Calian Group’s head of defence and space says he hopes a new $100-million investment being led by the Kanata-based firm will spur a wave of homegrown innovations that will help protect the country’s sovereignty in areas such as the Arctic. The investment announced late last month is spearheaded by Calian Ventures, a new arm of […]
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Calian Group’s head of defence and space says he hopes a new $100-million investment being led by the Kanata-based firm will spur a wave of homegrown innovations that will help protect the country’s sovereignty in areas such as the Arctic.
The investment announced late last month is spearheaded by Calian Ventures, a new arm of Calian Group aimed at helping small and medium-sized businesses serving Canada’s defence sector scale up and sell their inventions to the world.
About 85 per cent of the nearly 600 firms that anchor the Canadian defence industry have fewer than 250 employees. Chris Pogue, who leads Calian’s defence and space division, says these SMEs are too often caught in what he describes as a “supply chain trap,” where they become cogs in a global production machine driven by large multinationals.
“They never really get to meaningfully develop nor deploy their IP,” he told OBJ in an interview on Monday. “There’s a limitation that they face.”
The new program is designed to help SMEs work with the Canadian Armed Forces and industry partners to develop new technology in an area known as C5ISRT, or Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Cyber, Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance and Targeting.
In a nutshell, C5ISRT refers to the framework that allows military equipment, from sensors to drones, to communicate with each other to help battlefield commanders make faster, better-informed decisions.
With drones, satellites, sensors and other technology being introduced at a rapid pace, Pogue says it’s essential that such tools work together seamlessly in the field. That’s where C5ISRT comes in.
“All of that is how you create a sovereign capability,” he said. “Our inter-operability framework is all about integrating that together.
“I would argue that if we do not have Canadians in the decision loop making command-and-control decisions for the lives of Canadians that we’re deploying and the systems we’re deploying, then I don’t think you’re sovereign anymore.”
While Calian is leading the new investment, Pogue says other partners will contribute, including private companies and various levels of government that provide cash and other resources to up-and-coming defence technology firms based in Canada.
Some of the funding will likely be used to construct new labs where military and industry can work together to build, test and deploy cutting-edge innovations such as drones and other autonomous systems in harsh environments like Canada’s North, Pogue said.
But he also stressed that much of the infrastructure needed to make the program successful is already in place.
“We don’t want to build a bunch of labs,” Pogue said. “We really want to integrate what we can bring as value to existing facilities that are there. Our intention is to augment the existing innovation infrastructure rather than try to recreate it.”
While Calian stands to benefit commercially if some of its SME partners end up using the company’s own C5ISRT systems, Pogue said the ultimate goal is to strengthen the Canadian defence ecosystem’s capacity to produce its own solutions to future defence challenges.
“Of course there’s business benefits to it, but those benefits are kind of a (result) of the purpose,” he added. “We may not know exactly what the future holds a decade or two from now, but that industrial capacity will allow us to adapt to whatever the future holds.”
Pogue cited Tallysman Wireless, an Ottawa-based manufacturer of wireless antennas designed to withstand Arctic weather and other harsh conditions, as an example of a domestic company that figured out how to tailor its solutions to the needs of Canadian customers. Tallysman is now a subsidiary of Calian, which acquired it in 2020.
“When the environment is fighting back, these (antennas) work,” Pogue said. “It’s no wonder Canada would build that.”
Pogue said Calian has already heard from more than 50 organizations that are interested in taking part in the initiative.
“I think that sends the message that we’re building an industry, we’re not just building one company,” he said. “To me, if we do that, a decade from now, I’ll look back and say, ‘I was there when we started that.’ And that will be a pretty proud moment.”
The new investment comes as Ottawa is bidding to host the headquarters of the Defence, Security and Resilience Bank, a proposed new multinational institution that would provide capital for defence-tech innovations.
Pogue said Canada’s capital region would be a “logical” choice for the bank’s head office.
“The fact that decision-makers in both defence and government tend to cluster in Ottawa, I think there’s lots of benefits,” he said. “I’m not going to say it’s crucial, because also Toronto is a really interesting site in terms of the financial sector and Montreal has interesting advantages in terms of the aerospace sector.
“I believe that no matter where (the bank) is, those communities where those defence sectors are need to collaborate with it no matter what geography it goes in. Otherwise, it won’t be successful. More money alone doesn’t necessarily solve this. It helps, but it’s not the sole answer.”
