Calian has offices across Canada, delivering solutions for military training, health care, cyber defence, defence manufacturing and defence communications. We take pride in our commitment to supporting the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF), the Canadian defence industry and the broader international defence community. Ranking 25th on the CDR Top 100 list for 2022 reflects our commitment to supporting the CAF’s operational, training and readiness requirements so they can move forward with confidence.
Renewed Priorities: Protection of Canada and North America
The war in Ukraine has prompted a reconsideration of priorities for Canada, NORAD and NATO. Modernizing the Northern Warning System (NWS) is a priority for Canada and NORAD and will push Canadian defence companies to put our best foot forward to meet the challenge. The NWS is going to be a generational program for Canada and the United States to protect North America against external aerospace and maritime threats. Getting this right means integrating data from land-based sensors, space-based sensors, ships and aircraft, all while ensuring safe, secure data transfers. Digital data flows need to be secured to ensure a reliable, uninterrupted stream of information to support CAF and NORAD situational awareness and decision-making.
Calian is a Canadian leader for space technologies—designing, developing, and delivering ground-based space solutions for low-earth, geo-stationary and deep space applications. We have delivered integrated space solutions for military, space agency and commercial clients around the world for over forty years, installing and operating systems from Canada’s arctic to the equator. We also provide cyber defence and emissions security solutions to protect Canadian defence and security facilities, devices and networks against unauthorized intrusion. A networked system of sensors and digital data like the NWS requires adequate cyber defence and operational support.
Sustaining the People: Readiness for the CAF and our NATO Allies
Readiness is essential to all militaries. The CAF is facing a personnel crunch in recent years, exacerbated by providing domestic support to Canada’s response to COVID-19. The war in Ukraine has expanded the CAF’s international commitments, putting additional strain on personnel. Sustaining and developing skills for currently serving CAF personnel and delivering training for new CAF personnel is essential to sustaining readiness. Delivering realistic, challenging and relevant training and exercises prepares the men and women of the CAF for what Canadians ask of them.
Calian has been a military training leader in Canada for almost thirty years. Calian delivers vital training to build and sustain readiness and develop mission-ready personnel for the CAF. This year, Calian re-won two important training programs with the CAF: the Canadian Defence Academy (CDA) and Military Personnel Generation Group (MPGG) programs. Through MPGG, Calian has been delivering occupational specialty training at over 20 CAF schoolhouses. We bring the same perspective on training and readiness to our NATO partners. In 2022, Calian won the NATO Joint Warfare Centre
(JWC) 360° program to develop and deliver joint training for NATO in Stavanger, Norway. Also in 2022, we won the NATO Security Force Assistance Centre of Excellence (NATO SFA COE) and work with French Minister of Defence
for high-readiness exercises with the Rapid Reaction Corps-France (HQ RRC-FR). Our training team is building and sustaining readiness for the CAF and for our NATO allies by delivering relevant training for the challenges of the current security environment.
Synthetic Training Environments: Digital Transformation to Improve Readiness
Readiness is likely to remain top-of-mind for the foreseeable future. A primary challenge is for the CAF and NATO to accelerate training and personnel generation while sustaining enough of the field force to be ready on short notice. Digital technology helps deliver distributed and virtual training, reducing the overall personnel effort required to develop and deliver training and exercises. Digitization is a common objective across all aspects of defence, whether for training or operational support. Operational C4ISR networks rely on robust, resilient digital infrastructure to collect and share information in real-time to build situational awareness and drive decision-making. Training systems will increasingly rely on a distributed, synthetic training environment to connect personnel in live and simulated environments in order to deliver an immersive and realistic training experience.
With the acquisition of SimFront and SimWave in 2021, Calian expanded our range of synthetic and simulation-based training solutions. Using our proprietary systems, we connect many training systems into a common synthetic training environment for any application. This enables us to deliver a realistic networked synthetic environment for collective training across different CAF environments or in collaboration with NATO partners. This presents new joint training options for the CAF and NATO without needing new training systems. Our virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) solutions allow students to gain familiarity with tools, processes and equipment in a synthetic environment to develop skills, confidence and proficiency before working in a live environment in the field or on-board ship. These solutions reduce the cost of training delivery, accelerate the pathway to proficiency and reduce the costs and risks of injury associated with live training for students. of injury associated with live training for students.
Supporting the Defence Community: Military Families and Veterans
Supporting defence in Canada goes beyond the solution. It means supporting the broader defence community and the people in it. The Calian military family doctor network (MFDN) program connects military family members with a family doctor when the family is posted to a new location. Since 2016, Calian has connected over 3700 military family members with a family doctor through MFDN at 14 locations across Canada, all at no cost to the military family. Calian also supports the military family and veterans through our hiring practices, hiring over 120 military spouses since 2016, and hiring an average of 100 veterans per year. Veterans are valued members of our delivery teams, bringing years of defence expertise, understanding and insight to delivering defence solutions.
We also support research and innovation to improve veterans’ health. In partnership with the Canadian Institute for Military and Veterans Health Research (CIMVHR) we have supported multiple research projects. These include improving clinician-veteran and clinician-military family member dialogue on their needs and communications style, optimizing appointment access for members with operational stress injuries (OSI), and pharmacogenetic testing to identify potential risk factors for certain medication types. These projects make a difference for veterans’ health care experience and access.
Canadian Delivery Partner
Defence programs are a team sport. Delivering value for Canada means leveraging capabilities across the defence industrial base to deliver the best solutions for large defence programs. Our facilities are located across Canada and our supply chain relies on Canadian SMBs to deliver materials, components and expertise for Calian programs. Our partnerships with post-secondary institutions drive our innovation and hiring for STEM jobs. We have research partnerships with universities in Nova Scotia, Ontario, Manitoba and Saskatchewan to conduct research and to hire STEM co-op students and recent graduates. We bring a whole Canadian team for defence programs.
Calian also has a strong record of engagement with Indigenous communities, companies and organizations. Since 2018, Calian has been delivering emergency management, community resilience and search-and-rescue training to First Nations communities across Canada. Our health services team has expanded our nursing partnership with the Government of Nunavut to deliver primary care, including vaccinations.
We’re committed to Canadian Defence, as Calian continues to evolve, we remain focused on acquiring, building, and delivering innovative solutions and systems to meet the needs of the Department of National Defence, Canadian Armed Forces, NATO and NATO member countries.
Calian first appeared on Canadian Defence Review Top 100 list in 2015 and has risen in the rankings every year since. We are thrilled to hold the 25th spot on the Canadian Defence list for 2022. Congratulations to all the companies who made the list for 2022, check out the full report here.
To learn more about our innovative solutions for the Canadian and the international defence community, visit our Defence section to find out why Calian is a trusted and proven defence partner when failure is not an option.
