ALBERTA Regional Report: Defence companies with a presence in Alberta could benefit if Premier Danielle Smith’s vision of partially balancing oil exports with increased imports of US military equipment takes hold.

BY PETER DIEKMEYER

Canada’s First Ministers agreed on two things during their recent January meeting. The first thing Prime Minster Justin Trudeau and nine premiers agreed on was to “stand together” to address US President Donald Trump’s threats to impose tariffs on Canadian goods. The second was to throw Alberta under the bus.

Danielle Smith, Alberta’s Premier, expressed strong displeasure at the group’s thinly veiled threats to hamper Alberta’s oil and gas exports. According to Kimberley Van Vliet, CEO of WaVv, such a move would hit the province hard. “Energy is a cornerstone of Alberta’s economy,” Van Vliet told CDR. “The sector contributes significantly to Alberta’s GDP, and directly and indirectly supports industries ranging from manufacturing and professional services to aerospace and defence.”

ConvergX, a conference organized by Van Vliet, enables Alberta stakeholders to explore synergies between various industries. The event could prove more important than ever this year if Smith has her way. That’s because Alberta’s Premier wants the province to double energy production and exports to the United States and for Canada to buy more from the Americans including defence products. Van Vliet believes that ConvergX would be an ideal venue to foster the partnerships that will be needed to best take advantage of the opportunities that would arise in such a scenario.

LOCKHEED MARTIN – SKUNK WORKS

Lockheed Martin Canada, which has a significant Alberta presence, provides an excellent case study of the political complexities related to Premier Smith’s vision. One of the fastest ways for Canada to import more defence products would be to accelerate two Lockheed Martin related programs: acquisition of F-35 fighter aircraft and equipping its coming River-class Destroyers. Lockheed Martin in turn could formally or informally offset value added outside Canada on those projects by creating work for Canadian suppliers.

These could include Calgary based Lockheed Martin Skunk Works – Canada, which has created jobs in Alberta through the research, development and production of open, standards-based, commercial off-the-shelf software products that integrate into uncrewed vehicle platforms.

“The rapidly expanding autonomous systems industry has sparked increasingly critical demand for teaming and interoperability,” said Mackey Yan, a spokesperson at Lockheed Martin who cites the Canadian unit’s progress in integrating its VCSi software with the Lockheed Martin Stalker and other uncrewed vehicle platforms. “We’re committed to developing the next generation of engineers through our internship program and our policy of hiring the majority of our engineers from the University of Calgary.”

The Alberta Skunk Works team also successfully integrated and flew several multi-copter and fixed wing systems that support the open-source ArduPilot software stack. The facility continues to work on products which enable aerial vehicles to operate in environments where Global Positioning System/Global Navigation Satellite Systems are unavailable.

Lockheed Martin has also fostered a range of partnerships to help boost the Alberta defence ecosystem. These include a teaming with QinetiQ Target Systems to enable remote operation of their Multi-Role Autonomous Boat with the Universal Target Control Station. The Alberta unit is also actively developing solutions to facilitate defences against swarm drone attacks.

UVAD

Vincent Malley, Vice President – Business Development at UVAD, notes that Alberta’s sparse geography and open skies have long attracted the attention of aerospace stakeholders. SkyAlyne, which was recently selected to manage Canada’s Future Aircrew Training program, is expected to conduct a significant portion of these operations at CFB Cold Lake which currently houses a large portion of the country’s F-18 fighter jet fleet.

The province’s growing Unmanned Aerospace System cluster has also seen significant growth in recent years, sparked in part by the Foremost UAS Test Facility which provides developers with capabilities. These range from the ability to test beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) performance, and to implement new systems & procedures, or flight test newly manufactured UASs. The recent formation of a Canadian Target Alliance, which UVAD Technologies joined alongside Canadian UAVs, Laflamme, and Superwake, provided another key ecosystem link.

UVAD, whose suite of products includes the Skylance 6100 and the Alpine Swift UAVs, develops, and produces Uncrewed Aerial Vehicle (UAV) systems used in live-fire training, test and evaluation and low-cost UAV applications. UVAD also leverages a range of advanced tools such as aerodynamic shape optimization to enhance the efficiency of its aircraft.

According to Malley, such tools require significant computational power. “We are actively working on hypersonic projects with multiple post-secondary institutions across Canada,” says Malley. “We recently installed an internal high-performance compute capability to do the work required and a dedicated facility to house it.” Increasing the hardware capacity has significantly reduced the time required to complete UVAD’s design loops.

