Ship-shape: Local firm wins $30M contract to install made-in-Ottawa tech on navy’s new destroyers

July 18, 2024
4:06 PM
ET

W.R. Davis Engineering is the latest Canadian company to join the supply chain for the next-generation Canadian Surface Combatant (CSC) warships that are expected to eventually replace the navy’s current fleet of Halifax-class frigates.

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A family-owned Ottawa firm will design and manufacture key components of Canada’s new multibillion-dollar warship fleet at an east-end facility after winning a contract with the project’s main supplier. W.R. Davis Engineering is the latest Canadian company to join the supply chain for the next-generation Canadian Surface Combatant (CSC) warships that are expected to eventually replace the navy’s current fleet of Halifax-class frigates. Irving Shipbuilding, which is manufacturing the ships, has awarded W.R. Davis a $30-million contract to design and build the vessels’ full engine intake and exhaust systems, as well as infrared suppression devices that cool exhaust to make it less detectable to heat-seeking anti-ship missiles. The deal is a feather in the cap for the local firm, which was founded by engineer Rolly Davis nearly 50 years ago and is now run by his son Tom. “We’re very excited to be back working with the Canadian Navy and to be providing our technology to our fellow Canadians,” vice-president Courtney Wagner told OBJ on Thursday. “We hope that this exposure will help us to get into other countries as well with this technology.” Founded in 1975, W.R. Davis is the epitome of a family business. Tom Davis, who now co-owns the company with Rolly, took the helm after his father retired about a decade ago. Meanwhile, Wagner, who is Rolly’s daughter, has become a key member of the executive team after first joining the organization as a summer student while studying mechanical engineering at Queen’s University in the 1990s. In addition, Tom and Courtney’s younger brother Andrew is a senior engineer at the firm that bears his family name. In fact, all four of Rolly’s children followed in his footsteps and studied engineering. “We’ve always found the company very interesting – the defence work that they do and the design work,” Wagner said with a smile. “But as well, I think all of us just have a natural tendency toward maths and sciences. There’s definitely an inherited trait there.” In W.R. Davis’s early days, Rolly simply wanted to build a sustainable business. The firm took on a wide range of consulting jobs before narrowing its focus in the 1980s, when it worked with the National Research Council to create technology that became its calling card – a product that cools an engine’s exhaust gas and a tailpipe’s exposed metal by more than 90 per cent, making ships, helicopters and airplanes much harder for heat-seeking missiles to detect and lock in on. Since landing its first contract with the Canadian Armed Forces nearly four decades ago, W.R. Davis has exported its products around the world. Countries that use its technology include Australia, Italy, Japan, Korea and the United Kingdom. It’s a niche field, which worked to the firm’s advantage when landing its most recent contract with Irving. W.R. Davis had already installed its infrared suppression devices on BAE Systems’ Type 26 combat ships being built for the Australian and British navies. Since the CSC is based on BAE Systems’ design, it made sense for Irving to bring the Ottawa firm on board to implement the same technology on the Royal Canadian Navy’s newest fleet, which will be known as River-class destroyers. “One of Irving Shipbuilding’s priority objectives is to add Canadian suppliers and content to the River-class program,” Lee Fromson, vice-president of supply chain and quality at Irving Shipbuilding, said in a statement. “Consequently, the selection of a family-run Ottawa-based business for such an important piece of work is great to see. We now look forward to working closely with W.R. Davis moving forward.” The initial contract calls for the made-in-Ottawa tech to be installed on the first three River-class destroyers, which will be named His Majesty’s Canadian Ships Fraser, Saint-Laurent, and Mackenzie. That work is expected to take up to a decade. But the entire CSC project calls for a total of 15 warships to be produced over a period of about 25 years, with the final vessel expected to be delivered by 2050. Wagner said that could translate into plenty of additional work for W.R. Davis, which now has about 160 employees and expects to ramp up hiring as the project unfolds. While the new contract is especially meaningful for a proud Canadian company, Wagner said the firm needs to keep expanding its foreign customer base if it wants to build on its success. “This is quite a niche technology, so you can only outfit so many aircraft (and other machines) in one country,” she noted. “We do look globally in order to get as much work in as we can.”