereign state has exclusive rights regarding the exploration and use of marine natural resource, reso ...

. The vessel is

long overall Length overall (LOA, o/a, o.a. or oa) is the maximum length of a vessel's hull measured parallel to the waterline. This length is important while docking the ship. It is the most commonly used way of expressing the size of a ship, and is also u ...

with a

beam Beam may refer to: Streams of particles or energy *Light beam, or beam of light, a directional projection of light energy **Laser beam *Radio beam *Particle beam, a stream of charged or neutral particles **Charged particle beam, a spatially lo ...

of . The ship has a

displacement Displacement may refer to: Physical sciences Mathematics and physics *Displacement (geometry), is the difference between the final and initial position of a point trajectory (for instance, the center of mass of a moving object). The actual path ...

of . The ship has an enclosed foredeck that protects machinery and work spaces from Arctic climates. The vessel is powered by a diesel-electric system composed of four

MAN A man is an adult male human. Before adulthood, a male child or adolescent is referred to as a boy. Like most other male mammals, a man's genome usually inherits an X chromosome from the mother and a Y chromosome from the f ...

6L32/44CR four-stroke medium-speed

diesel generator A diesel generator (DG) (also known as a diesel genset) is the combination of a diesel engine with an electric generator (often an alternator) to generate electrical energy. This is a specific case of an engine generator. A diesel compress ...

s and two electric propulsion motors rated at driving two

shafts ''Shafts'' was an English feminist magazine produced by Margaret Sibthorp from 1892 until 1899. Initially published weekly and priced at one penny, its themes included votes for women, women's education, and radical attitudes towards vivisection ...

. ''Harry DeWolf'' is capable of in open water and in first-year sea ice. The ship is also equipped with a

bow thruster Manoeuvering thrusters (bow thrusters and stern thrusters) are transversal propulsion devices built into or mounted to either the Bow (watercraft), bow or stern (front or back, respectively) of a ship or boat to make it more manoeuvrable. Bow th ...

to aid during manoeuvres and docking procedures without requiring

tugboat A tugboat or tug is a marine vessel that manoeuvres other vessels by pushing or pulling them, with direct contact or a tow line. These boats typically tug ships in circumstances where they cannot or should not move under their own power, suc ...

assistance. The ship has an operational range of at least at in open water and an endurance of 120 days. ''Harry DeWolf'' is equipped with fin stabilizers to decrease roll in open water but can be retracted during icebreaking. ''Harry DeWolf'' is able to deploy with multiple payloads, including

shipping container A shipping container is a container with strength suitable to withstand shipment, storage, and handling. Shipping containers range from large reusable steel boxes used for intermodal shipments to the ubiquitous corrugated box design, corrugated b ...

underwater survey An underwater survey is a survey performed in an underwater environment or conducted remotely on an underwater object or region. Surveys can have several meanings. The word originates in Medieval Latin with meanings of ''looking over'' and ''detai ...

equipment or

landing craft Landing craft are small and medium seagoing watercraft, such as boats and barges, used to convey a landing force (infantry and vehicles) from the sea to the shore during an amphibious assault. The term excludes landing ships, which are larger. ...

. Payload operations are aided by a crane for loading and unloading. The ship is equipped with a vehicle bay which can hold

pickup truck A pickup truck or pickup is a Truck_classification#Table_of_US_GVWR_classifications, light or medium duty truck that has an enclosed cabin (truck), cabin, and a back end made up of a cargo bed that is enclosed by three low walls with no roof (th ...

all-terrain vehicle An all-terrain vehicle (ATV), also known as a light utility vehicle (LUV), a quad bike or quad (if it has four wheels), as defined by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), is a vehicle that travels on low-pressure tires, has a seat ...

s and

snowmobile A snowmobile, also known as a snowmachine (chiefly Alaskan), motor sled (chiefly Canadian), motor sledge, skimobile, snow scooter, or simply a sled is a motorized vehicle designed for winter travel and recreation on snow. Their engines normally ...

s. The ship also has two multi-role rescue boats capable of over . The ship is armed with one BAE Mk 38 gun and two

M2 Browning The M2 machine gun or Browning .50-caliber machine gun (informally, "Ma Deuce") is a heavy machine gun that was designed near the end of World War I by John Browning. While similar to Browning's M1919 Browning machine gun, which was chambered ...

