September 23, 2021 | Local, Aerospace
May 8, 2019 | Local, Aerospace
QinetiQ Wins C$51m Contract with the Canadian Armed Forces’ Unmanned Aircraft System Service program
QinetiQ has been awarded a C$51m (c£30m) contract to deliver unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) that will drive enhanced situational awareness for the Canadian Armed Forces. The contract will be delivered from QinetiQ's state-of-the-art unmanned vehicle manufacturing and operational facilities in Medicine Hat, Alberta.
The vertical take-off UAS will provide Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition and Reconnaissance (ISTAR) services to the Royal Canadian Navy and Special Operations Forces Command, for both domestic and international operations. The system, based on the UMS SKELDAR V-200 UAS, will be equipped with a number of sensors including an Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar and Electro-optic infrared (EO/IR) camera.
Robert Aube, Managing Director of QinetiQ in Canada says, “We are delighted with this contract win to deliver critical over-the-horizon situation awareness to the Royal Canadian Navy and Special Operations Forces Command. This generates tactical advantages for commanders while minimising the risk to manned helicopters and personnel. As a result of the contract, we will be pleased to see a large number of jobs created in the Southern Alberta region where UAS repair and overhaul services will be carried out.”
Aube continues, “We are dedicated to providing a world-class service for the Canadian Armed Forces and the information collected and used by a UAS system of this calibre will be critical for the men and women serving Canada, both domestically and abroad.”
Iain Farley, Managing Director International Business at QinetiQ says, “International growth is a core part of QinetiQ's strategy and to facilitate this, we continue to make significant investments in our subsidiary businesses and complementary acquisitions. This contract provides an important proof point that this strategy is delivering. The investment we have made in Canada has helped secure our largest Canadian contract to date and provides us with a solid foundation for delivering further QinetiQ products and services into the Canadian market and beyond.”
QinetiQ will work with four principal partners to deliver the ISTAR services: Canadian-UAV, Leonardo, UMS SKELDAR and Wescam:
“This is an important contract win for us alongside our partners including QinetiQ and confirms our stated strategic commitment to working with global navies following our announcement last year with the German Navy,” explains Axel Cavalli-Björkman, CEO of UMS SKELDAR, the UAV joint venture between Sweden's Saab and UMS AERO GROUP of Switzerland. “With multiple systems to be delivered in Q3 this year, the Royal Canadian Navy have secured a maritime UAV platform that not only includes our heavy fuel engine manufactured by German-based Hirth Engines, but also has an ability to carry multiple payloads.”
“L3 WESCAM is proud to have been chosen by QinetiQ, as it confirms our role as a trusted global supplier of advanced imaging technologies to the UAS market,” said Cameron McKenzie, Vice President, Global Sales & Business Development of L3 WESCAM. “In fact, this order marks many strategic firsts for WESCAM in the Canadian marketplace, including a first for our MX™ Series turrets to be used by the Royal Canadian Navy, a first order for our MX-8 and MX-10D in Canada and our first contract with QinetiQ in Canada.”
Sean Greenwood, President, and CEO of Canadian UAVs says, “It's a privilege and an honor to be able to work with the Canadian Armed Forces and QinetiQ, especially on such a novel project. This is the foundational contract the Canadian UAV industry has been waiting for to become world-class in autonomous vehicle service delivery and technology development. QinetiQ's recognition of CUAVS' work to date with Transport Canada in developing advanced UAV operations and their commitment to supporting local SMEs has been fundamental to our growth and cannot be understated.”
Wayne Smith, Head of Radar Campaigns from Leonardo says, “We are pleased to be a part of this project with QinetiQ. Our PicoSAR Active Electronically Scanned Array radar provides an unrivalled all-weather capability for Unmanned Aerial Systems. It delivers a high resolution Synthetic Aperture Radar imaging and Ground Moving Target Indication capability that will allow the SKELDAR V-200 to easily acquire a true, all-weather ground mapping and surveillance capability.”
