An Ottawa company is investing $50 million into developing high-tech drones that will fly alongside F-35 fighter jets and other aircraft.
Dominion Dynamics wants to be the first to build a Canadian-made Autonomous Collaborative Platform (ACP) — a larger drone that would be able to operate with fighter jets and other aircraft such as surveillance planes.
Such drones are considered as sixth generation aircraft, the successor to crewed fighter jets such as the F-35 that Canada is buying, and the Gripen, which the federal government is considering purchasing.
ACPs would be able to take on missions considered too dangerous for fighter pilots and other aircrews as well as extend the range of such aircraft in tasks such as surveillance and electronic warfare.
“We think this the future of air dominance in Canada,” Eliot Pence, the founder of Dominion Dynamics, told the Ottawa Citizen. “My own feeling is that we spend too much time thinking about fifth generation, which fighter jet we’re going to buy, and not enough thinking about sixth generation.”
“When it comes to this whole F-35-Gripen debate, the debate needs to now mature into sixth generation,” he added. “That is what we are trying to push us towards.”
The U.S. has a similar project underway known as Collaborative Combat Aircraft while Europe has its own initiative.
Pence said Canada needs its own domestically-produced ACP because its requirements are different than those driving the American and European programs. “Our problem set is really over the Arctic,” he explained. “So the distances are further and the communications challenges are exceptional.”
Pence said, for instance, that a Canadian ACP would need to take off from gravel runways in the Arctic as well as be able to operate in extremely cold temperatures. He said even if Canada proceeds to purchase 88 new fighter jets, such an acquisition does not solve the issue of having enough military equipment to keep watch over the country’s vast territory.
Part of the solution could be ACPs that would work with ground stations or with the new P-8 surveillance aircraft the government is purchasing, he added.
Pence said the focus of Dominion Dynamics at this point is not on building a single type of drone. Production could be set up similar to methods used to build satellites — a single platform, or bus, could form the basis and then variants could be designed with specific capabilities, sensors and weapons, he added.
Dominion Dynamics has leased a building in Kanata where drone construction will take place. Equipment is currently being installed, a process expected to be completed by this summer. The company already has 35 employees, with 100 expected by the end of the year.
We’re growing exceptionally fast, we’re recruiting,” Pence said.
Dominion Dynamics is also looking to develop a simulation engine that will help guide the development of the ACP. That would help determine the types of systems needed to deal with various threats.
“Think about missiles or hypersonic (weapons) coming over the Arctic,” Pence said. “We can, through simulation and through AI, create what is the best mitigation measure against that. Some of that will be drones, some will be forward deployed, some will be loitering. So it will be a bunch of different capabilities.”
Work will initially focus on a scaled down version of an ACP before moving to a full-scale prototype within 24 to 36 months.
Although the focus for Dominion Dynamics is about Canadian technology, Pence said the ACPs will still have to be capable of flying with a range of aircraft fielded by the U.S. and NATO allies.
“What we’re saying Canada has to have its own sovereign solution to this problem set but it also probably needs to be interoperable with a bunch of different formats; F-35s, Gripens, Poseidons, all these different sorts of assets,” he added.
David Pugliese is an award-winning journalist covering Canadian Forces and military issues in Canada. To support his work, including exclusive content for subscribers only, sign up here: ottawacitizen.com/subscribe
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