The 10 Key Areas of the Defence Industrial Strategy
The 10 Key Areas of the Defence Industrial Strategy: Canada’s Defence Industrial Strategy outlines a long-term approach to strengthening Canada’s security, sovereignty, and economic prosperity through the development of key sovereign industrial capabilities.
Defence Industrial Strategy Overview
The strategy is designed to maximize strategic autonomy, reduce supply chain vulnerabilities, and prioritize build-in-Canada procurement where possible. It recognizes that a strong domestic defence industry is essential to ensuring that the Canadian Armed Forces have reliable access to the equipment, technologies, and support required to carry out their missions while also contributing to economic growth and innovation across the country.
To achieve these objectives, the strategy identifies ten sovereign capability areas that are considered critical to Canada’s defence and security interests:
- Aerospace, includes aerospace platforms, avionics, and aircraft communications.
- Ammunition, covering common ammunition, battle-decisive munitions, small arms, and missiles and bombs.
- Digital Systems including secure cloud technologies, artificial intelligence, quantum computing and communications, integrated command, control and communications systems, and high-assurance communications equipment
- In-Service Support for naval, land, and air capabilities to ensure that critical defence equipment can be maintained and supported throughout its lifecycle.
- Personnel Protection focused on medical counter measures.
- Sensors including marine sensors, quantum sensors, and electronic warfare technologies that support operational awareness and defence activities.
- Space capabilities are identified as increasingly important and include space-based intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, space domain awareness, satellite communications, and space launch capabilities.
- Specialized Manufacturing sector focuses on the production of land vehicles and surface ships, including icebreakers and marine systems.
- Training and Simulation capabilities are also prioritized across naval, land, and air domains to support readiness and operational effectiveness.
- Uncrewed and Autonomous Systems. This includes uncrewed and autonomous land systems, aerial systems, underwater systems, surface systems, and uncrewed collaborative platforms.
In Closing
Collectively, these capability areas are intended to strengthen Canada’s defence industrial base, improve resilience against supply chain disruptions, support national security and sovereignty, and ensure Canada can continue to meet its commitments to allies and partners. By focusing investment and procurement efforts in these areas, the strategy aims to build and sustain the industrial capabilities that are most important to Canada’s defence and security needs.