Noah's Week in Defence (3/10/25): Whole lotta news, Bridges, NVSM, CHER, and new projects

I'm tired yall

Happy Monday everyone. This has been a long two weeks…. With a lot of news to cover. This week will be a bit different, as I covered a big chunk of it in a seperate news post over the weekend. It was just to much that needed to be discussed immediately, and deserved proper analysis.

Anyways, we still got quite a bit to talk about, so let's jump in yet again.

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News

• As I mentioned before, I discussed a lot of news in a seperate post over the weekend, including the River and Polar Icebreaker contracts, the new RMC report and more. You can find all that, plus my analysis here.

• On Friday, March 7, 2025, Canada’s Department of National Defence and the Philippines’ Department of National Defense announced the conclusion of negotiations for a Status of Visiting Forces Agreement (SOVFA).

• In an effort to streamline enrolment while ensuring new recruits adhere to the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) desired organizational culture, the military is implementing a new probationary period. The military’s new probationary period went into effect Dec. 31, 2024, and falls under CAF MIL PERS INSTR 05/24. The probationary period follows a recommendation from the Independent External Comprehensive Review (IECR).

• On March 1, 2025, as part of Operation CARRIBE, His Majesty’s Canadian Ship (HMCS) Harry DeWolf successfully assisted a United States Coast Guard (USCG) Law Enforcement Detachment (LEDET) in conducting a seizure of 750 kilograms of cocaine in the Caribbean Sea. Nice work!

• Canada has launched its new Artificial Intelligence Strategy for federal public service. This is one of several digital strategies recently released by the federal government, and caps, I believe, the last AI strategy in the works.

• Top Aces proudly announces a groundbreaking development in the adversary air (ADAIR) industry. In collaboration with technology partners EpiSci (an Applied Intuition company), Coherent Technical Services Inc. (CTSi) and Seger Aviation LLC, Top Aces has unveiled its proprietary AI-driven autonomous constructive wingman for the Red Air industry. This latest innovation is designed to replicate the flight kinematics and maneuvers of advanced adversary aircraft in a live-virtual-constructive (LVC) training environment.

• The Honourable Darren Fisher, Minister of Veterans Affairs and Associate Minister of National Defence announced, on behalf of the Honourable Bill Blair, Minister of National Defence, the recent award of a $60.6 million contract to Pomerleau of Bedford, N.S., for the first package of work in Phase 2 of the North Park Armoury rehabilitation and modernization project.

• The Department of National Defence says it is not considering a proposal to use bonuses to keep specific Canadian Forces personnel from leaving, as reported by David Pugliese

• Mr. Pugliese also reports that a delegation of Korean officials and defence representatives visited Ottawa last week in an effort to promote cooperation in light of worsening U.S tensions. Long-Time readers here won't be surprised to hear what was discussed, but I highly recommend.

• For those who missed the Ottawa Security and Defence Conference last week, CBC has a great write-up about what Lt.-Gen. Mike Wright, current commander of the Canadian Army had to say. I'll speak more on this after.

• The Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) is continuing its collaboration with OVA, renewing a $1.1 million contract to enhance leadership training through cutting-edge virtual reality (VR) technology. The contract, supporting HMCS Venture—the unit responsible for RCN leadership development—will fund the ongoing creation of immersive VR training scenarios powered by OVA’s StellarX platform to refine the Naval Warfare Officer (NWO) curriculum

• I don't have an article, but congrats to Cellula Robotics for receiving a new contract from DRDC! This new contract will allow Cellula to continue to develop its Guardian and Envoy AUV in partnership with the Canadian Navy! Let's give the some love here since they're not on social media!

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Project Updates

• A new RFI bundle for the Bridge and Gap Crossing Modernization has been released. A bit later than expected, little changes from the previous iterations and the requirements remain the same for those who remember them from before. I have yet to finish going through each individual RFI, as each is in the 300+ page category, but rest assured I will!

• Several new RFID have been released for the Mid-Shore Multi Mission vessel, including for Propulsion, Deck Equipment, and HVAC respectively. This comes after the closing of the MSMM RFI last month.

• The new phase of NVS modernization is here as expected! A new RFP has been released for Binocular Night Vision Devices (BNVD) with in-service support (ISS) for the Canadian Armed Forces. This is the next contract planned for NVSM. LAD is supposed to be coming in the Fall.

• Apparently we've decided that releasing the CHER bundles in nice little sets is done, because the feds have decided to drop ALL of them, or at least the remaining ones at the same time. Someone is in a rush. Anyways here's the page

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Rumors & Speculation

I often say I don't have rumors or such to spread, and that is true, but in a busy week shockingly enough is apparently when info comes this way. As we saw earlier, the Canadian Army is in the process of reforming ahead of its 2040 transformation plan. This includes a new Division centric focus, a new Reserve Mobilization plan, and a much wider look at what capabilities need to be acquired. The work is heating up. The plan is to have everything set an presented for Army Week in September, so the clock is ticking down slowly but surely.

I can't speak much to this wider plan, I don't know the fine details, but I can say that some new projects have joined the list since I've last heard an update. The Army has three new projects on the books at least of the last few weeks. These are:

• Tank Recapitalization Project

• The Medium Cavalry Capability

• The Optionally Manned Combat Vehicle (OMCV) Project

These three projects have all been added to the general docket. Those who have followed me know that there was a project for tanks coming, I warned about it several weeks ago. This is to replace the tanks donated to Ukraine, very likely with new built leopard, but it's still very early concept. This isn't designed as a wider tank replacement, but to get back to a sustainable number, and replace some of the older A4 that ain't doing much anyways.

Will they be 2A8? Maybe, but don't discount that there will be a look at other Leopard variants. There are no details that I know of about what requirements are looked at for this. Don't discount it might also turn into a wider replacement. Whatever platform is chosen is very likely to set out our path for a wider Leopard replacement, be it more LEOs or something else.

As for the other two, I have no idea. I have no details. The idea of Medium Cavalry, and the ‘Cavalry Gap’ is a longstanding concept, one that has been in the works for the last several years, and seemingly finally ready to officially get on the project books. You can find any number of concepts and studies on this topic if you look.

As for the other one? That one is harder to say, again I have no details other than it exists. I think we can all roll our eyes a bit at the naming choice compared to another project next door. Will it be similar to that? A new tracked IFV? It would certainly surprise me, given we've spent so much time making it hard to add on a tracked platform thanks to continued consolidation of track maintenance and the mentality of being a wheeled army.

It is something I am digging into, and something I will be keeping an eye out for in the meantime. I am greatly interested, but won't comment on that one until I personally know more. Don't want to start baseless rumors here!