Arj Grewal recently founded a facility to facilitate validating, testing and trialling military-level technologies in northern conditions
Exploding drones and clients from “adversarial” countries and their allies won’t be allowed at the Arctic Training Centre, an up-and-coming security and defence facility for validating, testing and trialling military-level technologies in northern conditions that has launched in the Yukon’s capital, according to the centre’s founder.
Founder Arj Grewal told the News by phone that the Arctic Training Centre is currently operating out of a rented space at the foot of Mount Sima in Whitehorse.
“I feel that I’m still very much part of the defence and sovereignty fight for Canada,” he said.
Grewal, who is a Canadian military veteran, recently signed a memorandum of understanding with the Yukon government as part of standing up the centre. The non-binding deal doesn’t have any money on the line.
A Yukon government press release issued Aug. 28 noted the agreement is intended to promote the territory as a “global hub for Arctic operational expertise and technology development.”
During an interview with the News, Yukon Economic Development Minister Ranj Pillai said this private-sector initiative builds on the work he and his colleagues have undertaken around defence and security. Pillai called it the third pillar, in addition to the Canadian Institute for Arctic Security policy think tank and the National Defence department’s work around potentially establishing Canada’s 25th naval reserve in the territory.
“It has the opportunity to provide support to the Canadian Armed Forces and other allied nations in their training scope when it comes to the Arctic, and to partner with them to test technologies that they want to see deployed in the Arctic and in Arctic nations,” Pillai said.
“This is more about seizing this moment where the Canadian Armed Forces is looking to fast track their spending, upgrade their capabilities and knowledge in the Arctic, and ensuring that we’re prepared across all three territories for threats that may be ones that we see in the future or even exist now.”
Snow machines ride over the snow. (Courtesy/Jim Welsh)
Pillai’s comment was made in the context of increased national attention on Arctic security and the new federal government’s recent announcement to boost defence spending.
On June 9, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced the Government of Canada’s plan to up defence spending to $9 billion in 2025-26, in effect achieving the two-per-cent target set by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, commonly called NATO. A press release from the Prime Minister’s Office states the plan is to rebuild, rearm and reinvest in the Canadian Armed Forces.
Filling a gap
After about two decades serving in the Canadian infantry, Grewal saw a gap that he wanted to address. That led him to establish the Arctic Training Centre, which he said will take clients further north of the headquarters in Whitehorse, beyond the 66 parallel, and into the Arctic for specific training opportunities.
Until 2019, Grewal spent the bulk of his military career with the Canadian Special Operations Forces Command, which is described on the Government of Canada’s website as a high-readiness group that can deploy on very short notice as part of the Department of National Defence and the Canadian Armed Forces.
He served during the “global war on terror” which he explained as Canada’s contribution to the allied work done within Afghanistan, Iraq and Africa.
“What was notable about that time is how much technology we took from civil markets, so common off-the-shelf, also known as COTS, equipment, and found ways to leverage it for security operations. What happened within that 20 years was one of the most rapid evolutions of the security technologies,” Grewal said.
“We have a new global order set by our adversaries in Europe, Russia, China, Iran, where we are seeing the need to rapidly evolve our military and security and technology validation to be able to meet that threat faster than we’re meeting it now. So the gap, in essence, was that we’re not doing that for Arctic and cold weather or sub-Arctic environments.”
Grewal said most technologies that are going into the hands of wildfire fighters and military members have been created in the south, such as Toronto, Montreal and the United States and other NATO-allied countries.
“We want to invite large enterprises or startups who are looking at solving hard problems in the North, for the North and for the Arctic climate, to start doing that here within the Yukon, with local subject matter experts, with the First Nation community,” he said.
“(The Arctic Training Centre) wants to be a platform to be able to facilitate that rapidly.”
A near-term example Grewal gave of the type of work that will happen at the centre involves testing out small drones and autonomous technology — not only for military and security purposes but also for wildfire prevention and wildlife monitoring.
“It’s an airborne platform that needs to operate in, you know, hard, cold weather, difficult terrain with radio frequency challenges that exist to include energy logistics challenges,” he said.
“We want to work with local communities and local First Nation groups to find a landscape where we can train and test that product and we would do so on the landscape or within our facility, which would be a research and development hub.”
Drawing the line
The Arctic Training Centre won’t permit testing of explosives. Grewal offered the sort of exploding drones common in the Ukraine war as an example of technology that won’t be tested here.
“There are very well-established, government-run bases across our NATO allies that host training like that, where you can take a platform, arm it and then go test it there. But our Arctic training facility won’t be part of that piece,” Grewal said.
“We’re not looking at hosting 400 soldiers from Country X to come in and tromp around the landscape.”
The centre has “secure clearances” in place to vet its clients. It will be conscious of who is coming and going, per Grewal.
“Who are they, who’s invested in that company, who’s backing that company, and who’s, you know, what sorts of capabilities are they looking at developing? So, we’ll have a very rigorous intake checklist that we’ll go through,” he said.
Grewal said the lines are “clearly drawn” through military cooperation and federal government documents and open sources.
Grewal indicated by text that the lists are regularly updated and his centre can refer to a hotline for further information.
Whether or not countries, such as the ones Grewal named — Iran, Russia, China and North Korea — are looking at doing training outside their jurisdictions, clients involved with those adversaries and their allies will be prevented from using the centre.
“There are countries that supply goods and services, but they’re also purchasers of security equipment and technologies, and there’s a very, very clear list of who are considered adversaries and which supply chains are seen as a threat or an adversarial entry point,” Grewal said.
Contact Dana Hatherly at [email protected]