machine guns. The patrol ship has an onboard

hangar A hangar is a building or structure designed to hold aircraft or spacecraft. Hangars are built of metal, wood, or concrete. The word ''hangar'' comes from Middle French ''hanghart'' ("enclosure near a house"), of Germanic origin, from Frankish ...

and

flight deck The flight deck of an aircraft carrier is the surface on which its aircraft take off and land, essentially a miniature airfield at sea. On smaller naval ships which do not have aviation as a primary mission, the landing area for helicopters ...

for helicopters up to the size of a

Sikorsky CH-148 Cyclone The Sikorsky CH-148 Cyclone is a twin-engine, multi-role shipborne helicopter developed by the Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation for the Canadian Armed Forces. A military variant of the Sikorsky S-92, the CH-148 is designed for shipboard operations ...

. ''Harry DeWolf'' has a complement of 65 and accommodation for 85 or 87.

Construction

The order for the

s was placed on 19 October 2011 with Irving Shipyards of

Halifax, Nova Scotia Halifax is the capital and most populous municipality of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Nova Scotia, and the most populous municipality in Atlantic Canada. As of 2024, it is estimated that the population of the H ...

, as part of the

. The ship was to be constructed in 62 blocks, which would then be pieced together into three larger blocks. These three "mega blocks" would be fitted together to form the

hull Hull may refer to: Structures * The hull of an armored fighting vehicle, housing the chassis * Fuselage, of an aircraft * Hull (botany), the outer covering of seeds * Hull (watercraft), the body or frame of a sea-going craft * Submarine hull Ma ...

of the ship. On 18 September 2014, it was announced that the first ship of the class was to be named ''Harry DeWolf'' in honour of Rear Admiral Harry DeWolf, a decorated naval officer who served during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

in European waters and as the Royal Canadian Navy Chief of the Naval Staff during the early

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

. The ship was given the

hull number A hull number is a serial identification number given to a boat or ship. For the military, a lower number implies an older vessel. For civilian use, the Hull Identification Number (HIN) is used to trace the boat's history. The precise usage varie ...

AOPV 430. On 18 June 2015 it was reported that the construction of test modules for ''Harry DeWolf'' was underway. The first sections of

keel The keel is the bottom-most longitudinal structural element of a watercraft, important for stability. On some sailboats, it may have a fluid dynamics, hydrodynamic and counterbalancing purpose as well. The keel laying, laying of the keel is often ...

were placed on 11 March 2016, but the official laying of the keel of ''Harry DeWolf'' was held on 9 June 2016, marking the first naval construction in Canada since 1998. On 8 December 2017, the three main sections of ''Harry DeWolf'' were fitted into place. ''Harry DeWolf'' was launched on 15 September 2018. The vessel was loaded onto the semi-submersible barge ''Boa Barge 37'' and taken out into

Halifax Harbour Halifax Harbour is a large natural harbour on the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia, Canada, located in the Halifax Regional Municipality. Halifax largely owes its existence to the harbour, being one of the largest and deepest ice-free natural har ...

. There, the barge was submerged and the ship floated free, to be towed back to the shipyard. The vessel was officially named at Halifax on 5 October 2018 by sponsor

Sophie Grégoire Trudeau Sophie Grégoire Trudeau (; born April 24, 1975), also known as Sophie Grégoire, is a Canadian retired television host. She was married to Justin Trudeau, the 23rd prime minister of Canada; the couple separated in 2023. She is involved in c ...

, the wife of Prime Minister

Justin Trudeau Justin Pierre James Trudeau (born December 25, 1971) is a Canadian politician who served as the 23rd prime minister of Canada from 2015 to 2025. He led the Liberal Party from 2013 until his resignation in 2025 and was the member of Parliament ...

. ''Harry DeWolf'' began builders

s on 22 November 2019. The ship was delivered to the Royal Canadian Navy on 31 July 2020 and began post-acceptance sea trials. The ship was commissioned on 26 June 2021.

