Davie is evaluating several sites in Ontario for NSSE production as part of a pan-Canadian manufacturing strategy.
Ontario — Davie announces the creation of Davie Autonomous Inc., an Ontario-based company that will manufacture and integrate autonomous and unmanned marine vehicles and systems in Canada.
Initially, Davie Autonomous will focus its activities on unmanned surface vessels (USVs) made of advanced composite materials developed in collaboration with Kraken Technology Group. Last May, Davie announced a strategic partnership to establish production of Kraken's cutting-edge autonomous solutions in Canada.
A recent $175 million Series B funding round has boosted Kraken's valuation to $1 billion, making it one of the newest "unicorns" in the defense sector. This round attracted several institutional and strategic investors, including the NATO Innovation Fund, British Business Bank, and Inocea Group, the parent company of Davie.
Davie is currently evaluating several sites in Ontario with a view to establishing a production network as part of a pan-Canadian manufacturing strategy. Discussions are already well underway with several potential partners. This initiative will combine Ontario's strengths in advanced manufacturing, composite materials, robotics, and automation with Davie's expertise in shipbuilding, systems integration, and the marine sector, leveraging a nationwide supplier network.
Lindsey Kettel, President of Davie: “Davie Autonomous brings together the best of Canadian shipbuilding expertise, advanced manufacturing and technology to enable Canada to develop new capabilities in a rapidly growing sector. This pan-Canadian investment will create highly skilled jobs while strengthening Canada’s position in the field of autonomous marine solutions.”
The new company will also help strengthen Canadian expertise in the technologies needed to deploy autonomous maritime systems. These capabilities can be used for surveillance, search and rescue, coastal security, protection of critical infrastructure, and defence operations.
The initiative is expected to generate numerous high-value-added jobs, strengthen the production capacity of the Canadian defence industry, and promote the integration of Canadian companies into global supply chains.
About Davie Autonomous
Davie Autonomous is a marine technology company established in Ontario by Davie to produce and integrate autonomous and unmanned marine vessels and systems in Canada for the Canadian and international markets
Noah Note: Interesting that the focus is on Ontario, or maybe expected. Davie is expansionist, heavily, and expanding their Ontario presence has been a major goal of theirs over the years. Autonomous systems are the kind of smaller, lower production, but valued manufacturing in this domain that the company could have gone with, especially as the Navy looks to rapidly onboard new Autonomous systems over the next decade.
Should note also, this is UK Kraken, not Canadian Kraken. I feel the need to mention that to folks when this comes up since I know it can be confusing. The primary focus as I know will be on the K3 Scout, which comes in Light, Medium, Heavy, and Max variants. My indicationis that focus will be on the Medium category, the middle child of the K3 Family. 8.4m in length, 650NM range and up to 30 day endurance. The K3 Medium is an autonomous USV that is designed with a 600kg payload capacity ablento be rapidly configurable in austere and conflicted enviornments, with Kraken claiming that payloads (dependent) can be swapped by crew in minutes.
The K3 Scout Heavy comes in at 11 m while the K3 Scout Max gets up to a fairly hefty 18.6m. The Max also carries a beefy 2,000 nautical miles range, a ‘several week long’ endurance, and a 10 ton payload capacity. What Davie wishes to focus on is likely to follow what the RCN wishes. Right now there is heavy incentive for platforms like the Medium and Heavy.
There is always a desire for cheap, expendible platforms for the likes of the AOPS and JSS. We have the MCM USV looking in the 11m range. Hammerhead is great, and the ANCU seems very keen to stay in that rnage of size righr now for experimentation, but it's limited by it's size at jist under 6m. Adding a slightly bigger platform to the lost of potential suppliers, especially one with both a British and German supply chain being built (transatlantic supply chains are a win) is always gonna be inticing to the Navy.
How Davie executes on this I dont know. We have the USV supply chain available, no doubt, but Ontario isn't where it's strongest, and maybe for Davie that is a benefit. There is always a benefit to being first in building the supply chain into something credible, taking to account that you are also building a lot of that supply chain yourself, amd any notable gaps or deficiencies are yours to take account of and fix. Basic, I know, but even 1+1 is important if it's what makes your product viable.
Either way, it's an interesting direction for Davie and Inocea, whom seem keen to branch out beyond just standard shipbuilding. I don't think this is the peak of it yet.
Not just for AOPS and JSS, at 8.4m with a payload that size; the medium would be a good sonar-boat deployable from the River-class mission bay.