HMCS Corner Brook. Image: Babcock
Canadian optronics firm PV Labs will design a new night vision sensor for the AH-64E Apache. The work is funded by a Lockheed Martin investment that comes from Canada’s purchase of 26 HIMARS launchers.
PV Labs said it has been approved under the Industrial and Technological Benefits (ITB) Policy’s Investment Framework. The framework sets out a multi-year plan to develop an advanced staring-array Pilot Night Vision Sensor (PNVS) for the Boeing helicopter.
WHY IT MATTERS
The ITB policy requires foreign primes to reinvest in Canada when they win contracts here, and this is that policy at work: the HIMARS money flows into a Canadian small business.
A Canadian-designed sensor on the Apache would give a Canadian SME a place in the supply chain of one of the most widely deployed military helicopters in the world.
It follows the government’s push to grow the domestic defence industrial base and build more Canadian content into global platforms.
WHAT’S BEING BUILT
The sensor is meant to help Apache pilots fly at night, in bad weather and in degraded visual environments. PV Labs will take the system through design, prototyping, qualification and production readiness.
“It reflects the confidence placed in PV Labs as a low-risk, high-performance technology partner,” said Mark Chamberlain, the company’s president and founder. He described the firm as Lockheed Martin’s “trusted R&D and delivery partner of choice in Canada for complex, advanced optronics systems.”
THE LOCKHEED ANGLE
Lockheed Martin Canada has more than 1,300 employees in the country and is headquartered in Ottawa.
“This investment champions PV Labs’ growth and manufacturing capabilities, advancing opportunities for Canadian industry access to global supply chains,” said Kristen Leroux, Lockheed’s vice-president and regional executive for Canada and Latin America.
QUEEN’S PARK WEIGHS IN
Ontario Economic Development Minister Vic Fedeli said the project showcases “Ontario-made innovation at a new scale.”
BOTTOM LINE
The value of the investment wasn’t disclosed. Still, the deal shows how ITB obligations from a single equipment buy can reach into a different platform entirely and land work with a Canadian SME.