Service history

HMCS Harry DeWolf Arctic Transit Aug 2021

''Harry DeWolf'' embarked on its inaugural deployment on 3 August 2021. It participated in

Operation Nanook Operation Nanook (OP NANOOK; ) is an annual sovereignty operation and manoeuvre warfare exercise conducted by the Canadian Armed Forces in the Arctic. Sovereignty patrols in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago and northern Canada are conducted by ...

, Canada's annual

sovereignty Sovereignty can generally be defined as supreme authority. Sovereignty entails hierarchy within a state as well as external autonomy for states. In any state, sovereignty is assigned to the person, body or institution that has the ultimate au ...

operation and

manoeuvre warfare Maneuver warfare, or manoeuvre warfare, is a military strategy which emphasizes movement, initiative and surprise to achieve a position of advantage. Maneuver seeks to inflict losses indirectly by envelopment, encirclement and disruption, while ...

exercise conducted in the

Arctic The Arctic (; . ) is the polar regions of Earth, polar region of Earth that surrounds the North Pole, lying within the Arctic Circle. The Arctic region, from the IERS Reference Meridian travelling east, consists of parts of northern Norway ( ...

, alongside and elements of the

Canadian Coast Guard The Canadian Coast Guard (CCG; ) is the coast guard of Canada. Formed in 1962, the coast guard is tasked with marine search and rescue (SAR), communication, navigation, and transportation issues in Canadian waters, such as navigation aids and i ...

and the

United States Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and Admiralty law, law enforcement military branch, service branch of the armed forces of the United States. It is one of the country's eight Uniformed services ...

. During this exercise, a new underwater listening device called the Towed Reelable Active-Passive Sonar (TRAPS) was trialled, testing advanced acoustic sensing capabilities for anti-submarine warfare operations. The ship then proceeded through the

Northwest Passage The Northwest Passage (NWP) is the sea lane between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through the Arctic Ocean, near the northern coast of North America via waterways through the Arctic Archipelago of Canada. The eastern route along the Arctic ...

, and docked at

CFB Esquimalt Canadian Forces Base Esquimalt (CFB Esquimalt) is the Royal Canadian Navy's Pacific Coast naval base and home port to Maritime Forces Pacific and Joint Task Force Pacific Headquarters. , 4,411 military personnel and 2,762 civilians ...

on 4 October 2021. ''Harry DeWolf'' left CFB Esquimalt on 22 October 2021, and sailed to the Caribbean Sea and Atlantic Ocean via the

Panama Canal The Panama Canal () is an artificial waterway in Panama that connects the Caribbean Sea with the Pacific Ocean. It cuts across the narrowest point of the Isthmus of Panama, and is a Channel (geography), conduit for maritime trade between th ...

. During this second leg of its journey, it took part in

Operation Caribbe Operation Caribbe is the Canadian Armed Forces contribution to the elimination of illegal trafficking in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean by organized crime. The operation began in 2006 and its mandate has been altered twice since ...

— Canada's contribution to the US-led anti-drug smuggling effort Operation Martillo — and seized almost of cocaine. ''Harry DeWolf'' returned to

CFB Halifax Canadian Forces Base (CFB) Halifax is Canada's east coast naval base and home port to the Royal Canadian Navy Atlantic fleet, known as Canadian Fleet Atlantic (CANFLTLANT), that forms part of the formation (military), formation Maritime Forces At ...

on 16 December 2021, becoming the first Canadian naval vessel to circumnavigate North America since made a similar voyage in 1954. In August 2022, ''Harry DeWolf'' was among the Canadian warships that were to be deployed to the Arctic as part of the multinational

military exercise A military exercise, training exercise, maneuver (manoeuvre), or war game is the employment of military resources in Military education and training, training for military operations. Military exercises are conducted to explore the effects of ...

Operation Nanook. However, after two of four generators on the ship ceased functioning, the ship's participation in the exercise was cancelled due to a need to return to Halifax for repairs. The ship was not expected to return to service until April 2023. In August 2023, after an operational hiatus for necessary repairs and extensive sailor training, ''Harry DeWolf'' departed from its homeport of Halifax for the 2023 iteration of the annual sovereignty Arctic deployment,

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harry Dewolf, HMCS Harry DeWolf-class offshore patrol vessels 2018 ships Ships built in Nova Scotia Fleet of the Royal Canadian Navy