HMCS Glace Bay is a that has served in the Canadian Forces and Royal Canadian Navy since 1996. Glace Bay is the second ship of her class which is the name for the Maritime Coastal Defence Vessel Project. She is the second vessel to use the designation . She is assigned to Maritime Forces Atlantic (MARLANT) and is homeported at CFB Halifax. Design and description The Kingston class was designed to fill the minesweeper, coastal patrol and reserve training needs of the Canadian Forces, replacing the s, s and Royal Canadian Mounted Police coastal launches in those roles. In order to perform these varied duties the Kingston-class vessels are designed to carry up to three ISO containers with power hookups on the open deck aft in order to embark mission-specific payloads. The seven module types available for embarkation include four route survey, two mechanical minesweeping and one bottom inspection modules. The Kingston class displace and are long overall with a beam and a draught of . The coastal defence vessels are powered by four Jeumont ANR-53-50 alternators coupled to four Wärtsilä UD 23V12 diesel engines creating . Two LIPS Z-drive azimuth thrusters are driven by two Jeumont CI 560L motors creating and the Z drives can be rotated 360°. This gives the ships a maximum speed of and a range of at . The Kingston class is equipped with a Kelvin Hughes navigational radar using the I band and a Kelvin Hughes 6000 surface search radar scanning the E and F bands. The vessels carry an AN/SQS-511 towed side scan sonar for minesweeping and a Remote-control Mine Hunting System (RMHS). The vessels are equipped with one Bofors 40 mm/60 calibre Mk 5C gun and two M2 machine guns. The 40 mm gun was declared obsolete and removed from the vessels in 2014. Some of them ended up as museum pieces and on display at naval reserve installations across Canada. The Kingston-class coastal defence vessels have a complement of 37. Service history The ship's keel was laid down on 28 April 1995 by Halifax Shipyards Ltd. at Halifax, Nova Scotia, and was launched on 22 January 1996. Glace Bay was commissioned into the Canadian Forces at Sydney, Nova Scotia, on 26 October 1996 and carries the hull number MM 701. In 1997, the coastal defence vessel deployed to the Great Lakes. Following the crash of Swissair Flight 111, Glace Bay was