Ontario’s defence industry is comprised of companies across several sectors developing products and services for military and security customers, including aerospace/space, naval, combat vehicles, munitions/weapons, soldier systems and C4ISR (Command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance).

Ontario Defence Industry by the Numbers

$5.1B
in revenues, annually
$2.87B
GDP
14,000+
employees
3
of the world’s top 5 defence companies
16
universities offering diverse engineering programs
300+
companies providing defence products and services
More than 50%
of revenues from exports

Who’s Here

  • Aeryon Labs
  • Armatec
  • Babcock Canada
  • BMT Fleet
  • Clearpath Robotics
  • CMC Electronics
  • Collins Aerospace
  • Colt Canada
  • DEW Engineering
  • DRS Technologies Canada
  • General Dynamics Land Systems Canada
  • General Dynamics Mission Systems Canada
  • Heroux-Devtek
  • HISS
  • Honeywell
  • IMT Defence
  • L3Harris Technologies
  • Lockheed Martin Canada
  • Magellan Aerospace
  • NP Aerospace
  • Precision Castparts
  • Raytheon Canada
  • Thales Canada

We win big contracts

  • General Dynamics Mission Systems–Canada (GDMS) of Ottawa is providing the Canadian Army with sophisticated communication and information systems that will help inform and direct land operations.
  • DRS Technologies Canada of Ottawa is developing Deployable Flight Incident Recorder Set (DFIRS) technology for Boeing for F/A-18 aircraft. The flight recorders will be able to separate from an aircraft at the onset of an incident and emit distress signals.
  • BCS Automation of Belleville is providing Canada’s new Offshore Oceanographic Science Vessel (OOSV) with a ship control and monitoring system to provide ship personnel with immediate information on ship operations.
  • NP Aerospace of Burlington has been awarded a contract with the UK Ministry of Defence to cover its fleet of 2,200 Protected Mobility Vehicles.
  • exactEarth of Cambridge is supplying the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) with satellite AIS (Automatic Identification System) services for vessel identification, collision avoidance, and location information.

Ontario centres of academic-industry collaboration

The defence industry has been increasingly shifting towards more collaborative and externalized R&D.

Ontario’s defence industry is an innovative ecosystem that delivers the solutions to tomorrow’s defence challenges.
Ontario’s defence industry is an innovative ecosystem that delivers the solutions to tomorrow’s defence challenges.

Ontario has been playing an important role with world-leading science organizations, including the Canadian Institutes for Health Research, the National Research Council and Genome Canada. These organizations are partnering directly with firms to lead innovation, drive discovery and have a diversified mix of industry, academia, and supply chains to support a rich environment for R&D, innovation, commercialization, and production. Many small and medium-sized Ontario defence companies are heavily engaged in R&D in niche technology areas such as remotely piloted aircraft systems, advanced sensor systems, electronic warfare and cybersecurity.

A researcher from the Aviation Centre of Excellence, Confederation College, in Thunder Bay, Ontario working with equipment.
A researcher from the Aviation Centre of Excellence, Confederation College, in Thunder Bay, Ontario, working with equipment.

Ontario is home to leading government research centres, including the National Research Council Institute for Aerospace Research, the Canadian Space Agency’s David Florida Laboratory, the Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC) facilities in Ottawa and Toronto and the Fraunhofer Institute in London. Other specialized centres, such as the Ontario Centre of Innovation and the province’s network of Regional Innovation Centres, offer resources such as commercialization and advisory support along with R&D matchmaking. They work with companies in various industries such as communications and IT, energy, aerospace, manufacturing, and life sciences.

The federally run Defence Research and Development Canada operates eight research centres across Canada, each with a unique combination of expertise and facilities to carry out world-class science and technology research. Five of these centres are right here in Ontario:

  • The Toronto Research Centre
  • The Ottawa Research Centre
  • The Centre for Security Science
  • The Centre for Operational Research and Analysis
  • The Director General Military Personnel Research and Analysis

The DRDC Toronto Research Centre

DRDC Toronto is a research and development establishment for defence and national security focusing on human effectiveness, science and technology. They research individual and team performance, human-to-technology interaction, and the social and psychological factors that affect the resolution of conflict.

Ontario’s defence-related research organizations have produced some of the most respected work in the security field, such as:

  • A virtual reality simulator developed to help helicopters land on the deck of a moving ship.
  • The STInG—Sustained Tolerance to INcreased G—system that provides G protection for pilots is superior to any current operational system.
  • The Personnel Readiness and Personnel Health Protection research from DRDC Toronto’s human factors lab.