True North Strategic Review is proud to welcome Zighra as a sponsor — an Ottawa-based company pioneering what may be the most consequential frontier in modern defence: the security of identity itself.

With over a decade of cutting-edge R&D, Zighra's AI platform has been battle-tested across national security, defence, and critical infrastructure domains, backed by 14 or more granted patents in behavioural AI, sensor fusion, and cybersecurity. Their flagship platforms — SilentEdge and DeepSense — go far beyond traditional authentication, delivering real-time cyber and electronic defence using sensor fusion and behavioural AI to detect and neutralize emerging threats at machine speed.

Zighra has secured follow-on contracts and sales worth more than $6 million with federal departments, including the Royal Canadian Navy and the Canadian Coast Guard — achievements that validate both the performance of their technology and the Government of Canada's confidence in it. Their GenesysInsights platform is already being used to detect GPS jamming and spoofing in Canada's maritime domain, enhancing the Coast Guard's ability to detect and respond to maritime threats.

What sets Zighra apart is not just what their AI does, but how it does it. Unlike traditional AI systems that act as black boxes, Zighra's platforms ensure that all AI-driven decisions can be understood and trusted by human operators — a critical distinction in high-stakes defence environments where accountability is not optional.

As adversaries grow more sophisticated and the electromagnetic and cyber domains grow more contested, Zighra is building the operating system Canada needs to defend them.

True North Strategic Review is proud to welcome OVA as a sponsor — a Quebec-based company redefining how Canada's defence forces train, prepare, and perform in an era of accelerating complexity.

OVA's core technology is StellarX, an AI-enabled virtual and mixed reality no-code platform that powers modifiable immersive simulations for high-stakes operations. Designed from the ground up for defence environments, StellarX allows operators and instructors to build, adapt, and deploy realistic training scenarios without programming expertise — putting next-generation simulation capability directly in the hands of those who need it most.

OVA has secured a renewal of a $1.1 million contract with the Royal Canadian Navy to develop AI-enhanced VR training scenarios on StellarX, and their platform has been used to build life-like digital twins of naval systems for training, design review, maintenance instructions, and remote collaboration — accessible to RCN personnel anywhere in the world. OVA's inclusion in a Government of Canada program also authorizes Canadian federal agencies to procure their technologies without undergoing tendering — a mark of trust that speaks directly to the platform's proven performance and security.

In a defence landscape where training capacity, speed of adaptation, and the cost of live exercises are all under pressure, OVA is providing Canada and its allies with a decisive edge — immersive, intelligent, and built to evolve as fast as the threats do.

True North Strategic Review is proud to welcome COTA Aviation as a sponsor — a company that embodies the values of sovereignty, craftsmanship, and community that define Canada's defence industrial character at its best.

A majority Indigenous-owned company based in Parksville, British Columbia, COTA Aviation specializes in manufacturing, maintenance, repair, and training services for the aerospace and defence industries, holding multiple certifications including AS9100D and Transport Canada AMO 83-18. Their capabilities span precision five-axis CNC machining, welding, component assembly, aircraft maintenance, in-service support for land, marine, and subsea fleets, and dedicated aerospace training programs — a full-spectrum offering built to meet the exacting demands of military and commercial aviation.

COTA was selected by Boeing to receive $13 million as part of Boeing's $61 million Industrial and Technological Benefits investment in Canada, tied to the Royal Canadian Air Force's acquisition of the P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft. The investment is equipping COTA with advanced manufacturing capabilities and a dedicated hands-on aerospace training facility — positioning the company to play an enduring role in Canada's defence industrial supply chain for decades to come.

COTA Aviation's story is a reminder that Canada's defence future is not built only in Ottawa boardrooms or Silicon Valley-style labs. It is built by skilled tradespeople, Indigenous communities, and precision manufacturers working to the highest possible standards — people who understand that the components they make may one day matter in the most consequential moments.

True North Strategic Review is proud to welcome AVSS as a sponsor — a company that represents exactly what Canadian sovereign defence capability should look like: deeply technical, entirely domestically built, and uncompromising on quality.

Founded in 2017, AVSS — Aerial Vehicle Safety Solutions Inc. — designs and manufactures drone safety systems and dual-use robotic technologies entirely in Canada. Their flagship parachute recovery systems are the only such systems with their own Means of Compliance listed on the FAA's approved systems for flight over people — a distinction that has made AVSS a trusted partner for defence and commercial operators across North America, Europe, the Middle East, and beyond.

AVSS spends more than sixty percent of its annual budget on research and development, and has since expanded into guided delivery systems capable of resupplying personnel in terrain where no aircraft can safely land — a capability with obvious and urgent application for Canadian Arctic and northern operations.

