Preserving capacity, General Tom Lawson, Chief of the Defence Staff, Keys to Canadian SAR
Issue link: http://vanguardcanada.uberflip.com/i/304887
NSPS prepares navy for DPS The Canadian Armed Forces is still in the early days of understanding the government's new Defence Procurement Strategy, but the Royal Canadian Navy acknowledges it may be the most comfortable with the stand-up of a secretariat at Public Works and Government Services Canada to oversee all defence acquisition. During Navy Outlook in April, a senior officer said that the RCN's experience with the National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy, which has been led by a secretariat at PWGSC, has prepared it well, even as it waits to learn how the government intends to leverage shipbuilding projects to support economic growth and jobs. The $38 billion NSPS represents the largest capital procurement project in the CAF and will introduce three new classes of ships to the navy. Officers noted the linkages between the three, cautioning that a misstep in one could have repercussions on others. Though a streamlined procurement process should free up people and resources for each project, getting the gover- nance structure, HR issues, skills development and industry collaboration right will be crucial. The importance of striving for a disciplined schedule was stressed several times. How successful the RCN is will be evident fairly soon. The Arctic Offshore Pa- trol Ship, which is in negotiation for the building contract, will be the trailblazer for all of the various process in the NSPS, including schedule discipline. What are technological benefits? You know you have tapped into something when you have to change venues at the last minute because your original location was too small. That was the case for the Offset Market Exchange (OMX), which in April hosted Made in Canada: Technology in Aerospace, Defence and Space. With the recent shift in focus of the government's Industrial and Regional Benefits policy, the Toronto event was intended to highlight changes and explain the new emphasis on technological benefits as they relate to the I INSIDE INDUSTRY 8 APRIL/MAY 2014 www.vanguardcanada.com LVCTS gets a green light If you are one of the modelling and simulation companies queuing up for the Canadian Army's Land Vehicle Crew Training System, there was some wel- come news at the Army Outlook in April. Members of the project team con- firmed that the LVCTS has received approval from the Defence Capabilities Board to proceed with a single delivery contract. The $350 million project, referred to by one company as one of the largest networked simulation projects in the western world, will be seeking Treasury Board approval later this year, followed by a draft RFP in 2016, a final RFP in 2017, and contract award in 2018. The project team said they would be conducting extensive industry en- gagement, beginning this fall, with an aim to gaining input on the specifi- cations for what will be a core training system for the army. The LVCTS will consist of a multi-fidelity system, ranging from desk tops to full immersion simulators, networked across five high-tech facilities. government's new Defence Procurement Strategy. The event quickly grew to 150 participants, mostly from small and me- dium sized companies, but also representing system integrators and prime contractors such as Lockheed Martin, BAE Systems, Oshkosh Defense, Navi- star, Mercedes Benz, Magellan, DRS Technologies, CAE, CCC, Seaspan, DCNS, Meggitt and others. As IRBs shift to ITBs, there was clearly an interest in understanding how industry can begin to leverage the technology focus into new investment and sales opportunities. "The Canadian government has really listened well to Tom Jenkins' recom- mendations, which reflected on the importance of meeting the Canadian Forces' needs while developing enduring industry capabilities and support- ing export growth. This event was truly a reflection of that," said Rod Jones, director of the Ontario Aerospace Council. The event also injected an element of technology of its own, providing at- tendees with a Samsung tablet loaded with custom event apps, speaker bios, and access to OMX's website for business-to-business interaction, including the ability to track documents, potential clients, calculate Canadian content in proposals, cross reference data for small business, and set up meetings with other businesses at the event. "The event demonstrated that we have tremendous technologies in Cana- da, particularly in our SME community," said Nicole Verkindt, president of the Southern Ontario Defence Association and president of OMX. "An increased focus on investments in Canadian technology is good news for industry and good news for Canada."