From Republic of Seychelles anti-piracy patrols over the Indian Ocean, to Canadian Forces Griffon helicopters in combat in Afghanistan, to the California Department of Fish and Game counting wildlife, MX imaging devices from Burlington, Ontario’s L-3 Wescam put operators in the picture.

Looking like inverted R2D2 robots, the MX-10, MX-15 and MX-20 gyro-stabilized turrets fly on platforms as diverse as the single-engine Cessna Caravan to the U.S. navy’s future fleet of 117 P-8A maritime patrol aircraft. In fact, says L-3 Wescam vice-president Paul Jennison, it was the U.S. navy’s purchase of MX20HD imaging turrets for an upgrade of its P-3 fleet in the late ‘90s that saw his company’s product line take off. Canada has bought MX-20 units for the CP-140 maritime patrol aircraft, and in Afghanistan the CH146 Griffons used MX-15 devices as they escorted the larger Chinooks.

The conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan have provided a lot of business for L-3 Wescam, Jennison said. “If you look back to the ‘80s or ‘90s, there wasn’t always electro-optics on platforms. It’s gone from an accessory and nice-to-have to a piece of mainstay kit.”

He declined to cite sales figures, but a 2009 news release marked the 1000th delivery of an MX unit to the U.K. Ministry of Defence. In round numbers, an MX-10 at the low end of the price scale might cost $250,000 while a top-of-the-line MX-20 could cost up to $1.25 million. As a measure of growth, Jennison said the head count at the company’s two Toronto area locations has climbed to just over 700 from under 500 in three years.

L-3 Wescam’s MX line began life in 1959 as a Defence Research Board stabilized camera mount project by Westinghouse Canada. Through changes of ownership and name, the company developed advanced camera support equipment for the sports and entertainment industry. Now, Jennison said, “there is a taxpayer at the end of every one of the purchase orders.” Non-military customers include state, provincial and local agencies in resource management and law enforcement.

Military customers want the same high quality HD images they see of sports events on television, Jennison points out, even though the images could be coming through kilometres of atmosphere. “If you didn’t process the images they’d all just be blue-grey blobs. We spend a fair amount of time on the image processing to get the picture quality. The quality of the picture will depend on the lens. All the high performance lenses for both the infrared and the telescopes are [manufactured] by us, so we spend a lot of time and effort on getting that right.”

Jennison thinks the company will see growth in the Middle East and North Africa, and is spending development money on ground and marine products to diversify its line.

IN BRIEF
Sentient marked it’s first sale to Canada with the announcement that the CF is conducting an operational evaluation of Kestrel’s automated target detection capabilities on board the CP-140 Aurora…

Analytic Systems of Delta, B.C., received another order as part of a four-year contract to supply the U.S. army with 120 units of its ruggedized 1500 Watt Military Power Supply. Analytic Systems has been working with the army since 2004…

General Dynamics Canada completed a technology demonstration program with Defence R&D Canada Atlantic for Multisensor Torpedo Detection Classification and Localization. The TDP, which began in 2006 at DRDC Atlantic, proved advanced concepts in multi-sensor automated torpedo warning for the Halifax-class patrol frigates…

Montreal’s CAE was awarded contracts from the U.S. navy to develop two MH-60R helicopter simulators; from Boeing to design and manufacture training devices as part of the C-130 Avionics Modernization Program (AMP) for the U.S air force; and from the U.S. army to develop a suite of Abrams tank maintenance trainers…

A team from the University of Sherbrooke, sponsored by Ottawa-based ING Engineering, placed third in the Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle systems competition conducted in June by the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International…

Eurocopter Holding, a subsidiary of EADS, acquired Toronto-based Vector Aerospace in an effort to increase growth of support and services activities in both the civil and governmental markets…

Textron Systems Canada and Rheinmetall Canada have partnered to pursue DND’s Tactical Armoured Patrol Vehicle (TAPV) program…

Montreal-based Héroux-Devtek received a seven-year, $70 million contract from Lockheed Martin to assemble the landing gear and provide spare parts for the global production of the C-130J Super Hercules aircraft.