Navy appoints commander of future HMCS Max Bernays

The future HMCS Max Bernays, the third of six Arctic and Offshore Patrol Ships being built for the Royal Canadian Navy, was successfully launched by builder Irving Shipbuilding on Oct. 23.

The future HMCS Max Bernays, the third of six Arctic and Offshore Patrol Ships being built for the Royal Canadian Navy, was successfully launched by builder Irving Shipbuilding on Oct. 23.

Peter Mallett
Staff Writer
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A senior member of Maritime Forces Pacific has been selected to command the third Arctic and Offshore Patrol Vessel – the future HMCS Max Bernays, which was launched Oct. 23 by Irving Shipbuilding.

Cdr Collin Forsberg, currently the Officer-In-Charge of Patrol Vessel Sea Training (Pacific), is set to take the helm in January 2022.

“I have been interested in the AOPV program for several years and was fortunate at this point in my career to be selected for this amazing opportunity,” he says. “It helped that being in my position with Sea Training allowed me to sail with the navy’s first AOPV [HMCS Harry DeWolf] for their readiness training program.”

He will travel to Halifax in the New Year to begin assembling a crew.

Maritime Forces Atlantic sailors will primarily make up the training crew, says Commodore David Mazur, Commander Canadian Fleet Pacific.

“To avoid having Pacific sailors separated from their families for up to two years, the intent is to have a few key West Coasters go [east] early, with much of the initial trials crew coming from the East Coast.”

Cdr Collin Forsberg.

Cdr Collin Forsberg.

Cdr Forsberg’s key responsibilities are delivering the ship into service after post-acceptance trials and readiness training.

Initial cadre training is expected to last four months. It involves two phases: sailors becoming familiar with the intricate details of their new ship, some of it provided through computer models and training simulators, and their trade-specific learning.

The new ship’s captain will also oversee procuring and installing equipment not provided by the ship builder, sea trials, and executing the readiness training program. The final leg of delivering the vessel to the Royal Canadian Navy, transfer to a West Coast crew, official commissioning, and repositioning the future HMCS Max Bernays to Esquimalt will then occur.

Cdr Forsberg is in his 19th year of military service. He previously worked as a staff officer for the Strategic Joint Staff at National Defence Headquarters in 2014, and later the Chief of Force Development Office. In 2017, he commanded Esquimalt-based Kingston-Class vessels HMCS Brandon and then HMCS Whitehorse.

His wife Cpl Susan Forsberg and their two sons will join him when they move to Halifax in June 2022.

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