{"id":227229,"date":"2025-10-15T19:29:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T19:29:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/227229\/"},"modified":"2025-10-15T19:29:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T19:29:07","slug":"ottawa-based-dominion-dynamics-launches-to-build-canadian-arctic-sensor-network","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/227229\/","title":{"rendered":"Ottawa-based Dominion Dynamics launches to build Canadian Arctic sensor network"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Dominion Dynamics founder Eliot Pence in Ottawa on Tuesday. The company is developing a deployable mesh network that will essentially act as a surveillance system for remote regions, such as the Arctic.Dave Chan\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

Defence<\/a> technology company Dominion Dynamics has completed its first financing, backed almost entirely by Canadian investors, with the goal of establishing a sensor network to collect data and detect threats in the Canadian Arctic.<\/p>\n

The Ottawa-based company closed a $4-million pre-seed funding round in August, and last week wrapped up a demonstration of its technology with the Canadian Rangers, a part of the armed forces reserves who work in rural or isolated regions such as the Arctic. <\/p>\n

Dominion Dynamics was founded in June by Canadian Eliot Pence, a general partner at Tofino Capital. Previously, Mr. Pence was head of international growth for U.S.-based Anduril Industries Inc., which is well known for its prowess in rapidly developing and deploying defence technology.<\/p>\n

Dominion\u2019s first product is a sensor network, which essentially operates as a command-and-control system for remote areas lacking communications infrastructure. <\/p>\n

Canada, companies need to go beyond buzzwords to innovate dual-use defence tech, panel says<\/a><\/p>\n

The network uses small devices that resemble Apple\u2019s AirTags, which can either be stationary or carried by armed forces members. The sensors connect to phones or cameras to collect data, such as images and voice notes, and push them across a network to a communications tower. The data can then be received by armed forces members stationed at nearby bases to produce a 3D map that shows what their colleagues in the field are seeing and hearing in real time. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re building that digital archive of the country through the eyes of these Rangers,\u201d Mr. Pence said. <\/p>\n

Connectivity has long been a challenge for the 5,000 Canadian Rangers stationed in more than 220 communities across Canada, Mr. Pence said.<\/p>\n

The part-time reservists\u2019 main role is to report unusual activity, collect data to support military operations, and conduct patrols. However, the technology they have access to is limited, which is partly why Mr. Pence founded Dominion Dynamics. <\/p>\n

Ottawa launches Defence Investment Agency to streamline procurement<\/a><\/p>\n

The majority of Canadian Rangers\u2019 patrols are in Northern Canada, and along the country\u2019s East and West coasts. As Prime Minister Mark Carney spends billions<\/a> on increasing Canada\u2019s Arctic presence and surveillance, Mr. Pence said Rangers and additional military personnel stationed there will need better, more modern infrastructure to communicate what they\u2019re observing in a timely manner.<\/p>\n

That is something Erin O\u2019Toole, former Conservative Party leader and chair of Dominion Dynamics\u2019 advisory board, said has been clearly evident for a while.<\/p>\n

In a 2019 report<\/a> prepared by a standing committee of which Mr. O\u2019Toole was vice-chair, recommendations were made to the federal government to better assert Arctic sovereignty, such as training Rangers on drone usage and enhancing the armed forces\u2019 communications infrastructure.<\/p>\n

At the time the report was presented, Mr. O\u2019Toole said nobody in government wanted to talk about it. Now, he\u2019s glad to see Ottawa finally focusing on the Arctic. And he said he\u2019s confident Dominion Dynamics\u2019s technology can quickly fill gaps identified by the committee in 2019 that still exist today.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is something that gives us an immediate sovereignty solution in the North,\u201d Mr. O\u2019Toole said.<\/p>\n

Arctic Training Centre gives companies a chance to trial defence tech in northern climate<\/a><\/p>\n

Dominion Dynamics\u2019 initial trial of its sensor network with the Canadian Rangers took place in Northern Ontario between Sept. 29 and Oct. 6. Using feedback it received, Mr. Pence said the company will continue developing its technology for extreme environments at testing sites such as the Yukon-based Arctic Training Centre.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to just put stuff in the Arctic and let it sit there and get conditions, telemetry data off of the hardware, understand how it performs so that we can design different ways of ruggedizing it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The company currently has 10 staff, including four veterans. In addition to Mr. O\u2019Toole, other prominent advisers include former chief of defence staff Wayne Eyre and former CEO of Public Sector Pension Investments Board Neil Cunningham.<\/p>\n

Dominion Dynamics\u2019 pre-seed funding round was led by Canadian venture funds Garage Capital, Golden Ventures and Afore Capital. The company also has several angel investors. <\/p>\n

Over time, Mr. Pence said he\u2019d like to have sensors stationed on the ground, underwater, in space and on personnel to create a single display of everything the armed forces need to know about the Arctic. <\/p>\n

The company also has plans to develop low-cost drones which can fly ahead of aircraft such as F-35s as an early warning and detection system. <\/p>\n

The expertise that Mr. Pence and others who have worked with Anduril bring to the Canadian company is a large part of why Mr. O\u2019Toole said he\u2019s optimistic about its potential. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re behind everywhere we need to be. So, what solutions, what innovations can we bring to solve real problems today? That\u2019s what Dominion\u2019s offering.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Dominion Dynamics founder Eliot Pence in Ottawa on Tuesday. The company is developing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":227230,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,82307,79],"class_list":{"0":"post-227229","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-ne-i","10":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227229\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/227230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}