NATO Innovation Challenge – The invisible threat: Countering cognitive warfare//Défi de l’innovation de l’OTAN – La menace invisible : Contrer la guerre cognitive

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  9 janvier 2019 | Local, Naval, Sécurité

  Trade tribunal calls for review of west coast vessel contract

  DAVID PUGLIESE, OTTAWA CITIZEN The Canadian International Trade Tribunal is recommending a review of key performance requirements used in the procurement of two emergency towing vessels for the west coast. Heiltsuk Horizon, a partnership of majority partner Heiltsuk Nation of Bella Bella, British Columbia and Horizon Maritime Services Limited, a Canadian marine services company, complained to the CITT in August that the winning supplier did not meet important safety requirements of the tender process. The CITT has recommended Public Services and Procurement Canada re-evaluate some of its mandatory requirements and that no further expenditure under the contact be undertaken. However, the tribunal also recommended that the contract remain with the winning bidder, Atlantic Services Limited/Atlantic Towing, until the evaluation can be completed. In August, the federal government announced the firm had been awarded a three-year contract worth $67 million for the lease of two emergency offshore towing vessels that would operate in the waters off the coast of British Columbia. The vessels were to be capable of towing large commercial ships in distress, such as tankers and container ships, before they get too close to shore, according to the federal government. As part of the contract, the firm, which is an Irving company, would also provide training in offshore emergency towing to Canadian Coast Guard personnel and partners, including Indigenous communities, involved in marine safety. But Heiltsuk Horizon challenged that award, pointing out that the contract was awarded without the required proof the vessels met the mandated towing power. The firm welcomed the CITT ruling. “From day one, we stated the procurement process was flawed,” Chief Councillor Marilyn Slett, Heiltsuk Nation, Bella Bella, BC, said in a statement Tuesday. In a letter to Heiltsuk Horizon, the CITT recommends Public Services and Procurement Canada reevaluate the “bollard pull” (towing power) of the vessels in all bids received. The CITT also awarded Heiltsuk Horizon costs incurred in submitting the complaint. In a statement late Tuesday, Public Services and Procurement Canada noted it is currently reviewing the CITT's reasons and recommendations in order to determine its next steps. “The contract with Atlantic Towing remains in place,” it added. “Given the importance of the services provided by the Emergency Offshore Towing Vessels in the context of Canada's Oceans Protection Plan, these services will continue. It is important to note that one of the two vessels has already been used in an emergency situation.” Mary Keith, vice president of communications for Irving, issued a statement from Atlantic Towing, pointing out that the tribunal did not declare the firm's bid non-compliant. “This is good news and reaffirms the integrity of the rigorous and transparent award process by PWGSC that also involved a third party fairness monitor,” the statement added. “The Tribunal has requested verification of one item and we are confident in our full compliance. The Bollard Pull on our vessels are verified and certified by one of the world's leading marine certification companies.” https://ottawacitizen.com/news/national/defence-watch/trade-tribunal-calls-for-review-of-west-coast-vessel-contract

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  23 novembre 2017 | Local, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité

  Innovation requires experience: AIAC panel

  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

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  6 janvier 2020 | Local, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité

  No timeline set for development of promised defence procurement agency

  By Charlie Pinkerton; iPolitics Published on Jan 2, 2020 3:02pm Although Canada's defence minister has been tasked with working toward creating a new defence procurement agency to improve the country's often slow-moving system for purchasing military equipment, there's no clear timeline for when the new body will be put in place. In the mandate letter addressed to him by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and published last month, Harjit Sajjan was told that part of his job in this Parliament will be to “bring forward analyses and options for the creation of Defence Procurement Canada,” which the Liberals promised to advance toward in this mandate while they campaigned in the fall's election. “A lot of work has already started on (Defence Procurement Canada) and the goal of this is to make sure that we get the procurement projects done as quickly as possible to make sure the Canadian Armed Forces has what they need,” Sajjan told iPolitics the day before his mandate letter was released. Sajjan also said the Department of National Defence (DND), Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada and Public Services and Procurement Canada still need to complete “more work” before a timeline for the creation of the new procurement agency would be set. Some of the first steps of the Trudeau government to improve Canada's military procurement system was in transferring the responsibility of military procurements to being managed internally at DND. When the Liberals published its overhauled defence policy in June 2017, DND said that 70 per cent of procured projects were being delivered past their deadlines. “Cumbersome decision making and approval processes have introduced undue delays. Accountability among departments has been diffuse and at times unclear,” says the Liberals' defence policy (it's titled Strong, Secure, Engaged). As a response, the defence policy declared that DND would internally manage the contracts of all projects of under $5 million — an initiative which it said would reduce departmental approval times by 50 per cent for 80 per cent of all contracts. The defence policy is intended to lead how Canada's military operates beyond this decade. At the same time as developing the new agency for military procurement projects, Sajjan has also been tasked with choosing which company the government will choose to pay almost $20 billion to build Canada's next generation fleet of fighter jets. According to the current timeline laid out by the Canadian Armed Forces, the government will receive the final bid proposals from the three companies it deemed in 2018 as being capable of meeting Canada's needs (which includes Saab, Lockheed Martin and Boeing) early in 2020. If it sticks to its timeline, the government will pick which company will be its fighter jet provider by next year and will receive the first next generation jet as early as 2025. Sajjan's mandate letter includes another procurement-related list item; he's also tasked with advancing the renewal of Canada's naval fleet. There are four major navy procurement projects that are nearing their conclusion. Canada is buying new surface combatants, new Arctic and offshore patrol ships, new joint patrol ships and retrofitting its 12 frigates. The combined cost of these projects is expected to cost taxpayers more than $83 billion. Investments in procured projects account for a large portion of the $32 billion jump in annual defence spending that Canada is planning for by 2027. If achieved in that year, Canada's defence spending as it relates to a portion of the country's gross domestic product (GDP) would equal about 1.4 per cent. Canada currently spends just over 1.3 per cent of its GDP on its military two years ago. It has pledged to NATO to work toward spending two per cent of its GDP on its military, which is a common goal amongst allied countries. Over the past few years, U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly called on Canada to increase its military spending to surpass two per cent of GDP. Global News reported less than a month ago that Canada had multibillion-dollar discrepancies in the last two years in how much it planned to spend on its military and how much it actually spent. According to documents obtained by the publication, it had a discrepancy of $2.29 billion in military spending in 2017-2018 and a shortfall of $4.45 billion in spending last year, compared to what it outlined in its defence policy.