For Drones, Do like the Nordics and the Brits: Their Countries Offer Both Markets and Lessons for Canadian Defence Procurement

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Any scan of global markets with a reliable defence product and supply chain in mind should take Canada to the Nordics. The Nordic countries are all solid NATO partners and share our northern operating environment. Canadian cabinet ministers have recently travelled to Sweden and Finland to explore new defence deals, including a visit by the Industry Minister Mélanie Joly to the Saab firm. Foreign Minister Anita Anand, meanwhile, travelled to Finland to talk about Arctic security.

The Nordics are trying to ramp up production of drone systems and innovate, while also holding out cautionary lessons about a seemingly red-hot market. A leading Norwegian drone company, Nordic Unmanned, founded in 2014, has just declared bankruptcy, citing cash flow issues. Its leading-edge drones were deployed as far afield as Brazil, and were a key element of maritime surveillance for the European Union’s European Maritime Safety Agency. One of their operational tasks was to keep an eye on the Russian shadow tanker fleet used to circumvent Western sanctions. As startling as this outcome appears, other drone companies in Northern Europe are ramping up.

We [Canada] must develop our own drone manufacturing sector, just as we look for new partnership opportunities. We can follow the Nordic and U.K. leads here.

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The Nordics and the U.K. offer both markets and lessons for Canadian defence procurement. Their firms produce advanced drone and counter-drones systems that could be incorporated into the Canadian arsenal. They also remind us that the build-up of a military drone capacity requires market capitalization, the ability to scale for start-up companies, and significant government investment and backing to avoid the fate of a company like Nordic Unmanned. All of these lessons should be incorporated into Canada’s forthcoming defence industrial strategy.

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