Hanwha Ocean said on the 21st that it has hired a local defense expert as head of its local subsidiary to win the Canadian Patrol Submarine Project (CPSP), a deal worth up to 60 trillion won.
New branch head Glen Copeland is expected to operate out of Ottawa, Canada, as a key base to pursue the Canadian submarine contract. Earlier, Hanwha Ocean established a Canadian branch (Hanwha Defence Canada) to bid for the project.
New branch head Glen Copeland was commissioned as a Canadian Navy officer and served for 22 years as an operations and tactics officer and a patrol ship executive officer before leaving the service as a lieutenant colonel. He later worked at Lockheed Martin Canada as the head of the Halifax patrol ship modernization program. He is also known to have handled all processes, including finance, engineering processes, and software development, and to have experience in business development and export of the CMS-330 combat management system.
Hanwha Ocean said Copeland served as chair of the Nova Scotia defense corporations association and built networks through negotiations and exchanges with the provincial government, and that this experience will significantly contribute to sharpening industrial and technological benefits (ITB), a key element of the CPSP, to enhance bid competitiveness.
Copeland said, "I am delighted and honored to join Hanwha Ocean," and added, "I will work to ensure that the experience gained from Canadian Navy programs can connect to the achievement of winning the CPSP contract."
Meanwhile, Hanwha Ocean said the same day that it signed a "strategic memorandum of understanding (MOU) for the joint promotion of the LNG development project in the Newfoundland and Labrador region of Canada" with Canadian energy developer Fermeuse Energy. The collaboration is also seen as part of industrial cooperation linked to the CPSP.
Through the MOU, Hanwha Ocean will provide integrated capabilities across the LNG value chain as Fermeuse Energy's long-term strategic partner, including project development, engineering, financing, shipbuilding, and LNG logistics.
A Hanwha Ocean official said, "By linking cooperation in the LNG sector with offset trade under the CPSP, we plan to push this partnership as part of a mid- to long-term strategy to strengthen Canada's sovereign industrial base."