By James Careless

In May 2024, the Department of National Defence (DND) announced that the Logistics Vehicle Modernization (LVM) project had been awarded to the Power Team. It is a consortium composed of General Dynamics Land Systems-Canada (GDLS-Canada), Marshall Canada, Mercedes Benz, Soframe and Manac.

Working together, the Power Team is building the replacements for the Canadian Armed Forces’ (CAF) existing fleet of logistics vehicles. The LVM project consists of two contracts. The first contract is for the $1.5 billion purchase (including taxes) of more than 1,000 light trucks and approximately 500 heavy trucks. The second covers inservice support for these vehicles over 25 years, at a total potential value of 1.08 billion (including taxes).

GDLS-Canada is the prime integrator on the LVM project, while Marshall Canada is responsible for delivering a range of interchangeable light and heavy 10ft and 20ft mission modules. These will be mountable on Mercedes-Benz Zetros trucks, which are the common vehicle chassis across all configurations.

The LVM project is just the latest example of Marshall Canada aiding the CAF. “Marshall was established in 1909, and we have a long history in the aerospace and defence sector,” said Alain Gauthier, Marshall Canada’s VP North America. “On the land side, we’re very strong in the deployed infrastructure environment for ground-based forces.” MOVING AHEAD WITH LVM The LVM Project is Marshall Canada’s top priority right now. It’s an ambitious and impressive joint effort on the part of the Power Team’s members, each of whom is bringing their particular strengths to the project “This is a joint venture between Marshall Canada and General Dynamics Land Systems-Canada,” Gauthier told CDR. “We brought over some very strong partners like Manac for a lot of the trailer capabilities, Mercedes-Benz for their vehicles, and Soframe to do a significant amount of integration in Europe. Meanwhile, Marshall Canada is providing all of the boxes that will sit on the back of the Mercedes vehicles, which can be put down and deployed on the ground. This could be anything from to ambulances and firefighting equipment — everything that is needed to augment the capability of the vehicles.”

MAKING THINGS HAPPEN IN ATLANTIC CANADA

Marshall Canada’s LVM ‘Mission Modules’ are being manufactured at the company’s new facility in Moncton, New Brunswick. The 82,000 sq ft (7,600 sq m) site opened in October 2023. It is a key part of Marshall’s strategic plan to broaden its reach and availability to better serve its growing global customer base.

The new facility is also good news for the Atlantic Canada economy. The LVM project is expected to create over 500 new direct employment opportunities in the region by 2028. Meanwhile, production at this plant is projected to boost New Brunswick’s fabricated metal manufacturing sector GDP by as much as 15 per cent by 2026, while driving export revenues.

“The Moncton facility will be one of Marshall’s two global primary production facilities,” said Gauthier. “We’re going to have one primary global production facility in Cambridge, UK, while Moncton will be the second. We chose Moncton because of the growth that we’re seeing in the Atlantic provinces, and its proximity to the ports when the vehicles will be coming from overseas.”

Even before the LVM Project had been confirmed, Marshall Canada’s Moncton facility was busy producing 93 specialized containers for the Royal Netherlands Army, command posts and artillery command under the Netherlands Specialised Containers (NLSC) program. “We used that project to implement a lot of improvement initiatives like Lean Six Sigma, to digitize and enhance our processes in the Moncton facility prior to the full rate of production for LVM,” Gauthier said. “So far, the rate of this implementation has not been as quick as we had hoped, primarily due to the slower start of LVM, but we do expect to see that to ramp up in the later half of 2025 and into 2026. We’re anticipating creating, in Marshall alone, another 80 to 100 hires — and having probably an impact of over 200 more hires in our entire supply chain in the Atlantic provinces going forward.”

The fact that Marshall is having such a positive impact on the Atlantic Canada economy is a stroke of good fortune. At a time when tariffs are making jobs less secure in this country, having a long-term employer like Marshall Canada offering well-paying, long-term jobs is good news for everyone.

“Frankly, Marshall Canada being here is very important for New Brunswick and the Atlantic provinces at large,” Gauthier told CDR. “I think facilities like ours provide Canada with an ability to be much more autonomous and much more sovereign in our approach. It also allows the Power Team to be able to support our primary customer, the Canadian Army, fully and reliably over the next 25 years. And a plant like ours builds up a capability that we can leverage — working together with our UK facilities to serve the export market on a global scale with a much more robust supply chain.”

A BRIGHT FUTURE

Clearly, the stars are aligning favourably for Marshall Canada as its pushes ahead with the LVM Project. Alain Gauthier is also optimistic that other work will come its way as well.

“The future looks fabulous for us,” he told CDR. “When you look at the recent election in Canada and the renewed commitment to defence spending, everything is pointing towards meeting the 2% GDP NATO spending target. As well, the government’s commitment to protecting our sovereignty in the Arctic is going to be good for our domestic defence industry. The best part: Marshall Canada is very well positioned to support the evolving requirements for an inherently Canadian supply chain to support the CAF going forward. So, I think we’re at the very start of a very productive and great future for our company, and the people of Atlantic Canada”.

James Careless is CDR’s Ottawa Bureau Chief