DDI Qualified Suppliers, Hawks, And Other Random Updates

Noah Note

Welp. It's time again for another random post.

We haven't done one of these in a while, primarily because I have been far too distracted elsewhere. It isn't that I don't wanna; I have lots of random thoughts, just no time to write.

Being back home for three days now, I feel I can finally take a moment to get back into routine and start writing proper again. Yay. Trips are hard, and sadly they mean that I do miss out on some things that should have been done before. That includes some rumors and news to throw out.

Because of that, I am left in a bit of a weird spot. Do I cram everything into a newsletter? Do another post for stuff? I don't wanna have a big backlog, and I don't wanna feel spamming against you guys. A lot of this stuff is also less on rumors and more just sorta stuff to talk about.

So I decided instead to compile it all into a separate sorta mini-post, all gathered together into a little roundup to get caught up on some of the small stuff I missed from the week. Most of this we will talk about in more detail later on, especially on DDI, but for now I think a cute roundup works.

Anywho, to get on things:

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DDI releases its first qualified suppliers

Lost a bit in the rush of the last week, the DND has released the first of the qualified suppliers for the Defence Drone Initiative. While we currently have two RFPs out for the Initiative, one for Low-Cost Uncrewed Air Systems and another for Complex Terrain Uncrewed Ground Vehicles, the list of qualified suppliers has only slowly been trickling out from the DND over the past week.

I was a bit hesitant to list out all the companies, because I wanted to wait a bit for the list to grow and add from all five streams, which it currently does not. There is a heavy focus on CUAS and component suppliers right now. However, as a bit of an update since there is a decent number, here are the 26 companies currently qualified:

• Altivion Technologies Inc.

• Volatus Aerospace Corp.

• University of Victoria Centre for Aerospace Research

• Uncharted Research and Development Incorporated

• Twenty20 Insight Inc.

• Terra Sense Analytics Ltd.

• Humanitas Solutions

• Helsing SE

• GDOTS-C

• Fering Defence Canada

• Eagle Eyes Search Inc.

• Davie Autonomous Inc.

• Compusult Limited

• CAE Inc.

• AirMatrix Inc.

• Airbus Helicopters Canada Limited

• Airadar Inc.

• AeroVision Canada Inc.

• Ribbit

• Aurelia Aerospace

• FPDynamics Advanced Robotics

• Wingsmith Drones

• t0.technology

• Drone Volt Canada

• Canadian UAVs Inc.

• A&S Composites Engineering Inc.

• Last Systems Inc.

Of these companies, I don't think many are overtly shocking if you have been talking around. Helsing, the German UAS manufacturer most famous (but not limited to) for the HX-2 OWE, is one that I think immediately stands out. I was going to save it for the newsletter, but I will say here that Helsing is one of several companies in the last few weeks—specifically German companies—that has registered a Canadian subsidiary.

Of course that was in the last two weeks, so I don't have a bunch of info on it. If you remember some of our previous UAS posts, you will have known that Helsing is one of the companies that has been engaged over the last year by the Federal government, and had been rumored to be looking at a Canadian expansion.

So their immediate inclusion onto the list, along with a new Canadian entity, isn't really surprising to me. They have hype; there is a precedent among allies; and the Federal government is keen to attract what it sees as credible, contracted foreign suppliers to set up shop here, knowing there is an export pipeline that exists.

Most of the rest of these names are less surprising. CAE, Airbus, GD-OTS, Volatus, and Canadian UAVs are all established players who many already expected to get in. Some, like Twenty20 Insight, Airadar, Terra Sense Analytics, and FPDynamics Advanced Robotics are IDEaS/ISC companies making the jump onto the list.

Ribbit is a fascinating company as well. They do conversions of light aircraft into autonomous platforms, mainly Cessnas as I know it. Last out of Dartmouth, Nova Scotia is another interesting startup working on Uncrewed Systems. Aurelia Aerospace is the one standout, as they are American without a proper Canadian entity attached to them as I know it.

I plan to write more once we have some extra companies confirmed. I know a few more on the list, but I reserve to wait until the DND announces them. It feels like there is a lot, but remember, DDI is a far-reaching Initiative, one that will include dozens of companies by the end of it.

I also wouldn't put too much stock into who is listed first among people. There are many companies I know who have been added to the pool who are not yet listed. This is in no way showing who qualified first over others. If there is a methodology to releases, I myself do not know it.

Again, we will certainly talk more about these companies. Likely I will add a small update to the newsletter every week on who has and has not qualified. I will also add it to our drone guide as well, so you have a proper resource to go to. Once we get certain areas more filled out, and things trickle down a bit, then we will dive in. For now, there is no reason to jump when there will be several dozen more likely added in the next two weeks.

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Are Blackhawk and Seahawk dead?

This is one coming up today that I do wanna address quickly, both to clarify and give some words to it. To start, there is yet to be a choice made whether to procure either Blackhawks or Romeo. While we have long reported that there were proposals for both, and support among several groups, to replace Cyclone with Seahawk and sole-source Blackhawks for nTACS Phase I, there has never been an actual decision made to do either.

Now that this is out of the way, yes, we have heard a shift in mentality through the weekend and this week regarding the likelihood of both. Keeping in mind that these are rumors, we have been told that there is a leaning in government to run a competition for nTACS Phase I now over sole-sourcing the Blackhawks.

That has popped in the last week, and does not EXCLUDE the Blackhawks, but does mean the likelihood of a sole-source is minimal. That shouldn't be a shock, given the last week of tensions and back-and-forth. The Feds have been willing to sole-source American (HIMARS) and purchase American equipment (JLTV, CUAS) despite the last year of troubles, but this weekend overall seems to have been the straw that has broken the camel's back.

That isn't to say sole-sources are banned, but where there is even a chance of competition, there will very likely be a competition, even if an American product overwhelmingly dominates. The mentality for pushing this stuff through in spite of things, and keeping it relatively quiet, seems to be generally over on the government side.

We can still end up with Blackhawks, but they're gonna go through a proper competition. Now, on Seahawks, the general message I am getting in these very volatile, very early stages is it is different. Seahawk is not tied to a procurement, not a competition, and is generally considered the only viable option on the table that meets out the gate.

There is no planned Cyclone replacement on the books as of now, no funding, and no intention of a competition at this stage. That could change, but one needs to understand that the Seahawk debate is not necessarily the same as a sole-source capability of an on-the-books procurement.

Certain situations like this are a bit looser in terms of what is done and seen as acceptable, at least for now. That can obviously change; the reasoning, as we have discussed many times, has not changed. There is overwhelmingly a dominant position of the Seahawk in terms of cost, capabilities, and how quickly it can come online that no one else matches.

So, for now, there is not an "everyone American is out" mentality, dependent on the circumstances. There is no change to HIMARS, P-8, etc., nor are there any plans Federally to do so as I know it. All of that remains on the books.

So right now things are very emotional and volatile. We don't have all the answers, and things are in a very dynamic place. These things take time; relax a bit. We won't have decisions and choices made in the first few days.

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Army Week and September

To end off this post with less rumors and more a notice: as we enter into September, and Army Reorganization takes effect, we do expect a lot of things to happen in very quick succession one after the other. A lot of that will likely come, as usual, from Army Week.

To make note for people who have asked, we will be doing our best to cover these topics. However, please be aware that there is a general lack of organization regarding these things. As such, please expect some time on our end to gather information.

We have very high expectations that September and October will be game-changers in several regards, and many things will happen. I won't speculate on what. Learned my lesson from last year where I was spectacularly off, but I will try my best to keep up on things. You all don't need to worry there lol.