The presence of DND creates a local “incubation effect”

When the first manned rocket makes its way to Mars sometime in the next couple of decades, it will be the most difficult journey the human race has ever undertaken. It may also be an incredibly fast journey, thanks to a piece of rocket technology now in development. If Ad Astra Rocket Co.’s plasma rocket engine works as advertised, it will revolutionize space travel, turning a round-trip Mars voyage once predicted to take two years into a blistering 39-day one-way trip. And a crucial piece of the rocket system will have a made-in-Nova Scotia label, thanks to a local radio-amplifier manufacturer called Nautel.

Nautel got its start back here on Earth, in Hackett’s Cove, a tiny bedroom community on the outskirts of Halifax. The company started in 1969—the same year Neil Armstrong walked on the moon—by designing and building the world’s first 500-watt solid-state navigation beacon for the Canadian government. The company built a global reputation for developing and producing high-power solid-state radio technology.

Photo: Sandor Fizli

The rocket engine is the company’s latest venture. When it’s tested in low Earth orbit, probably in the year 2016, the Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket, or VASIMR, will use radio waves to ionize and heat a propellant, creating a substance known as plasma. Then a powerful magnetic field will eject the plasma to create a continuous thrust that can last for weeks and accelerate the rocket to incredible speeds. Texas-based Ad Astra will build the VASIMR engines, while the radio waves at the heart of the system are Nautel’s department. 

The cosmic partnership came as a result of a cold call about three years ago. “Ad Astra engineers contacted our head of engineering and had a conversation about plasma engines,” says John Whyte, Nautel’s marketing manager. “We quickly discovered that both teams were speaking the same language.” 

It’s a story that’s becoming more and more common in the region. Whether they’re developing software to make unmanned drone airplanes think for themselves, satellite technology to monitor the Earth, or complex systems to find submarines deep in the ocean, small Atlantic Canadian advanced technology companies are punching well beyond their weight class. The economic driver is one that most people in the region rarely consider. “The presence of the navy in Halifax means there’s a thriving defence-contract community here,” says Whyte.

The Canadian navy requires state-of-the-art ships, weapons, navigation systems, and helicopters. The economic spinoffs for Atlantic Canada can be huge. Just one example: when Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. was chosen to build Canada’s new fleet of maritime helicopters, the CH-148 Cyclones, that will replace the venerable Sea Kings, the company made a commitment to undertake $4.5 billion worth of industrial activity in Canada as part of the project, with about $1 billion spent in Atlantic Canada. 

“Our product is brainpower,” says John Cody, the Halifax manager of General Dynamics Canada. “We’re not really manufacturing something concrete. We’re not putting a product out the door. It’s intellectual property-type work.” Cody’s company is one of the largest aerospace systems outfits in the world and a principle subcontractor on the Canadian Maritime Helicopter program, supplying mission-critical systems, maintenance, and training to the Cyclones from its sleek new Dartmouth facility. That headquarters is a success story in itself. Built, owned, and managed by the Millbrook First Nation, it was constructed to fill a commitment that General Dynamics made with Sikorsky to build a head office within 50 kilometres of downtown Halifax. 

Part of Cody’s job is making sure that local companies and educators have the ability to deliver what General Dynamics needs to carry out its complex mission. The company has already hired 35 highly paid engineers with long-term positions to work out of the Dartmouth office and is scouting for about 70 more. Three years ago Cody sat on an industrial advisory board for Dalhousie University, where he noticed that local software engineers were graduating without the skills the Maritime Helicopter Project needed. “General Dynamics brought in an engineer who spent about two days reworking the program,” he says. “It was a very productive exercise.” This year the first class of potential helicopter-software engineers graduated from Dalhousie University. 

“Too many businesses in Halifax overlook the fact that we have a navy here,” says David Smart, the special advisor of policy for Maritime Forces Atlantic’s chief Rear Admiral Paul Maddison. “They don’t take the time to figure out what the navy needs, and they miss out on a great untapped resource for small and medium-size businesses.” 

Now a civilian, Smart started his career as a naval logistics officer, where he was involved in the modernization of the Tribal-class destroyers in the 1980s—a “cherry picking exercise,” he calls it, taking the best systems, including  Dutch radar systems, Italian guns, and American missile systems and using Canadian expertise to integrate them all into a uniquely Canadian warship. Smart notes today we are approaching the modernization of the Canadian Patrol Frigates in much the same way, drawing from the best of breed in international technologies and integrating them into the Canadian command and control systems. As was the case in the 1980s, an important part of the procurement strategy is to use the Canadian Industrial and Regional Benefits (IRBs) policy instituted in 1986. “It’s important to make sure that the benefits from our procurement remain in Canada so that we can develop our intellectual wealth in this country,” he says. “We need to get to the forefront of technology in Canada, and our IRB procurement policies are a big driver toward that goal.”

The policy has attracted many of the biggest names in the industry to Atlantic Canada. General Dynamics Canada, Pratt & Whitney Canada, EADS Canada, Sikorsky, Lockheed Martin Corp., and L-3 Electronic Systems all have significant interests in the region. So do dozens of smaller homegrown companies, including GeoSpectrum Technologies Inc., a Dartmouth-based firm that specializes in underwater acoustic transducers; Brooke Ocean Technologies Ltd., a designer and manufacturer of shipboard recovery systems for the oil and gas industry, research vessels, and navies around the world; and Satlantic Inc., Deep Vision Inc., and IMP Group Aerospace. 

Collectively, these firms are tapping into a huge list of projects and proposals on the books. Along with the Maritime Helicopter Project, a seven-year program to upgrade and modernize Canada’s frigate fleet has just gotten underway at Irving’s Halifax Shipyard, with aerospace giant Lockheed Martin acting as the prime contractor for the integration and in-service support for combat systems. New arctic offshore petrol vessels are currently on the drawing board, a fleet that will be crucial for filling Halifax’s new role as the main naval support base for naval operations into Canada’s Arctic. Add to that the country’s Victoria-class submarine fleet, new joint supply ships to replace the aging HMCS Protecteur and Preserver, and a major construction overhaul of Canadian Forces Base Halifax, including dozens of aging buildings, jetties, and cranes—the opportunities for Atlantic Canadian businesses, even small companies with pedestrian product lines, are huge. 

A single Canadian naval frigate carries a price tag of about half a billion dollars; everything on it, from state-of-the-art electronics and weapons systems to the macaroni and cheese served in the officers’ mess, needs to be procured in Canada. CFB Halifax is the largest and most expensive military base in Canada, a $1-billion contribution to the regional economy with hospitals, training schools, multimillion-dollar simulators, hotels, maintenance facilities, mess halls, and 700 vehicles. “We have to rely on local industry as much as we can,” says Captain John Newton, CFB Halifax’s naval base commander. “There’s an economy that comes with proximity, and local industries are obviously in a good position to compete for our business.”

“The navy and its employees are among the best customers out there,” says Smart. “They pay their bills regularly, and there aren’t many businesses that don’t have something they need—even the smallest businesses, which can overcome the drawbacks created by their size with creativity and by forming strategic alliances with other companies.”

Nautel has certainly profited from that formula. Along with the plasma rocket, the company is collaborating with the Canadian navy and other local defence contractors on the “next generation of sonar systems” and enhanced navigation solutions. 

John Whyte’s company benefits from something he calls the “incubation effect.” Halifax is rife with organizations that foster technological excellence— organizations such as the Bedford Institute of Oceanography, Defence R&D Canada-Atlantic, and the Canadian navy. “Lots of small companies around here are focused on doing amazing things with ocean technology,” he says, “and all of those companies are potential partners for us.”