The Future of War Is Here. The Guest List Is Still Stuck in the Past.
Canada says it wants a broader defence base, but access to the conversation remains tightly controlled
Editor’s note: This week, The Icebreaker will share the stage with private capital leaders at OMERS’ Critical Minerals & Arctic Defence Summit, which it is hosting on Vimy Ridge Day (April 9).
Save the Date: Along with CSMC, RBCx, and Torys LLP, we will be hosting a breakfast event on May 26 during Toronto Tech Week. Details to come.
🎯 Three-Shot Burst
This week, the CAF is hosting Outlooks in Ottawa — an opportunity to hear directly from Canada’s top military leadership as they discuss their goals for tomorrow’s Army, Air Force, and Navy. Unfortunately, you must be a CADSI member to participate.
The goal is the right one — get government, the CAF, and industry aligned on future requirements. But that only works if the right companies are actually in the room.
Tsk, Tsk: Limiting this to one industry group’s members effectively shuts out many Canadian-owned, Canadian-controlled companies — especially newer and smaller firms.
At a moment when Canada says it wants more domestic capability, more Canadian content, and more new entrants in defence, it makes little sense to gate access through a single industry association. That is not how you build a broader defence industrial base. It is not how you surface the best new suppliers. And it is not consistent with the logic of the Defence Industrial Strategy.
Moving On: In spite of this gatekeeping, contacts in the CAF have quietly consulted with The Icebreaker given our national defence census work, so we’ve gotten a sneak peek at early versions of what will be shared. Participants should expect genuinely progressive pilots from really thoughtful CAF leaders, that will address problem articulation and end user access, and be scoped at very low TRLs.
Bottom Line: CAF leaders are doing their best within the parameters they have to work with — but the parameters still represent a broken architecture. Do not expect the fundamental procurement architecture, IP, or anything pertaining to attritable mass doctrine, to be addressed here. These efforts still likely feed into multi-year procurement funnels.
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If you’ve got battlefield intel, classified tips, or just want to call in an airstrike on our typos, hit “reply” and sound off. Whether it’s a new tech sighting, a rumour from the mess hall, or feedback on our comms, we want your SITREP.
My concern is that there are too many conferences and not enough contracts. For new entrants particularly, the cost of participation in often repetitive engagements amounts to public relations spend not public procurement gains.