From Lévis to Latvia
A Canadian SME Powering Interoperable Tactical Communications

BY MARC MONTGOMERY

Forward tactical operations often occur in environments described as Denied, Disrupted, Intermittent, and Limited (DDIL), which demand dependable communications. A small Canadian company has made it their specialty to provide solutions in these challenging conditions.

Base Camp Connect (BCC), located in Lévis, Quebec, is a leading communications technology firm. The company distinguishes itself by employing a significant number of reservists, who contribute to product design and subsequently utilize these solutions during exercises and deployments.

According to BCC Vice President Francis Raveneau, this allows the company to receive direct feedback on product performance in real-world conditions, which helps guide future improvements. When the end user also helps design the products, the results are always going to better.

BCC products are now used by the CAF in Latvia and by users in various EU countries, Southeast Asia, and Australia. All of this represents additional feedback sources towards improving current designs and creating new products to suit evolving needs.

BCC products are also recognized for their ability to meet the NATO concept for Federated Mission Networking (FMN) and for Federated Networking at the Tactical Edge, linking Allied systems and equipment.

“The armed forces are shifting toward a new way of operating in their comms towards interoperable dispersed command posts and multi domain operations,” Raveneau told CDR. “This was highlighted in Ukraine where fixed command posts are a target and a single point of failure. We’ve been working closely with the CAF with systems that are plug and play and built to respond to that weak point.”

Interoperability with allies and their equipment is critical as well. “They all have their own technological identities as to what they’re using, their ways of doing things,” says Raveneau. “There are common threads and there are differences, so it also helps us a lot to adapt some of the products”. For example, a lot of countries are using a situational awareness app called the Android Team Awareness Kit (ATAK), and BCC has integrated that into their own systems.

Raveneau highlights that feedback regarding interoperability is a key factor in the continuous development process. With the introduction of additional products such as “NOMAD,” a vehicle-mounted adaptation of their compact BCC Tactical system, among others, BCC is advancing the integration of mesh networking and scalable technologies to support the concept of a dispersed Command post.   

THE ROLE OF SMEs IN DEFENCE

Raveneau takes pride in his company’s accomplishments, especially its impressive growth over the past year, nearly doubling its workforce to around 50 employees. He explains to CDR that companies classified as small to medium enterprises (SMEs) play a significant role within the defence sector.

Small businesses often possess technologies that contribute to fulfilling a large corporation’s obligations under Canada’s Industrial and Technological Benefits (ITB) policy. Base Camp Connect’s ongoing collaboration with leading organizations including General Dynamics, Thales, SAAB, and others is strengthening the company’s position within Canada’s defence sector and enhancing its influence on a global scale.

However, Raveneau notes that small and medium-sized enterprises possess significant potential beyond initial perceptions. Their smaller scale enables greater agility in innovation, allowing them to adapt efficiently to the military’s changing requirements and to the increased emphasis on cultivating domestic intellectual property within defence technology and supply chains.

Developing a robust Canadian defence industry requires intellectual property ownership, reinvestment of profits into domestic research and development, and a focus on skills enhancement. Raveneau explained to CDR that these factors are particularly relevant for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), whose economic influence and agility enable them to adapt and innovate more rapidly than larger defence contractors.

“I think the official number is about 40% of job creation in defence is done by SMEs,” says Raveneau. “These entities are, by definition, not foreign subsidiaries. We maintain comprehensive oversight regarding alignment with governmental objectives and the support of Canadian infrastructure, sovereignty, and families. SMEs provide customised solutions specifically designed for Canada, rather than adapting products developed elsewhere to fit Canadian requirements. I believe this capability is unique to SMEs.”

DEFENCE INVESTMENT AGENCY

Raveneau welcomes the creation of the new Defence Investment Agency, recognising that it offers both opportunities and some risks for small and medium enterprises (SMEs). He points out that the DIA is currently focused on large contracts worth over $100 million, raising concerns that smaller businesses might be left waiting while the agency prioritises big deals. Such delays, he notes, could place significant pressure on SMEs, especially regarding cash flow and retaining skilled staff.

According to Raveneau, PSPC frequently has trouble managing its current workload, and there are worries about government reductions to both staff and budgets at PSPC. Additionally, there is concern that the DIA will siphon some employees from PSPC to meet its own needs.

BCC has had some good conversations with Procurement Minister Lightbound and understands that PSPC is working hard to resolve such concerns. There has been talk of AI driven procurement tools to speed things up, but as of yet, they are not mature. With the fiscal year-end approaching and the desire for the government to get big contracts “out the door”, Raveneau is adopting a hopeful ‘wait and see’ attitude with the changes in procurement.

LOOKING AHEAD

Base Camp Connect has commenced shipping products to Ukraine, where they will be tested under real conflict conditions and offer valuable insights for future development. Available bandwidth in DDIL environments is a concern. Typically, there’s roughly a one to four ratio of “message” to surrounding data like handoffs, certificates on each end, encryption, and VPN nodes. Thus, a one Megabyte message involves five Megabytes of transmitted data.  To increase the number of nodes and enhance agility, BCC is developing technology designed to optimize surrounding data while upholding security standards. This approach facilitates improved scalability, development, and ongoing maintenance.

“Security is super important”, says Raveneau, “but you want to scale with that type of scenario in contested environments and you don’t have unlimited bandwidth, so BCC is working on getting that ratio down significantly while maintaining the high security levels.”

Base Camp Connect also continues to work on shrinking the size of equipment by developing software to replace physical circuit boards in the equipment. According to Raveneau, other exciting developments are underway and will be announced later this year or early next year, which are directly based on feedback from in-theatre service, but which he cannot divulge at present.

Marc Montgomery is a Regular CDR Contributor