“Our current goal is to market our Falcon Supersonic UAV target drone which replicates emerging global supersonic and hypersonic threats,” said Malley. “A prototype has been developed that can be adapted to multi-role applications such as a Loyal Wingman.”

READ: UNCREWED SYSTEMS REPORT

CANADIAN UAVS

Alleged Canada-US border security issues, which the Trump Administration has used as a casus belli to justify the imposition of emergency tariffs on Canada, coupled with challenges that California authorities had in detecting recent fires have heightened public consciousness of the role that UAVs could play in addressing both issues.

“The phone has been ringing off the hook,” says Sean Greenwood, President of Canadian UAVs, who has been pushing the company’s ‘power by the hour’ solution, which could provide policymakers with a key tool to address US border concerns. “Drones can fly for 18 hours straight which is impossible in manned flights. People are starting to realize that.”

Power by the hour – as the name implies – enables Canadian UAVs’ clients to access its operational services and aircraft, which are based at pinch points such as Detroit and Sault Ste-Marie. “We have never seen so much activity,” Greenwood told CDR. “Demand could quadruple.”

Greenwood believes that speeding up permitting could enable Canada to take the lead in BVLOS UAV operations in civilian areas. “Our regulations, which are already more advanced than those in the US, facilitate the formation of ‘RPAS airlines’.” Canadian UAVs, which has been working with Transport Canada and DND to become the ‘WestJet of drones’, could be a key beneficiary if that trend continues.

Canadian UAVs has also submitted a bid for RCN- ISTAR, a 20-year program to fly UAVs off the decks of Canada’s Halifax Class frigates, some of which have been patrolling the Taiwan Strait. Greenwood is also eyeing an RFI related to a parallel capability to conduct ISR on Canada’s AOPs. While some federal red tape is being cleared, there is work to be done. “Many businesses, including those involved in UAVs complain that they need security clearances to bid on certain government contracts,” Greenwood notes. “But they can’t get a security clearance unless they have an existing contract. That does not make sense.”

QINETIQ TARGET SYSTEMS

Corrie Dale, Vice President of QinetiQ Target Systems Canada (QTSC), which is based in Medicine Hat Alberta, is another big booster of the province’s UAV sector. “Growth, and recruitment for skilled positions in Alberta has been strong,” she notes. “We see Southeast Alberta, CFB Suffield’s vast potential and the uncrewed businesses within the area as fostering the next paradigm shift in what this industry can offer.”

QinetiQ Target Systems, which claims to be the only Canadian defence company with an uncrewed coast-to-coast domestic footprint, expects to be a part of that growth. Its Alberta unit offers a wide variety of air, land and sea products, and associated payloads for customer-based test and evaluation (T&E) to a large base of domestic and international clients. QinetiQ Target Systems Canada’s integration into its parent company’s (QinetiQ) global defence and security network of 8,500 highly skilled people spread among a variety of NATO allies, provides numerous offset and partnership opportunities.

“We are nearing the export of our 700th Hammerhead Uncrewed Surface Vehicle,” Dale told CDR. “We also test and evaluate sensor and weapon systems and undertake crew training with custom payload development and integration.” QinetiQ officials credit research partnerships with government players such as DRDC, as the key to the company’s success.

However, Dale stresses that a new collaborative approach is needed to deal with the current fluid geopolitical environment. Resurgence of state threats has produced a shift in preparedness priorities from counterterrorism to hybrid warfare which leverages unconventional methods as part of a multidomain warfare approach.  “We need to adapt and evolve rapid procurement strategies and the swift integration of new technologies,” says Dale. “Thus, collaborative partnerships are key.”

ARCFIELD CANADA

Arcfield Canada, a subsidiary of the eponymous US-based provider of space defence, nuclear deterrence, and warfighter readiness solutions, could be another big winner if Premier Smith’s vision of increased Canadian defence sector imports plays out. “Our Puri-File software has been selected to enhance F-35 cybersecurity,” notes Annu Vaidya, the company’s Director of Business Development & Growth, (global defense and security solutions sector), hinting at a solution that could be used to secure classified data aboard Canada’s future fighter jet platform. “We are also exploring further opportunities to strengthen the CAF’s cybersecurity framework.”

