22 septembre 2022 | Local, Naval
Irving recruiting foreign workers to build Royal Canadian Navy's new warship fleet
Irving Shipbuilding wants to bring in more foreign workers to help construct the Canadian navy's new fleet of warships.
23 novembre 2017 | Local, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité
Posted on November 23, 2017 by Chris Thatcher
When the federal government delivered its 2017 budget last spring, innovation was mentioned 262 times and served as the focal point for numerous new initiatives.
The centrepiece was the Innovation and Skills Plan, a series of proposals that included additional venture capital funding, new support for innovation in key growth areas and superclusters, and Innovation Canada, an initiative to bring siloed projects and funding programs for innovators under one roof.
More recently, the government in its 2017 defence policy introduced IDEaS (Innovation for Defence Excellence and Security), a program currently seeking Treasury Board approval that will invest $1.6 billion over the next 20 years to generate solutions to complex challenges across the Canadian Armed Forces. It will also speed up the development of new technologies through contests, sandbox trials, research networks and other programs.
The devil is always in the details of such initiatives, and all are in the early stages. Still, they have been widely welcomed by the aerospace sector.
However, innovation is not for the inexperienced, four seasoned small business executives cautioned during the annual Canadian Aerospace Summit on Nov. 7. While government programs often appear to be tailored to recent graduates with youthful enthusiasm, true innovation doesn't succeed without business acumen.
“It takes experience; it takes patience,” said Gabe Batstone, a self-described serial entrepreneur with over two decades in the tech sector, who recently launched Ottawa-based Contextere, an artificial intelligence firm focused on applications for blue collar workers that has secured funding from BMW, Lockheed Martin and Samsung.
Aerospace and defence programs can take years to mature and regulations invariably play a big part in the introduction of any new technology, he said. “To bring emergent technology into complex organizations, it's about procurement [expertise], about sales, about relationships, about [understanding] regulations. The technology is the least difficult part.”
In fact, tried and true business practices focused on customer relations are essential to entrepreneurial success.
“I was never worried about the technology,” said John Mannarino, president of Montreal-based Mannarino Systems and Software, a company that has grown from a one-man consultancy to over 60 employees specializing in engineering services and airborne software. Rather, innovation has come from listening to customers and suppliers, and that takes time. “I had to learn.”
In an address to the Summit, hosted by the Aerospace Industries Association of Canada, Michael Anderson, president of Saab North America, observed that innovation does not happen without an element of risk. “The organization that has the best ability to effectively mitigate risk while providing an environment that promotes risk-taking will eventually be a successful innovator and, of course, a successful business.”
But there is a point at which small companies cannot take on more risk, said Dave Muir, president and CEO of Ottawa-based Gastops, a health monitoring firm that has developed sensor and analysis tools for complex aircraft and engines. “The larger companies are pushing risk way more down into the supply chain than they were. As a small fish there is only so far out from the shore you can swim before bad things happen.”
The pace of change is also creating challenges for small business, and it's not limited to technology. Development cycles, production schedules, and time to market have all been compressed in recent years.
For Patrick Thera, president of SED, a division of Calian that has been developing commercial satellite and ground systems solutions for over 50 years, that means being shrewd about where and with whom to invest.
“Key collaborations are very important,” he said, noting that “coopetition” has sometimes made for unexpected partners. “One day you're competing against a fellow company and the next you're partnering with that company.”
Gastops, too, has invested far more than previously in establishing collaborative networks to further its innovation. “I strongly believe, especially for a small company, that you cannot do innovation in the aerospace industry by yourself alone in the back room,” said Muir.
Adapting to the pace of change can be especially difficult if you don't have the necessary specialized skills in your company. All four executives acknowledged the challenge of finding top software and engineering talent when much larger companies in every sector are pursuing the same people. But they also argued that as products become more sophisticated, expertise in procurement, project management, intellectual property and marketing is critical to innovation and a company's growth.
