Top Aces to Lead Canadian Industry Team Pursuing RCAF OTIEM Program
Press Release + Noah Note
Canadian-led. Operationally proven. Purpose-built for Canada.
Top Aces Inc. (“Top Aces”), the world's leading provider of advanced operational training for allied air forces, today announced it is leading an all-Canadian industry team with Raytheon Canada, CogSim, and Select Global International (SGI) to pursue Canada’s Operational Training Infrastructure Enterprise Modernization (OTIEM) program.
As Canada prepares to introduce fifth‑generation fighter aircraft, OTIEM represents a strategic, sovereign capability essential to modernizing the Royal Canadian Air Force’s (RCAF) operational training enterprise. It will define how Canada trains, tests, and exercises fifth‑generation airpower and multi‑domain operations, while strengthening readiness, interoperability with allies, and long-term national control over this mission-critical training capability.
As team lead, Top Aces has assembled a Canadian industrial team that combines unmatched air combat training expertise, proven enterprise-scale OTI systems integration experience, and deep live, virtual, and constructive (LVC) training know-how to deliver a modernized, futureready OTIEM solution for the RCAF. Designed as a world‑class training venue, this program will also enable combined training with our allies, supporting the readiness of our key defence alliances.
A Canadian Team Built to Deliver OTIEM
Top Aces (Prime Contractor) – Founded in Montreal by former RCAF fighter pilots, Top Aces brings operational credibility as a Canadian defence company, with over two decades of experience delivering advanced livefly adversary air (AdAir) training to the Canadian Armed Forces and allied air forces worldwide. Since 2019, Top Aces has performed over 5,000 sorties of AdAir support to allied fifth-generation fleets including the F-22 and F-35, demonstrating the operational training expertise critical for OTIEM execution.
Raytheon Canada (Lead Technical Integrator) – For more than 70 years, Raytheon Canada has provided the Canadian Armed Forces with mission-critical, enterprise-scale program management, systems integration, and lifecycle sustainment, supported by a large, security-cleared Canadian workforce. Through its work with the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), Raytheon brings proven OTI implementation experience at comparable scale and complexity to OTIEM. Raytheon is an RTX business.
SGI – A Canadian defence company specializing in simulator-based fighter pilot instruction and ground-based training delivery in support of the RCAF, staffed by veteran CF-18 instructor pilots with extensive operational and leadership experience.
CogSim – A Canadian company delivering world-class modelling, simulation, and distributed mission training technologies, including tactical data-link simulation, LVC bridging, and cloud-based distributed training solutions for allied air forces worldwide.
Together, the Top Aces-led team brings the operational credibility, systems integration depth, and sovereign Canadian industrial capability required to deliver OTIEM at enterprise scale. The team offers a low-risk, mission-ready path to modernizing Canada’s operational training infrastructure while strengthening national control over data, intellectual property, sustainment, and long-term capability evolution in line with Canada’s defence industrial objectives.
“OTIEM is fundamentally about operational readiness and sovereignty,” said Paul Bouchard, Chief Executive Officer at Top Aces. “This team brings together the right experience, at the right scale, with the credibility that comes from having already delivered complex operational training systems for Canada and our closest allies. Together, we are ready to partner with Canada to design, deliver, and sustain a modern training capability that evolves with the threat environment and supports force generation for decades to come.”
The Top Aces-led team is prepared to begin the definition phase immediately – ensuring alignment with the RCAF’s future fleet introduction and operational training requirements.
About Top Aces
Founded in 2000 by former RCAF CF-18 pilots, Top Aces delivers advanced, live-fly combat training to the Canadian Armed Forces, as well as NATO and allied air forces worldwide. With an industry leading safety record of more than 150,000 accident free flight hours, Top Aces operates the world’s largest fleet of commercially owned tactical fighter aircraft, including the only privately operated F-16s. Built on an uncompromising commitment to safety, credibility, and operational realism, Top Aces provides mission critical training informed by real world experience – preparing allied forces to operate against advanced, near peer threats in an increasingly complex and contested environment. Experience Matters.
Noah Note: OTIEM isn't a project you hear much about. I sometimes forget it exists. This is a pretty strong team with Raytheon and SGI both jumping in together. I expect we'll see more of this at CANSEC, but defiently needs a proper team name.
I’m surprised CAE isn’t part of this team. I suspect they’ll appear in lock with Leonardo. Two Montreal leaders in military aerospace training butting heads. A sign of Canadian strength in aerospace technology?
I was going to ask if this is in competition to CAE's offerings, as I'm not familiar with OTI or OTIEM, but it looks like Fraser beat me to it. What is the time frame for this to go to RFP?