Canada recently signed a $288M (presumably Canadian $) contract with Irving Shipbuilding of Halifax to define their new Arctic Offshore Patrol Vessels.

CBC News finds it difficult to understand why it should cost that much to “design” a ship that is based on an already existing ship, the Norweigian Svalbard,  although the Canadian ship will, reportedly be smaller and somewhat simplified, when other countries have apparently acquired similar ships complete for less money.

The response from the yard and the government is that there is a lot more to the contract than design. You can see a report on their response here.

If, as it appears, the contract includes long lead time items and everything short of actual construction of the ships, then the preconstruction costs are similar to the Offshore Patrol Cutter, which is a smaller, but I believe, more complex ship.

At the very least, it is a cautionary tale, a warning to make sure the full scope of a project is explained to the media.