When you are competing against cool start-ups with world-changing visions, “you have to go a long way to show people that you do offer a lot of things that they can take pride in, that you save lives every day with the technologies you create,” said Thera.
https://www.skiesmag.com/news/innovation-requires-experience-aiac-panel
22 septembre 2022 | Local, Naval
Irving Shipbuilding wants to bring in more foreign workers to help construct the Canadian navy's new fleet of warships.
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The 5STA is a Hawker Hunter aircraft with upgraded technology that emulates the performance and avionics of the latest generation fighters.
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DAVID PUGLIESE, OTTAWA CITIZEN Here are some updates on defence and aerospace industry contracts and appointments, outlined in the latest issue of Esprit de Corpsmagazine: Textron's TRU Simulation and Training has developed the world's first full flight simulator for the CL-415 water bomber. The CL-415 is a mainstay of a number of international fleets of aerial fire-fighting units, with some of aircraft being operated by various air forces, such as those in Greece and Spain. TRU has delivered the first system to Ansett Aviation. The CL-415 was built by Canadair/Bombardier but Viking Air has acquired the rights to aircraft. TRU believes the simulator will significantly increase safety of CL-415 operations as the previous lack of a full-flight simulator for the plane meant that pilot training had to take place in the cockpit. That, in turn, has resulted in fatalities. Fifty per cent of all CL-415 crashes have taken place during training. The simulator will replicate the CL-415 on the water and in flight. The system also simulates different types of forest fires and environmental conditions that can be created by such blazes. Pratt & Whitney Canada announced recently that it started delivering PW127G engines to Airbus Defence and Space in support of Canada's Fixed-Wing Search and Rescue Aircraft Replacement Project. The engines will be installed on specially configured Airbus C295 aircraft, which will be designated the CC-295 in Canada. The Department of National Defence is scheduled to receive the first of 16 CC-295 aircraft by the end of 2019. Canada has a search area of 18 million square kilometers, making search and rescue operations challenging. With low fuel burn during cruise, the PW127G engine will provide the CC-295 aircraft with exceptional range and endurance for time-critical missions, Pratt and Whitney points out. Pratt & Whitney Canada has delivered more than 400 PW127G engines to Airbus Defence and Space for numerous C295 customers and variants. The PW100 engine family powers several aircraft families around the world, performing a variety of missions in diverse climates and flying conditions. L3 MAS has announced that it has been awarded two contracts to provide in-service support services for international F/A-18 fleet operators. RUAG Aviation recently awarded L3 MAS a contract for the provision of preventive modifications for high-priority structural locations on the inner wings of the Swiss Air Force F/A-18 aircraft fleet. These modifications are part of the Structural Refurbishment Program, as part of the strategy to ensure their F/A-18 fleet safely reaches its planned life objective. L3 MAS was also selected by Mississippi-based Vertex Aerospace LLC to perform depot-level modifications and repairs on three NASA F/A-18 aircraft based out of the Armstrong Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base in California. L3 MAS will conduct all on- aircraft work at its Mirabel facility. Seaspan Shipyards has awarded BluMetric Environmental Inc. of Ottawa a contract valued at more than $4.16 million for work on the Royal Canadian Navy's new Joint Support Ships. BluMetric represents one of more than 60 Ontario suppliers that Seaspan is working with to meet its commitments under the National Shipbuilding Strategy, the company noted. BluMetric is providing Shipboard Reverse Osmosis Desalination (SROD) Water Purification Systems for the new supply ships. BluMetric's SROD water purification systems are designed to bring cutting edge desalination technologies to naval vessels, resulting in significant fleet energy savings while almost doubling output, Seaspan pointed out. In addition to being selected to provide new SROD units, BluMetric will also provide harbour acceptance trials and sea acceptance trials. As a result of its work under the shipbuilding strategy, Seaspan has developed nearly $650 million in committed contracts with approximately 520 Canadian companies. In the meantime, Seaspan Corporation also announced that Torsten Holst Pedersen and H. Theodore (“Ted”) Chang have been appointed to its executive team. Pedersen will be joining as Executive Vice-President, Ship Management and Chang will be joining as General Counsel. https://ottawacitizen.com/news/national/defence-watch/updates-on-defence-and-aerospace-industry-contracts