HMCS SHAWINIGAN

About the Ship

Today's HMCS SHAWINIGAN

HMCS SHAWINIGAN (MM 704) is the 5th of the Kingston class vessels. The Kingston class vessels were designed with a minesweeping role in mind and are consequently classified as Mechanical Minesweepers (MM). These vessels are also known as Maritime Coastal Defense Vessels (MCDV). They were built and launched from the mid to late 1990s and are crewed entirely by members of the Naval Reserve, with the exception of two Regular Force technicians per crew. They were designed to be multi-role, multi-purpose and cost efficient that would serve Canada’s maritime interests.

Using commercial standards and equipment, leading edge technologies have been incorporated into both combat and engineering systems of the ship which makes it a modern, capable, and flexible platform with considerable potential for future development and evolutions of its systems and missions.

When the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) followed a long-standing tradition by naming the Halifax class frigates after Canadian cities; the naming of the Kingston class after other Canadian communities was certainly appropriate. This link between the ships and their namesake cities signifies the importance of each Canadian community regardless of size.

Our Mission

The ship’s main missions are coastal surveillance, sovereignty patrol, and training. It can also perform a variety of operational tasks including, but not limited to:

  • Mine Countermeasure (MCM);
  • Search and Rescue;
  • Control of Shipping;
  • Support to other government departments in areas of law enforcement, anti-smuggling, resource protection, fisheries and environmental monitoring, counter-terrorism, disaster relief, and scientific research.

In addition, interchangeable modular payloads will provide capabilities for:

  • Deep mechanical minesweeping;
  • Mine-hunting;
  • Bottom object inspection;
  • Deep seabed intervention;
  • Sonar scanning of the seabed;
  • Remotely operated vehicles (surface and sub-surface); and
  • Explosive ordinance disposal diving.
Date modified:
11/16/2012