AVSS has also produced the Canadian Defence Tech Market Map, now in its 2026 edition, cataloguing over 290 Canadian defence and dual-use companies — an act of genuine ecosystem stewardship that underscores the company's commitment not just to building great technology, but to building a stronger Canadian industry around it.

At a moment when Canada is reckoning with its dependence on foreign-designed systems, AVSS is proof that sovereign capability, world-class engineering, and Canadian ownership can coexist — and thrive.

TKMS aims to act as a strong maritime powerhouse. By this, we mean evolving from Germany's most significant naval company into a key European and global player offering integrated system solutions ("System-of-Systems") in maritime defense technology. The world is changing – and change requires clear structures as well as a reliable partner who can anticipate future developments and meet current needs.

As a maritime powerhouse and the only system house in Europe that unites all capabilities of the maritime industry under one roof, we will in the future offer our customers not only individual platforms and services but an intelligent ecosystem consisting of manned and unmanned platforms, stationary as well as mobile systems, and distributed sensors and effectors. The connection of our segments SUBMARINES, SURFACE VESSELS, and ATLAS ELEKTRONIK represents comprehensive support for our customers in all maritime dimensions. As a fully integrated system house, TKMS develops and manufactures conventional submarines and naval ships as well as unmanned systems, sensors, sonar systems, effectors, software solutions, and maritime command systems.

As part of our global orientation, we are already working with over 50 navies worldwide, are one of the leading providers of non-nuclear submarines, and cooperate with many international partners in the field of surface solutions. The MEKO design principle has established itself as a proven solution in this regard, combining compliance with high standards and on-time delivery. TKMS's strategy is focused on providing superior customer value and lifecycle support, as well as setting benchmarks in technological innovation, which also includes the provision of unmanned solutions.

Our products will be resilient to technological, environmental, or situational influences and scalable as an integrated system network. With this, we aim to secure and expand our technological leadership. This endeavor is complemented by the integration of electronics and software solutions from ATLAS ELEKTRONIK as well as the civilian sector NXTGEN under the TKMS umbrella brand. As a result, we can offer communication systems, control units, and in the future, applications of artificial intelligence for highly complex challenges in a changing world.

TKMS brings unmatched experience and credibility to the 212CD program. Since 1960, TKMS has delivered more than 70% of NATO allies’ submarine capabilities and is the only provider offering a low-risk, Military-Off-The-Shelf (MOTS) conventional submarine solution.

No other firm has supplied more submarines to navies around the world. As a trusted NATO partner, TKMS supports interoperability and strategic alignment among allied nations – a cornerstone of NATO’s strength and a key advantage for Canada.

Since 1960, TKMS has signed contracts for more than 180 submarines, with approximately 40% produced in customer countries demonstrating a consistent ability to transfer know-how, build local capability, and strengthen national economies.

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Defend The Dominion

True North Strategic Review is proud to welcome Dominion Dynamics as a founding sponsor — a company that embodies the ambition, ingenuity, and urgency that Canada's defence moment demands.

Launched in late 2025 and headquartered in Ottawa, Dominion Dynamics has emerged as one of Canada's most consequential defence technology companies in a remarkably short time. Built by a team of Canadian Armed Forces veterans, engineers from Anduril, Amazon, and Tesla, and guided by an advisory board that includes former Chief of the Defence Staff General Wayne Eyre and former Conservative leader Erin O'Toole, Dominion brings together operational credibility and technological velocity in equal measure.

At the heart of their work is a simple but vital conviction: Canada must be able to see, understand, and act across its own northern domain — and it must build that capability itself. Dominion's flagship platform, Auranet, is a network of ruggedized sensors and autonomous systems that fuses data from land, sea, air, and space into a unified, real-time operating picture. Already deployed multiple times with the Canadian Rangers across Northern Ontario and the Yukon, Auranet is not a concept — it is in the field, in the Arctic, proving itself in conditions where most technology fails.

Their ambitions reach further still. In March 2026, Dominion announced a $50-million investment to develop a sovereign Autonomous Collaborative Platform — an uncrewed aircraft designed to fly alongside fifth-generation fighters, extending allied reach into environments too contested or too remote to risk a pilot. Paired with a new sovereign AI simulation environment developed in partnership with Calgary-based Denvr, Dominion is building the full autonomous stack: sensing, decision-making, and action, integrated end to end.

Backed by $26M CAD from Bessemer Venture Partners, Georgian, and BC Investment Management Corporation — among the largest early-stage investments in Canada's defence sector — Dominion is scaling fast, with a new Toronto development office, a 25,000 sq. ft. manufacturing facility in Kanata, and university partnerships expanding across the country.

As geopolitical pressure on the Arctic intensifies, Dominion Dynamics stands at the intersection of national sovereignty, allied security, and Canadian industrial ambition. Their work is not merely defining the future of Arctic defence — it is proving that Canada has the will and the talent to build it.

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