Submarine HMCS Windsor shore bound after engine failure

The Royal Canadian Navy's only submarine on the East Coast will be pulled from service for up to a year because of engine woes, CBC News has learned.

HMCS Windsor, which completed a $209-million refit just 18 months ago, will be hauled from the water in March, the navy has confirmed to CBC News.

• Canada's ailing submarines

A navy spokesperson said one of HMCS Windsor's two diesel engines will be removed and replaced during the unscheduled docking.

A naval source told CBC News the job will take at least seven months but could last longer, depending on how the massive 16-cylinder diesel engine is stripped from the submarine.

Lt.-Cmdr. Alain Blondinresponded to CBC's inquirieslate Wednesday. He said the work isscheduled to take place between late March and September.

Blondinsaid the replacement generator is "projected to cost $1.5 million, including labour, alreadyprocured materials and external services. While the defective generator is being replaced, other maintenance and engineering changes will also be carried out," he said.

"However, this cost will not be known until the repair agent can survey the defective unit."

Blondin said the cost for the engine itselfis $1.35 million, which he said is already a part of the "national spare parts inventory for the submarine fleet."

The broken Paxman Valenta engine weighs eight tonnes and was commonly used to drive British trains.

Canada's used British-built submarines are fitted with a special hatch that may allow the navy to simply pull the engine from the 20-year-old HMCS Windsor. But if the hatch called a Dutch breach turns out to be too small, the navy will be forced to cut the submarine in half to remove the engine.

It is likely the 2,400-tonne Windsor will be hauled from the water at the navy's dockyard in Halifax and stored in a newly constructed $20-million submarine shed that will shelter the sub from the elements.

HMCS Windsor should have been operational until 2018 after a five-year refit which began in 2007. The refit was to take two years and cost $45 million. But in April, Capt. Luc Cassivi, director of Canada's submarine force, told CBC News the final tally was $209 million.

Shortly after the navy slipped the Windsor back into Halifax harbour in the spring of 2012, the diesel engine was declared unusable. The diesel engine is used to charge the batteries the submarine depends on to drive electric propulsion motors when submerged.

The engine failure meant that even after hundreds of millions spent on upgrades, the Windsor only had one working engine, which restricted the sub's ability to dive and manoeuvre.

The submarine's 48 crew members were forbidden to take the submarine from home waters because of the useless engine.