At least in terms of capabilities envisaged in 2004 (when the first ship was supposed to be delivered in 2011) and until fairly recently. The June 2006 capabilities are listed here, note the ships were to be 28,000 tonnes.

Now what the Navy looks like getting is essentially an oiler (Auxiliary Oil Replenishment vessel–AOR) with a greatly reduced on-shore support capabililty.  Both the possibilities below are some 20,000 tonnes, considerably smaller than the 2006 model–which Canadian industry simply could not build for the money the government was willing to offer.  See “Aug 22/08″ here at this comprehensive account of the perishingly slow program from Defense Industry Daily.

From Milnews.ca:

This today in MERX (highlights mine):

…. The Government has approved a new procurement approach whereby National Defence will explore adapting the designs of recently built naval fleet replenishment ships that are operating with other NATO Navies.

Based on information available in the public domain and information received from Allied Navies, National Defence has concluded that the following designs are the only candidates for adaptation:

· The Berlin Class
· The Cantabria Class

The Government intends to award two separate contracts, one to ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems Canada Inc. (TKMS) and the other to Navantia, S.A. (Navantia), to conduct risk reduction studies to ascertain the feasibility of adapting these designs to meet Canadian requirements, to provide the historical cost of building these ships, and to deliver a proposal for the development of suitable modifications to their respective designs and the delivery of a data package for use by a Canadian shipyard to build the ships, a technology transfer agreement and the right for Canada to use the design and all data for the construction, use and in-service support of these ships.

If one of these designs is selected for the JSS, Canada will amend the contract with that designer to implement its proposal.

Accordingly, you are hereby notified that Canada intends to solicit bids from and negotiate contracts with TKMS and Navantia as described above. ….

More on:
- Berlin class replenishment ships here (usual Wikipedia caveats apply)
- ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems Canada Inc. here and ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems here
- Pantino/Cantabria class replenishment ships here
- Navantia S.A. here…

This is what the JSS was to look like in 2004:

The Berlin class (Upperdate thought: if we buy this, our ships should be called the Kitchener class):

Pantino/Cantabria:

Yet the government in certain cases still insists only the best available will do for the CF:

New fighters, Joint Support Ships, and Arctic Offshore Patrol Ships: What’s good enough?..

In fact its policy of insisting that Navy ships be built in Canada (which any other government would follow too) practically means those ships, for cost reasons, cannot be the best:

Canadian shipyards can’t competitively build large civilian vessels–but the government insists they build naval ones

But at least the government has accepted that a foreign design may be necessary to reduce costs.

Predate: And as I wrote earlier:

…
Upperdate: I also blame the Navy for wanting a ship that was neither fish nor cetacean, as it were. An all-singing, all-dancing vessel that tried to do too much…

Mark
Ottawa