READ: Arcfield Canada – CF-35s – COVER STORY

Arcfield Canada typifies another common trend among elite Alberta defence players: early investments in hardware, talent and marketing efforts to position for projected work stemming from planned Canadian government procurements.

For example its large Canadian footprint coupled with a $200 million CF-18 Avionics In-Service Support contract which Arcfield Canada landed early last year, positions it to get considerable subcontracting work related to Canada’s planned F-35s. Arcfield, which currently deploys most of its 130 existing employees in Alberta with the rest in Bagotville and Ottawa, recently opened a warehouse in Cold Lake that can be expanded to be used on the bid.

“Arcfield is proud to play a pivotal role in helping to ensure a seamless and low-risk transition from CF-18 Hornets to the F-35 Lightning II,” says Vaidya. “Our supply chain management and avionics systems expertise, management of over 100,000 supply transactions annually at CFB Cold Lake and CFB Bagotville and over 70,000 CF-18 avionics repairs at our Calgary facility are key.”

Vaidya understands that the process will be slow. “We are monitoring Canada closely related to procurement opportunities,” Vaidya told CDR. “With Parliament currently prorogued we expect decision making will be slow until Members return.”

ATCO FRONTEC

Jim Landon, President of Calgary-based operational support services provider ATCO Frontec, agrees that the recent shutdown in Parliament may be hampering Canada’s ability to take the lead in key areas such as modernization of NATO related infrastructure.

“We are doing a lot,” says Landon, who joined ATCO in 2017 after deploying in Alberta at CFB Suffield during a successful 28-year career in the British Army. “But we could do it faster. This cannot happen with a prorogued government.”

Landon has been overseeing integration of ATCO Frontec’s recently announced acquisition of Fire Prevention Services, a Yellowknife-based full-service fire inspection, testing and maintenance company. A key priority for the company will be expanding Fire Prevention Services’ operations in Alberta.

READ: EXECUTIVE VIEWPOINT – Jim Landon, ATCO Frontec

Other priorities for ATCO Frontec include increasing its partnership with Nassituq Corporation, an Inuit-owned firm that supplies technical site services and facility management solutions for the North Warning System (NWS), and its services business – related to workforce housing camps in British Columbia, Saskatchewan and the US.

Landon also keeps a close eye on new procurement opportunities. These include a recent Request for Proposal put out by Defence Construction Canada (DCC) related to the $1 billion Operational Training Infrastructure Enterprise Modernization (OTIEM) contract. “We do all kinds of work like this throughout Alberta and through our Real Property Alberta contract with DCC,” says Landon. “This would provide an opportunity to generate significant synergies for everyone involved.”

TACTERIS

There’s a saying among seasoned defence stakeholders: “amateurs talk tactics, professionals talk logistics.” By that metric, Sundeep Kharey – Cofounder and Vice President of Business Development, of Calgary-based Tacteris Systems, which builds pan-domain military operational planning, battle management, and logistics tools – must be regarded as a professional.

“The geopolitical landscape is filled with uncertainty with regards to our American allies in the wake of a new presidency,” says Kharey, who hopes to adapt Tacteris’s offerings that were designed for Canadian clients in order to be able to market them to the country’s NATO allies. “We need to rethink almost all of the old ways we do business. Planning, readiness, and adaptability are particularly important.”

Tacteris’s focus continues to be on the development of advanced Commercial Off the Shelf (COTS) military planning software tools that take into account first principles in elements ranging from mission timings to battlespace and organization. These include domain specific capabilities in the air, space and maritime domains. Research that Tacteris has done following its win of a $1.6 million grant under the Innovation for Defence Excellence and Security (IDEaS) program related to “Fast and Adaptive Logistics Planning for Military Missions” software, has also yielded positive results. Kharey expects development to continue after initial funding expires.

AVALON HOLOGRAPHICS

There are few more promising signs of Alberta’s technological success than the work that is being done at the Edmonton offices of Avalon Holographics`. According to Ron Collier, the company’s Director of Customer Developments, the locale continues to add highly skilled optic and chip development people to work on its next generation Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) display architecture.

“OLED flat panels increase the depth, fidelity and viewing angle of holograms,” says Collier. “This will enable movement away from existing inferior projector technology, which uses the equivalent of 3000 projectors to create the light required to make holographic images pleasing to the human eye.”

Holographic technology is ideally suited to mission planning, air traffic control and other environments which encompass highly visual components where users need to make better or faster decisions. Collier cites naval battlespaces where commanders have to simultaneously monitor other surface ships, underwater mines and submarines and aircraft flying above them as a prime example.

