Canada reveals updated River-class destroyer design with major combat system changes.

Canada has unveiled a new scale model of the River-class destroyer featuring major combat system adjustments, as the Royal Canadian Navy refines its next-generation surface combatant to enhance integration, stability, and operational effectiveness.

The updated design, presented at National Defence Headquarters, confirms changes to missile architecture, gun systems, and onboard sensors as construction of HMCS Fraser progresses at Irving Shipbuilding. These refinements directly support Canada’s effort to field a more interoperable and sustainable multi-role combatant aligned with allied Type 26 platforms, strengthening naval readiness and coalition operations in high-threat maritime environments.

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Overall, the changes on the Canadian River-class destroyer include the limitation to 24 vertical launch cells, the removal of a secondary missile system, the replacement of heavier artillery, and a consolidation of sensor and mast structures. (Picture source: Canadian Navy)

On March 24, 2026, the Deputy Commander of the Royal Canadian Navy, Rear-Admiral Charlebois, and the Director of Naval Major Crown Projects – Combatant, Capt(N) Tremblay, unveiled an updated scale model of the River-class destroyer at National Defence Headquarters. The River-class program is already in the production phase, with the lead ship, HMCS Fraser, under construction since April 2025 at Irving Shipbuilding, within a procurement framework covering up to 15 ships. Initial deliveries are scheduled for the early 2030s and final deliveries extending toward 2050, while total acquisition costs for the class have been estimated at more than $77 billion. The latest scale model consolidates multiple configuration changes accumulated over the past two years, indicating that combat system and equipment adjustments remain ongoing despite the stabilization of the core ship design.

The updated configuration does not alter the hull geometry, propulsion system, or overall architecture derived from the British Type 26 design, confirming that the naval architecture has been frozen. The visible changes focus on resolving integration constraints such as topweight distribution, deck space allocation, electromagnetic interference, and maintenance access, with the external differences observed on the model corresponding to internal design trade-offs linked to cost control, system rationalization, compatibility, and long-term support considerations as the design approaches final review milestones planned before 2028.

The River-class destroyers are intended to replace both the Halifax-class frigates, commissioned between 1992 and 1996 and are reaching the end of their service life in the 2020s, and the Iroquois-class destroyers, which were fully decommissioned between 2014 and 2017, consolidating their respective functions into a single multi-role class capable of anti-submarine warfare, anti-ship warfare, and limited area air defense, while maintaining interoperability with allied fleets through adoption of the Type 26 baseline by the United Kingdom and Australia, allowing reuse of validated subsystems, including combat system integration work already implemented on HMS Glasgow and Australian Hunter-class ships.

The River-class will possess a displacement between 7,800 and 8,080 tons, a length of 151.4 meters, a beam of 20.75 meters, and a draught close to 8 meters, with a crew of about 210 personnel. Propulsion is based on a CODLOG configuration combining a Rolls-Royce MT30 gas turbine, electric motors, and multiple diesel generators, enabling a maximum speed of up to 27 knots and an operational range of 7,000 nautical miles, supporting sustained blue-water operations. Onboard aviation facilities include a flight deck and hangar sized for a CH-148 Cyclone helicopter and unmanned systems, reinforcing the ship’s anti-submarine warfare role.

The most significant configuration changes, well under 1% of total displacement, concern the weapon system layout, where the 30–35 tonnes Leonardo 127/64 gun (including mount and below-deck systems) has been replaced by the 22–24 tonnes Mk 45 5-inch gun, reducing weight by 8 to 12 tonnes and aligning with systems already installed on other Type 26 variants, while the removal of the ExLS launcher (15–30+ tonnes for a full installation) eliminates the planned Sea Ceptor missile capability and simplifies the missile architecture to a single set of 24 Mk41 vertical launch cells arranged in three eight-cell modules (for a total weight of 75 to 90 tonnes) capable of accommodating ESSM Block II, SM-2, or Tomahawk missiles, with reserved space for an additional eight-cell module in the future, indicating a design choice that limits missile density in favor of cost, integration simplicity, and emphasis on anti-submarine operations.

Close-in and short-range defensive systems have also been revised, with confirmation of a single RIM-116 RAM launcher installed on the port side aft with a defined firing arc (instead of earlier assumptions about dual launchers), the replacement of the two Leonardo Lionfish 30 mm mounts by Mk 38 Mod 4 cannons already in service with the U.S Navy, and the relocation of the Naval Strike Missile (NSM) launchers from a forward-facing symmetrical arrangement behind the funnel to a starboard-side transverse orientation, likely to avoid interference with exhaust and missile plume effects, while additional unidentified launcher structures visible on the model do not match known vertical launch or decoy systems and may correspond to future counter-unmanned system capabilities under consideration.

The sensor and electronic warfare suite includes the AN/SPY-7 AESA radar, coupled with an Aegis combat management system using a Canadian interface, and the AN/SLQ-32(V)6 electronic warfare system, complemented by multiple Nulka decoy launchers positioned amidships, a S2150 hull-mounted sonar, as well as electro-optical and infrared sensors, while the shift to a single integrated mast and the apparent replacement of the previous fire control radar configuration with a rotating radar enclosed in a circular structure indicate adjustments aimed at improving sensor coverage, reducing structural complexity, and optimizing electromagnetic performance across the ship’s combat systems.

Taken together, the current changes sound tiny (between 0.3–0.6% of the River-class' total displacement), but they actually do improve stability, integration, and future upgrade capacity. They also reflects a consistent pattern of incremental adjustments driven by integration constraints, budget limitations, and alignment with allied systems, resulting in a design that prioritizes anti-submarine warfare effectiveness, interoperability with NATO fleets, and controlled system complexity over maximum missile capacity, while leaving margins for future upgrades, with further refinements expected before final design completion and operational entry in the early 2030s.

Written by Jérôme Brahy

Jérôme Brahy is a defense analyst and documentalist at Army Recognition. He specializes in naval modernization, aviation, drones, armored vehicles, and artillery, with a focus on strategic developments in the United States, China, Ukraine, Russia, Türkiye, and Belgium. His analyses go beyond the facts, providing context, identifying key actors, and explaining why defense news matters on a global scale.