Canada has chosen the German shipbuilder TKMS as the preferred supplier for its new submarine program, bringing an end to what officials described as the biggest procurement project in Canadian history.
Announcing the decision, the government said Canada will now enter into negotiations to procure up to 12 submarines, a purchase officials said would fundamentally reshape the country's future navy.
For months, TKMS went head to head with South Korea for the contract. Both Germany and South Korea put forward strong economic pitches, with the Korean bid led by the firm Hanwha, in one of the most closely watched defence competitions in years.
In making its case, Germany underlined that it, Canada and Norway would all be allied navies operating the same class of submarine, an interoperability argument among NATO partners that officials said carried significant weight.
The scale of the program is enormous. Having 12 submarines as part of the fleet would mean roughly one-third to one-half of the future navy would be made up of submarines, a major shift in Canada's naval posture.
Officials said the program is expected to generate an economic impact for Canada of more than 167 billion Canadian dollars over the coming decades, with TKMS promising in return to invest in Canada as part of the deal.