Looking for Some Defence Tech? My Day at CANSEC

Eric and I next to
the one staffed
aircraft on display

 

 Yesterday, I spent much of the day at CANSEC, which is the tradeshow for the Canadian defence industry.  I was able to go because one of the former participants in the CDSN Summer Institute, Eric Dion, had an invite and could have me as his +1.  I was most grateful because of two basic elements of my personality: I am deeply curious and I have a serious case of FOMO (fear of missing out).  And, yes, some good networking opportunities as well--mostly the government types, less the industry types, including one senior officer who will be on the podcast soon.

I missed the protests the day before--perhaps because the Minister of National Defence was there.  Some may wonder if going to this show makes me a tainted part of the military-industrial-academic complex.  I, of course, don't think so, since I am critical of the defence contractors most of the time, and their swag wasn't that great.  If they had given me a ride in an F-35, maybe I'd be a bigger fan?  Anyhow, as always, I think engagement pays off.  I learned a lot from walking the floor and chatting with people.  Such as:

• 

  tear gas antidote!
  

  What a vast array of firms/products there are.  I was going there expecting mostly guns, armored vehicles, planes, artillery, etc.  But armies do run on their stomachs/logistics, so there were folks pushing their cables, their popup tents/buildings, clothing (lots of arctic gear), red team hackers, drones, medical stuff (including antidotes to tear gas--I was tempted to ask if they sold to protest groups), and much more.  There were artillery shells, but not much arty, no tanks.  But all of the major shipbuilders of Canada and many from Europe were there. The biggest displays/terrain were Lockheed, General Dynamics, and a few of random initial folks.

  

  Small pic, big display
  

  

  They even had
  firms pushing their
  boxes and racks!
  

 

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• There's more than one way for a firm to get attention. These folks wearing Pac-man suits also had a pac-man game.  They obviously knew that their market is folks in their mid-50's, I guess.

 

 

 

 

• The place is kind of like Disneyland or Universal Studios--if you want to do the coolest things, go their first thing.  I didn't, so I didn't do any of the flight simulators.  
  
  
• Carleton STEM undergrad are quite employable, as I met several on the convention floor, part of various firms hawking their wares.
• 
  Culture change has a long way to go in this sector as a friend from CPCC (the culture change agency) that the only non-dude tactical dummy in the place was a tactical dog dummy.  I did spot one firm with a pregnant mannequin for a display of base layers, but apparently women in infantry is not something these folks are really building for. 
• If you grab some swag from a firm, you end up talking for a few minutes.  The swag was not that great, so I was not so motivated.  My partner in crime was more interested in each spot, so he did a lot of chatting.  I didn't have that many questions for most of the firms, but I did learn that ...
  

  

  The GD LAV display
  

• Canada sent its best light armored vehicles, not its castoffs, to Ukraine, as the General Dynamcs display of their ambulance variant (nice play to Canadians who prefer not to think about the  shooting part of, um, war) had friendly folks tell us about their systems.  The outside display area was otherwise not that exciting.

 

 

 

• Speaking of Ukraine, Zelensky was used to sell some pop up buildings:

• Drones are hip--heaps of drone displays 
  

  
  
  

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•  My fave display was explained by an aforementioned Carleton undergrad STEM student.  It featured an anti-drone missile system, where the missiles drop rubber spaghetti when they get close to the drone, aiming to foul up the drone's propellers (the red thing in the banner behind the system).  The missiles can be 3D printed!  One key in the anti-aircraft fight is whether one's system's ammunition is cheaper and easier to make than the incoming threat. 
   

• We are coming close to the technicals with this GMC Colorado SUV converted to Mad Max vehicle

 

 

 

• 
  This comms company caused me the greatest temptation to snark about my work on multilateral military ops--that these systems may be filled with curses as countries learn what their allies can't/won'
  t do.
  
  
  

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  That defence contractors hate the offset game but play it anyway.  I talked with one defence contractor at a reception two days before about how much it adds costs to appeal to Canadian politicians by promising jobs in Canada.  They apparently need tech to help figure this stuff out -->
  

• To play the game, they do stuff like this:
  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 I raised with one defence contractor that those jobs in Canada (which might not be the best investment for jobs) depend on selling weapons to unsavory places like Saudi Arabia, and they were, like, yep.

•  That baby F-35s like to cuddle:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• The defence community is small.  Great to bump into some twitter pals.