Avalon Holographic’s Alberta facilities are expected to play a key role in developing the new technology which is expected to reduce production costs and schedules by orders of magnitude. “It’s a slow iterative process which takes a lot of time,” says Collier who expects a prototype in 4-5 years. “But the productivity gains will make it more than worth it.”

Avalon officials aren’t sitting around waiting for that to happen. When CDR interviewed Collier, he had just gotten back from Florida where Avalon finished installing a first commercial version of its NOVAC holographic display at the University of Central Florida. This is expected to be the first of several that will be installed at US sites this year. “Holographic images don’t photograph or film well,” says Collier. “You have to see them live to understand potential uses in applications ranging from defence to medicine.”

NETWORK INNOVATIONS

Network Innovations, a telecommunications solutions provider with offices in 17 countries, is another leading Alberta player which is at the forefront of technology innovation. According to Frank Czulo, President of the company’s Advanced Networks unit, which provides critical secure communications for defence operations, its Calgary office now employs 100 people, up 15% in the past year.

“Communications affect almost all defence programs ranging from the F-35 to the Airbus CC-330 Huskies,” says Czulo who cut his teeth in the field early in his career while conducting two years’ worth of demanding, high-stakes operations with the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan. “Wars consist of denial of service. Poor communications are often the weakest link, so defence players have to be careful.”

READ: TECHNOLOGY PROFILE – Keeping the CAF connected

Technical Problem Management Systems that provide networks that enable contractors to talk securely are thus key components. Network Innovations, which does much of its work on subcontractor mandates to major sustainment primes, is currently bidding on highly complex NORAD modernization mandates. “We need to rethink how we define security,” says Czulo. “Massive amounts of data will be created and moved, in these types of projects. Protecting that data and making sure that it won’t be stolen or interrupted need to be a key priority.”

RAYTHEON CANADA

Raytheon Canada, a subsidiary of RTX, is also well positioned to impact Alberta’s aerospace and defence sector if Premier Smith’s vision of increased imports takes hold. RTX, which is among the world’s largest defence industry players, employs nearly 8,500 employees in Canada alone.

According to Terry Manion, Vice President and General Manager at Raytheon Canada, the unit consists of two RTX businesses that have significant Alberta presences. One or both of these units could benefit should defence opportunities related to Continental Defence and NORAD modernization that the company is pursuing come to fruition. Raytheon Canada provides whole of life mission support in Alberta to capabilities related to Ground Based Air Defence, Command and Control, and radar and electro-optical sensors.

READ: DEFENCE COMMENTARY – Raytheon Canada

The Alberta unit is also heavily involved in In-Service Support of the Naval Remote Weapons Stations and the Phalanx Close-In Weapons System. Raytheon Canada’s airborne systems group provides radar expertise for the CF-18, as well as many land-based radars.

“Raytheon Canada also continues to invest in research and development of a Polar Over-The-Horizon Radar, a joint effort with Defence Research and Development Canada,” says Manion. “We are also one of the only companies in the world to build and support both surface wave and sky wave OTHR systems that are capable of providing a one-stop-solution for continental defence capabilities to Canada.”

CONVERGX

Van Vliet has her eyes firmly fixed on the ConvergX fall event which is scheduled to take place in September. “The last conference, which was held in Calgary at the Calgary Petroleum Club, had about 225 leaders from a range of industries,” she notes. “This time around there will be more opportunities for defence and inter-industry collaboration than ever, so we expect another strong turnout.”

Van Vliet, who leads her WaVv team from Calgary, Alberta is in discussions to set up a ConvergX conference track within the CES Show in Las Vegas. Formerly known as the Consumer Electronics Show, CES has rebranded to include a design and technology focus. Early interest, including from NATO, has been exceptionally positive.

That said, she remains a hard-core realist about the future. “Federal investments in Alberta’s defence industry may alleviate some of the economic repercussions associated with decreased energy exports,” she told CDR. “However, they are unlikely to entirely substitute for any significant losses related to actions against the energy sector. To effectively confront those economic challenges, a more comprehensive strategy focused on diversification, innovation, and infrastructure development would be essential.”

ConvergX 2025 will take place from September 22-24, 2025 at the Calgary Petroleum Club.

Peter Diekmeyer is CDR’s Quebec Bureau Chief