Calian Group is spearheading a new R&D facility in Ottawa as part of its push to accelerate the development and commercialization of homegrown defence technology. The Northstar Defence Lab will be located at Area X.O, a research complex and testing ground for autonomous vehicles, drones and other next-generation technology on Woodroffe Avenue. Invest Ottawa, which […]
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Calian Group is spearheading a new R&D facility in Ottawa as part of its push to accelerate the development and commercialization of homegrown defence technology.
The Northstar Defence Lab will be located at Area X.O, a research complex and testing ground for autonomous vehicles, drones and other next-generation technology on Woodroffe Avenue. Invest Ottawa, which operates Area X.O, will oversee the new lab.
Calian and other industry partners are providing funding and equipment for the facility, which will provide a space for companies that specialize in high-speed communications, training, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and high-tech sensors to brainstorm new products, share data and develop integrated systems using each other's technology.
“We’re going to have companies come together, we’re going to test ourselves, we’re going to adapt,” Chris Pogue, president of Calian’s defence and space division, told OBJ this week. “We’re going to have systems that will fail. But then, through that, we will adapt, modify, continue to innovate and then the system will be deployable.”
Calian has developed a platform called Athora that allows different military training and communications systems to “talk” to one another on the battlefield, Pogue said. The Kanata-based company’s software and hardware will form the backbone of the Northstar lab.
With drones and other rapidly evolving technology playing a major role in war zones such as Ukraine, Canadian defence companies must take a more co-ordinated approach to building new systems, Pogue said.
Defence technology of the future will include fewer “monolithic systems that are tightly coupled” and more platforms built by different suppliers with their own areas of expertise, he explained.
“That allows you to rethink the way defence systems will be delivered,” Pogue said. “They’ll be delivered by multiple companies — small, medium, large — and they’ll adapt and change as the battlefield adapts and changes.
“We cannot predict what we’re going to need. We need to be able to rapidly adapt. It’s the idea that you have to rapidly innovate on the battlefield today, go back in your garage tonight, change it, and operate that way tomorrow morning. Northstar lab is designed to optimize Canadian industry to do that rapid cycle.”
Other partners include fellow Ottawa defence-tech companies Adga Group, Anvil, Larus Technologies and Tactiql. Initially, they’ll be joined by Toronto-based artificial intelligence powerhouse Cohere, Burlington’s Evertz Microsystems and a pair of Quebec-based firms, Tessellate Robotics and 123 Cyber. Export Development Canada has signed on to help the companies commercialize their efforts.
A 1,866-acre facility on the former site of the Ottawa Biotechnology Incubation Centre, Area X.O is equipped with cutting-edge 5G networking infrastructure and is designed to allow companies to test drones, self-driving cars and other autonomous equipment such as agricultural machinery in a variety of terrains and weather conditions.
Calian is constructing a new building at the site and expects it to be ready early next year. Pogue said Area X.O is the ideal spot for such a facility because it’s close to decision-makers in the Department of National Defence and other safety and security agencies.
“Ottawa is uniquely positioned because it’s so logical for people in the military, RCMP to come and see what’s going on,” he said. “I think if they come and see it, then you build confidence that you could deploy it.”
The lab’s launch comes as the federal government is ramping up its defence spending and overhauling its procurement processes to speed up sales cycles and focus on buying more military goods and services from Canadian-owned enterprises.
'A completely different universe'
Adga chief growth officer Jana Lee Murray said the surge in defence spending has been a catalyst for Canadian companies to collaborate on projects on a scale that would have been almost unthinkable even a few years ago.
“If you go back five years, it was an extremely siloed industry,” she said. “People were quite cautious about opening up their software, their ideas, because it was such a competitive market. It’s a completely different universe now. With the (federal government’s) commitment to increase defence spending, the opportunity I think is actually beyond what industry can provide today. People are more interested and willing to take a chance and invest (in initiatives like Northstar) because Canada has committed that they’re actually going to do something.”
The lab is open to companies in Calian’s Venture program, which is aimed at scaling defence-tech startups, and Murray expects other partners to sign on as well. She said the lab will give smaller firms and companies that might not have traditionally bid on defence contracts a chance to prove their mettle by building products that can be integrated quickly into larger systems.
“There’s this fear that with this new way of (procurement), that it’s going to lock the government into (buying from) a certain company,” she said. “That’s one of the things that we’re trying to do with Northstar is to say, ‘There is no vendor lock.’ Sure, you’ve got a founding ecosystem partnership launching it, but the doors are open, the IP is protected and the opportunities are there for other businesses.”
The lab further cements the burgeoning relationship between Calian and Adga. In February, the firms signed a three-year agreement to “explore the development of next-generation integrated land training and simulation” tools for the Canadian Army.
Murray said defence companies across the country are preparing for a potential spike in business as the new Defence Investment Agency and other federal initiatives aimed at streamlining procurement get off the ground.
“We are optimistic that we are going to see opportunities move much more quickly,” she said. “It kind of gives some confidence in being able to invest and grow when a contract is actually coming. That’s why we want to be a part of things like Northstar labs. We’re getting ready, because I do think those contractual floodgates are going to (open).”
Pogue said there is no time to waste.
“We’re going to move as fast as we can,” he said. “The need is now.”
