Thales adopts domestic decision-making strategy
Can you run a defence company in Canada from Milan or Munich or Manchester? Thales doesn’t think so.

Late in 2009, the company’s leadership laid out a corporate reorganization based on the key perception that growth was going to happen outside Europe in markets like India, Brazil, Asia and North America. To get closer to customers, each country’s Thales team would have more flexibility. Thales has had a “multi-domestic” strategy for many years, with a presence in over 50 countries, but this new strategy transferred power from the centre to mature multi-domestic countries such as Canada.

Deciding which contracts to bid has become an important activity for large defence contractors, so decentralization of some responsibilities and simplified procedures all made sense. In the previous regime, country management had to convince Thales divisions back at the ‘mothership’ to invest. Now most Thales operations in the countries where it operates look to their own business plans to decide where and how to invest. The company’s seven divisions still handle product policy because, while customers may differ, system requirements are quite similar. Partnering is a fact of life in most big defence procurements today, so in practical terms the Thales policy makes teaming with other customers much more streamlined.

“Once we have identified a business opportunity that we want to win, the new organizational structure provides us with the flexibility to provide the right investment, partnering and solutions to the Canadian customer,” said Dave Spagnolo, vice president of defence and security for Thales Canada.

Alion honours Canadian VP
Alion Science and Technology presented Brett Johnson, vice president of Alion Canada, with its CEO Award in May, in a ceremony in Reston, Virginia. Alion recognized Johnson and his colleague Mark Oakes, chief naval architect of Alion Science and Technology, for building the company’s ship design and engineering capabilities in the Canadian market.

The two men were key in creating the RALion joint venture with Robert Allan Ltd., a Canadian ship design firm. RALion has won several major ship design projects, including the Canadian Coast Guard Offshore Fisheries Science Vessels. Employee-owned Alion Science and Technology has 75 years of R&D and engineering experience, and works in naval architecture and marine engineering; defense operations; modeling and simulation; and, technology integration. Wholly owned subsidiary Alion Canada was set up in early 2009 to develop a complete ship design capability in Canada.

IN BRIEF
Three British Columbia shipbuilders, Vancouver Shipyards, Vancouver Drydock and Victoria Shipyards, have combined forces with industry partners such as Alion Canada, Imtech Marine, Genoa Design International and Thales Canada to create Team Seaspan, which will contend for contracts in the National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy…

General Atomics Aeronautical Systems and CAE have signed a teaming agreement to offer the Predator B UAS as an ISTAR solution for the air force’s JUSTAS program…

A month after opening an Ottawa office, Force Protection Industries has brought together Elbit Systems, Lockheed Martin Canada and CAE to collaborate on a bid for the army’s tactical armoured patrol vehicle (TAPV) project…

Team VAMUdeS of the University of Sherbrooke, sponsored by Ottawa-based ING Engineering, won both the design and operational components of the 2011 Unmanned Aerial Vehicle competition…

General Dynamics Canada has created a new underwater intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance centre of excellence at its Halifax office…

Shark Marine Technologies provided Royal Netherlands Navy clearance divers with its Navigator, a diver-held sonar and navigation system…

Marport Deep Sea Technologies opened an office in Ottawa in May while its subsidiary, Marport C-Tech of Cornwall, Ontario, secured a multi-million dollar contract to manufacture helicopter dipping sonar modules for SELEX Galileo…

Lockheed Martin will integrate NGRAIN’s Virtual Damage Repair and Tracking software into the Integrated Maintenance Information System software suite of the F-22 aircraft. The software is already in use on the F-35 JSF…

Canterra Solutions, a partnership between L-3 Electronic Systems and Elbit Systems aimed at the Canadian Forces, successfully integrated a dual remote weapon station on a high mobility multipurpose wheeled vehicle.