As the Royal Canadian Air Force prepares for the arrival of fifth-generation fighter aircraft, a new Canadian-led industry team is positioning itself to modernize how the country trains for the next era of air combat.
On May 21, Montréal-based Top Aces announced it is leading a consortium of Canadian defence and simulation firms pursuing Canada’s Operational Training Infrastructure Enterprise Modernization (OTIEM) program. Joining the effort are Raytheon Canada, CogSim, and Select Global International.
The OTIEM initiative is expected to become a cornerstone of Canada’s future operational training ecosystem, shaping how the RCAF trains, tests, and exercises fifth-generation airpower and multi-domain operations while reinforcing interoperability with allied nations.
Top Aces, founded in Montreal by former RCAF fighter pilots, is positioning its experience in advanced adversary air training as a key differentiator. The company has spent more than two decades delivering operational training support to the Canadian Armed Forces and allied air forces, and since 2019 has flown more than 5,000 adversary air sorties supporting fifth-generation fleets including the F-22 and F-35.
Under the proposed structure, Top Aces would serve as prime contractor, bringing operational training expertise and live-fly air combat experience to the program. Raytheon Canada would act as lead technical integrator, leveraging more than 70 years of enterprise-scale systems integration and sustainment work with the Canadian Armed Forces, alongside experience supporting comparable operational training infrastructure initiatives with the Royal Australian Air Force.
The broader team adds specialized expertise across simulation, distributed mission training, and fighter pilot instruction. SGI contributes simulator-based fighter pilot training led by veteran CF-18 instructor pilots, while CogSim brings tactical data-link simulation, live-virtual-constructive (LVC) integration, and cloud-enabled distributed training technologies already used by allied air forces.
Together, the consortium is presenting itself as a sovereign Canadian solution designed to provide long-term national control over operational training data, intellectual property, sustainment, and future capability evolution. The team says it is prepared to immediately begin the program’s definition phase to align with the RCAF’s future fleet introduction timelines and operational training requirements.
“OTIEM is fundamentally about operational readiness and sovereignty,” said Paul Bouchard, Chief Executive Officer at Top Aces. “This team brings together the right experience, at the right scale, with the credibility that comes from having already delivered complex operational training systems for Canada and our closest allies. Together, we are ready to partner with Canada to design, deliver, and sustain a modern training capability that evolves with the threat environment and supports force generation for decades to come.”
At a time when Canada is increasingly emphasizing sovereign defence capability, interoperability with allies, and enterprise-level modernization under broader defence industrial reforms, OTIEM represents more than a training upgrade. It is becoming a strategic foundation for how Canada prepares its future air force for contested, data-driven operations in the decades ahead.
