International radar partnership sparks controversy among Canadian industry

Thomas King, Technalogix COO, says P-OTHR was intended to be a precursor or prototype to its Arctic counterpart.

“Once this was completed and operational, the defence department was to order this system for the A-OTHR… We have been working on this system for years, developing for the Canadian government with this A-OTHR project in mind,” he said. “The team and ourselves were expecting the announcement of our own P-OTHR, not this.”

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He added that their estimate for completing the project was $3 billion.

“We see this as a removal of billions of our tax-payer dollars from Canadian industry, when we could have had a fully made in Canada solution at half of the price,” King commented.

The announcement does say, however, that Canada’s Industrial and Technological Benefits (ITB) Policy will apply to the project.

The ITB policy, through contractual obligation, requires companies awarded defence procurement contracts to take on business activity in Canada equal to the value of the contracts they have won. The policy applies to all defence and Canadian Coast Guard agreements over $100 million in value.

“Australian industry partners will work with Canadian companies to build expertise and capacity in Canada, grow our domestic defence industry, support high-paying Canadian jobs, and help Canada scale up its own radar system,” the federal announcement explains.

King also expressed concern about the long term impacts of an international partnership, suggesting the Australian government and its industry partners would likely retain the intellectual property rights to the radar. He said this would mean changes or replacements to pieces of the system will have to occur via international shipping, increasing costs and the downtime of our defence equipment.

The Department of Defence provided the following statement in response to industry concerns about the decision:

“Canada has determined that a technology partnership with Australia, which currently operates one of the most advanced OTHR capabilities in the world, would provide the best solution for strengthening Canadian Armed Forces domain awareness in Canada’s northern approaches and deliver initial capability to CAF and NORAD commanders as quickly as possible.”

The department also reiterated the benefits of the ITB Policy.

“Canada intends to work with the Government of Australia to further develop the technology to our mutual advantage and will work closely with the United States to ensure the interoperability Canadian and US solutions to strengthen domain awareness in North America’s approaches,” the statement concluded.