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<\/p>\nThe past year, for Burkhard, was momentous.<\/p>\n
\t<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, personally, it was really the toughest experience I had in my working life,\u201d said Burkhard, 54, a former union leader who became CEO in 2022.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we saw, especially in Canada \u2014 I mean, eight months from request for proposal to final decision. This is a process that would last normally two to three years. So, very fast.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Mark Carney named TKMS as the government\u2019s preferred bidder on July 6, just before rushing off to the annual NATO leaders\u2019 summit in Ankara, Turkey.<\/p>\n
Carney said it was a close race between the German submarine maker and its South Korean rival Hanwha.<\/p>\n
Canada plans to purchase a fleet of up to 12 submarines to replace its four, aging Victoria-class submarines, which will be retired from service in the mid-2030s.<\/p>\n
Burkhard traveled to Ottawa to meet with representatives on Monday from dozens of businesses partnering on the Canadian submarine project to update them on the next phase for the project.<\/p>\n
Canada and TKMS are entering into negotiations which could take somewhere from six to 18 months to fully complete. Germany and Norway both have submarines in the firm\u2019s delivery lineup ahead of Canada\u2019s orders.<\/p>\n
Burkhard said those talks will take place on different tracks. That includes the submarine contract itself, the industrial benefits delivered to the Canadian economy, plans for marine infrastructure and the long-term servicing of the subs.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe submarine contract could be fast, maybe within the first six months,\u201d he said. \u201cThere are other topics where it maybe lasts a bit longer, where Canada has to make a decision.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sorting out the transition from the Victorias and the plans for how the 212CD submarines will be maintained over their entire lifespans, for example, could take about a year and a half. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe went light speed through the proposal. Now, let\u2019s finish this at light speed until the effective date of contract.\u201d<\/p>\n
Under the company\u2019s proposal to supply 12 subs, TKMS would deliver Canada\u2019s first 212CD in 2033, with a full fleet in Canada\u2019s hands by 2043.<\/p>\n
The first batch of delivery dates had to be negotiated with the other governments with orders in the queue.<\/p>\n
Germany and Norway\u2019s orders finish in the late 2030s. After that, there will only be five or six Canadian submarines in the production pipeline, Burkhard said.<\/p>\n
A big part of the sales pitch for Canada to buy these subs has rested on sailing the same boats that NATO allies Germany and Norway will also put in the water.<\/p>\n
Another NATO ally, Greece, is also interested in joining that club. <\/p>\n
Burkhard said adding another country to the mix would not affect Canada\u2019s position in the order book, and members of the sub club all have to agree on it.<\/p>\n
The timeline set out in the company\u2019s bid for Canada\u2019s submarine project, though, is firm.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have, let\u2019s say, enlarged our capacities to fulfil that, so that we can keep our promise, and therefore I don\u2019t think this is negotiable,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Looking ahead, TKMS is examining ways it could bolster its capacity in a world where NATO countries are looking to re-arm as fast as possible.<\/p>\n
Burkhard said on Monday the company is considering ways to speed up delivery schedules by partnering with other European shipyards, like Spanish submarine maker Navantia.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson later clarified the 212CDs Canada is buying would not be part of that effort, which would only cover future projects.<\/p>\n
Burkhard does, however, envision involving companies across a wide range of countries becoming more involved in TKMS supply chains, likening the situation to how Airbus came together in the 1970s.<\/p>\n
The CEO said he\u2019s happy in the meantime to have his order books filled.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are still some campaigns out there where we race for it, but now the main topic of the work in the future is execution.\u201d<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 17, 2026.<\/p>\n
Kyle Duggan, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The past year, for Burkhard, was momentous. \u201cFor me, personally, it was really the toughest experience I had…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":74061,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21243],"tags":[21276],"class_list":["post-74060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-thyssenkrupp","tag-thyssenkrupp"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74060","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74060"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74060\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74061"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}