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September 24, 2018 | Local, Naval
Federal officials don't want to be pinned down on a date to start building new navy: documents
DAVID PUGLIESE, OTTAWA CITIZEN DND officials warned that committing to a specific time to start cutting steel on the warships 'will add additional risk' Irving Shipbuilding is pushing federal officials to announce a firm date to begin construction on Canada's new fleet of warships, arguing that will help drive the project along. But the company is facing resistance from federal officials concerned about missing a publicly announced start date, as happened with the Arctic patrol ships now under construction, according to documents released to Postmedia. Federal officials have continued to say that construction of the Canadian Surface Combatant fleet would begin sometime in the early 2020s but no specific date had been set. Irving representatives tried last year to convince federal bureaucrats of the need to set a specific date to begin construction. “(Irving) noted that hard dates is what drives the work,” according to the report from the Jan. 17, 2017 meeting of deputy ministers overseeing the national shipbuilding plan. But the firm faced pushback from Department of National Defence officials. “DND cautioned against setting a hard production date to work towards, noting the challenges this approach caused on AOPS,” the report noted. DND officials warned that committing to a specific time to start cutting steel on the warships “will add additional risk.” The AOPS were announced in 2007 by then prime minister Stephen Harper and were supposed to be in the water by 2013. But construction didn't start until 2015. The first ship was launched on Sept. 15 and won't be operational until 2019. Three consortiums have submitted bids for the surface combatant program and those are still being evaluated. The project will see 15 warships buiilt by Irving Shipbuilding in Halifax. A winning bid is expected to be selected sometime this year. The ships will form the backbone of the future Royal Canadian Navy. Scott Leslie, director general of large combat ship construction at Public Services and Procurement Canada, said that a more precise construction date can't be provided now because a winning design has yet to be selected. “There are a lot of variables around it, one of the main ones being which design is chosen and how much work is required to get that design evolved and buildable at Irving Shipyards,” Leslie explained. Irving is worried about the gap after building of the Arctic Offshore Patrol Ships but before construction of the surface combatants. If the two projects are not aligned, workers could face layoffs and Irving is worried it will lose skilled personnel. The government has already faced delays and rising costs with the warships. In 2008, it estimated the total cost to be about $26 billion. But in 2015, then navy commander Vice Admiral Mark Norman voiced concern that taxpayers may not have been given all the information and predicted the cost alone for the ships would be around $30 billion. Cost estimates for the entire project are now between $55 billion and $60 billion. About half is for systems and equipment on the 15 ships, according to federal documents obtained by Postmedia through the Access to Information law. “Approximately one-half of the CSC build cost is comprised of labour in the (Irving's) Halifax yard and materials,” the documents added. Last year, Jean-Denis Fréchette, the Parliamentary Budget Officer, estimated the CSC program would cost $61.82 billion. He also warned that every year the awarding of the contract is delayed beyond 2018, taxpayers will spend an extra $3 billion, because of inflation. The first ship will be delivered in the mid 2020s. In November, in a surprise twist, a French-Italian consortium declined to formally submit a bid and instead offered Canada a fleet of vessels at around $30 billion. Officials with Fincantieri of Italy and Naval Group of France said they don't believe the procurement process as currently designed will be successful. https://ottawacitizen.com/news/canada/federal-officials-dont-want-to-be-pinned-down-on-a-date-to-start-building-new-navy-documents-show/wcm/eaace91c-ece6-4a5a-b130-e1d96b7ff261
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August 3, 2020 | Local, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security
OVA : AFWerx Fusion
Recently selected among the finalists for the challenge of "Leveraging Operational Effectiveness Through Technology", OVA presented their new augmented reality solution which allows operators to have more information at their fingertips, but also to improve the detection and anchoring capacity of the Microsoft Hololens 2. For more info please watch the video : https://youtu.be/wyHGMRn1kR8 Or visit their virtual booth : https://fusion.afwerxshowcase.com/exhibitor/ova-inc-8724 Building on recent work scientifically demonstrating the effectiveness of such an approach, we have adopted interdisciplinary human factors and cognitive engineering methods to design and test our innovative solution based on augmented reality (AR). Changes in cognitive load have predictable effects upon physiological measures and provide an objective and non‐obtrusive index of the load imposed upon distinct brain systems with specific functions, while state-of-the-eye metrics (e.g., pupil dilation, and blink rate and duration) can indicate workload and fatigue level. Enhancing the Hololens' tracking and identification capability with artificial intelligence has fixed major flaws in the hardware's adoption by main OEMs.