AtkinsRéalis and Hanwha Ocean Chart New Course for Canada’s Submarine Future

Canada’s push to strengthen its defence industrial base has gained fresh momentum, with AtkinsRéalis and Hanwha Ocean signing a strategic Memorandum of Understanding aimed at supporting the country’s submarine capability and long-term domestic industrial resilience.

Announced in Montreal on April 14, 2026, the agreement aligns with Canada’s new Defence Industrial Strategy and sets out a framework for long-term collaboration between the Canadian engineering and nuclear leader and the global shipbuilding and submarine manufacturer. Together, the two companies will explore opportunities to enhance Canada’s submarine readiness while helping build industrial capacity at home.

The partnership brings together AtkinsRéalis’ extensive expertise in submarine infrastructure and lifecycle support with Hanwha Ocean’s established submarine design and manufacturing capabilities. It marks an early but significant step in what both companies describe as an ambitious collaboration.

“At a time when resilience and sovereignty matter more than ever, the Defence Industrial Strategy reinforces a simple idea: security and prosperity go together,” said Stéphanie Vaillancourt, President, Canada, AtkinsRéalis. “This memorandum of understanding is a practical step to explore how AtkinsRéalis’ global experience in defence, combined with our Canadian capabilities, can support Hanwha Ocean in strengthening Canada’s sovereign submarine readiness and resilience, which will in turn support a high-tech manufacturing base and generate long-term economic benefits at home.”

Under the agreement, the companies intend to focus on three key areas: submarine infrastructure design and delivery across the full platform lifecycle; support for manufacturing capability in Canada to help establish the industrial base required for domestic submarine production; and collaboration across nuclear, power and broader defence sectors to create new strategic opportunities for Korean and Canadian industry in advanced technology markets.

For AtkinsRéalis, the move builds on decades of experience within the UK’s submarine enterprise. The company has worked with Rolls-Royce Submarines for more than 27 years and was recently appointed to a multi-year nuclear and engineering partnership, as well as fissile design partner alongside Mott MacDonald. Both appointments position AtkinsRéalis to support the trilateral AUKUS submarine programme, which will deliver the UK’s next generation of conventionally armed, nuclear-powered submarines while supporting Australia in acquiring the capability for the first time.

Since 2010, AtkinsRéalis has also supported Babcock International at Devonport Royal Dockyard in Plymouth, England, where the Royal Navy’s nuclear-powered submarines are maintained, refuelled and overhauled.

Beyond defence, AtkinsRéalis is also the steward of CANDU® nuclear technology, operating on four continents. South Korea remains an important market, with three CANDU® reactors currently in operation out of four built since 1977.

For Hanwha Ocean, the partnership signals an opportunity to deepen industrial ties with Canada while contributing to future submarine capability development.

“Hanwha Ocean believes strong submarine programs are built on capable partners, proven delivery and a clear industrial framework,” said Steve SK Jeong, Senior Executive Vice President, Hanwha Ocean. “AtkinsRéalis brings strong experience in complex systems and lifecycle support, together with a strong understanding of the Canadian environment. Through this MoU, we have established a practical basis to explore how our teams can work together in submarine capability, industrial capability development in Canada, and long-term support, with the aim of creating lasting value for Canadian industry.”

As Canada looks to reinforce sovereign defence capabilities while driving economic growth, this new alliance could become an important blueprint for how international expertise and domestic industry work together.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

OMC, Nesian Mystik, Scribe, Brooke Fraser, Aradhna, Adeaze, Feature in 50 Iconic Aotearoa Music Moments  

Image
Nesian Mystik. Photo: Facebook The Official Music Charts turns 50 today. Produced by Recorded Music NZ, the Charts reflect the most popular singles and albums in Aotearoa each week. They are the only charts endorsed by the music industry and are compiled according to globally recognised guidelines. In celebration of the milestone anniversary, Recorded Music has identified 50 iconic Aotearoa music moments from the last five decades. The Charts’ 50-year history is rich with stories of pikitanga, or ascension – referring to those who demonstrate great potential and are climbing toward success.  Today is just the start of Charts celebrations during 2025 – Recorded Music will also be acknowledging a small number of New Zealand’s most successful artists as Aotearoa Charts Icons later in 2025. As well as 50 years of the Official Charts, 2025 marks 60 years of the Music Awards in Aotearoa, an anniversary which will be celebrated at the AMA event on Thursday 29 May, closing out Te Ma...
Read more

The Storied Collection of Museu de Arte Moderna in Rio’s Founder Heads to Auction at Sotheby’s Paris

Image
On April 10, Sotheby’s Paris will hold a sale dedicated to Niomar Moniz Sodré Bittencourt, a Brazilian businesswoman and journalist and the founder of Museu de Arte Moderna (MAM) in Rio de Janeiro. Bittencourt, who died in 2003, was a prodigious collector of mid-century Modernist masterpieces, including works by Alberto Giacometti, Pablo Picasso, and Max Ernst, as well as leading Brazilian artists of the era including Almir Da Silva Mavignier and Franz Krajcberg. For those unfamiliar with Bittencourt, that may soon change. Later this year, according to Sotheby’s, a biography by author Ricardo Cota will be released. Titled A Mulher que Enfrentou o Brasil (The Woman Who Faced Brazil), the book will tell how Bittencourt both shaped Brazil’s modern art scene and courageously defied the Brazilian military dictatorship of the ’60s and ’70s. In the 1940s, while Brazil’s cultural establishment remained skeptical of modernism, Bittencourt founded the MAM with little funding and against stif...
Read more

Middle East Fund Managers Now on Sotheby’s Reconfigured Board after Abu Dhabi Investment

In October, Sotheby’s announced that it had secured a $1 billion investment from ADQ, a sovereign wealth fund operated by Abu Dhabi’s government. Part of the arrangement stipulates that the auction house’s board would be reconfigured into a nine-person group, with three seats for managers associated with the Emirati fund. At the time, it was unclear how the board would be reconfigured. It meant that for the first time, financial authorities in the Middle East would have a significant presence in how the heritage company was run. This marked a shift in the makeup of its highest levels of management, positions which have historically been held by money managers and lawyers based in Western countries. In UK regulatory disclosures filed shortly after the announcement, Sotheby’s legal department said that H.E. Mohamed Hassan Alsuwaidi, the Minister of Investment Managing Director & CEO of ADQ, was one of the newly appointed directors to join the global auction house’s board. Alsuwaid...
Read more