COVE has been selected as a core site for the maritime Defence Innovation Secure Hub.
Canada has selected COVE in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia as the location for their inaugural maritime Defence Innovation Secure Hub (DISH), part of a national network dedicated to emerging defense technologies.
Defence Minister David McGuinty recently announced that the federal government will invest 29 point 4 million Canadian dollars into COVE's maritime DISH at COVE, along with Minister Sean Fraser of Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency. This funding will support secure infrastructure upgrades including building a top-secret capable sensitive compartmented information facility (SCIF), laboratories, and IT systems designed for classified projects.
The maritime DISH will focus on ocean technology and bring together defence and security stakeholders - from industry, academia, naval operators and federal agencies - to co-develop, test and transition new maritime capabilities. Key research areas will include undersea domain awareness, uncrewed and autonomous systems, advanced sensing and surveillance technologies as well as artificial intelligence enabled maritime analytics as well as quantum, biotech, Arctic and space applications that may benefit ocean research. COVE CEO Melanie Nadeau described it as being pivotal for Canada s defence innovation ecosystem as well as engine for collaborative capability development in national security.
COVE announces new at sea testing capability for advanced towed array technologies
COVE has also introduced an at sea testing capability designed to speed the development and deployment of next generation towed array and underwater sensing systems for both defence and commercial markets. The project will be delivered in partnership with Defence Research and Development Canada, Ultra Maritime Canada and Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency and establishes Canada as a leader in this area of technology experimentation.
This initiative features a containerized, modular testing system designed to be quickly deployed on various vessels without diverting frontline Royal Canadian Navy ships from operational duties. By providing frequent trials in different marine environments, this system will shorten prototype to operational capability times while supporting experimentation with advanced active/passive towed arrays and long range surveillance systems.
Federal announcements revealed that this project received combined funding of 9 Million 690 Thousand 773 Canadian Dollars from the Department of National Defence and Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency as part of their BOREALIS defence innovation initiative. Ultra Maritime will supply their Sea Tracker system, featuring scalable architecture capable of integrating their full suite of towed technologies to deliver enhanced anti submarine warfare capabilities. COVE was selected by NATO s Defence Innovation Accelerator for North Atlantic deployment, hosting DISH at Halifax; placing COVE as the centre of Canada s maritime innovation and dual use technology network.
COVE Connect highlights expanding defense and offshore energy collaboration
COVE Connect's November edition served to demonstrate COVE's expanding portfolio in defence innovation and offshore renewable energy partnerships. Recent highlights included COVE and the Canadian Global Affairs Institute appointing Olena Kryzhanivska as a thought leader on defence innovation and dual use capabilities, and signing an MOU with Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult to advance offshore renewable energy innovation between Canada and UK.
COVE Connect also advertised upcoming marine events such as carbon dioxide removal engineering in the ocean, international ocean technology conferences and venture forums that showcase COVE s role as convening government, industry and research communities within the blue economy. Alongside national security initiatives like DISH and the at sea testing capability, these activities demonstrate COVE's strategy of integrating energy-related innovation alongside defence-related efforts to support commercialization and talent development within marine technology sector.