The annual CANSEC show has come and gone for 2019 and will surely be listed as a success as reports are that over 13,000 people attended on the first day of the two day show eclipsing last year’s attendance of over 12,000 people for both days. And I will say that the first day was overwhelmingly crowded. CANSEC is hosted by the Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries (CADSI) and showcases technology, products and services for military and security forces.
In my opinion, I found this year’s CANSEC to be underwhelming in the technology displays and equipment on view. It seemed to be heavily oriented to drones and simulators which, in and of themselves, I find a little boring. Now that the Combat Surface Combatant has been settled, the big ship manufacturers seemed a little lost, although there is still lots of work with the replenishment vessels and the offshore patrol ships. The aircraft manufacturers are geared up about the CF-18 Fighter Replacement program and were represented by SAAB with a Gripen mock-up, Airbus with the Typhoon mock-up, and Lockheed-Martin with the F-18 Super-Hornet simulator. Along with the aircraft manufacturers come all the support industries vying for their piece of the pie. There were a couple of interesting all-terrain vehicles in the back area that looked like they’d be fun to take out in the back 40.
DND also contributed by flying in a CH-148 Cyclone helicopter which everyone seemed pleased to see. Once inside, however, there was very little to see as there was a single operator console in the fuselage and not much else. Showing a little spark of humour when one looked into the cockpit at the instrument console (no instruments were on) it looked like the centre LCD panel was on. On closer inspection it turned out to be a cover over the center display and it had a Pac-Man game graphic on it. (see pictures).
The speakers seemed less interesting this year as well with the Minister of National Defence Sajjan saying what a good job they were doing in procuring needed equipment, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development Bains harping on the value of industrial and technical benefits (ITBs), Minister of Public Services and Procurement and Accessibility Qualtrough also speaking as to how well procurement process is going, and Vice-Chief of the Defense Staff Wynnyk chiming in as well specifically acknowledging equipment that must be more tailored for female sized CAF members. Nuggets came out such as the change in the fighter replacement project as to how ITBs will be scored, a change that allowed the F-35 into the competition whereas it had previously been excluded. During Minister Bain’s time on stage during lunch on day 1, it became so noisy with people talking and ignoring the stage that he became hard to hear.
Even the booth give-aways seemed lesser this year with the most prevalent item, other than pens, being the “Remove before take-off” zipper pulls, although Lockheed-Martin did have some USB wall chargers and screwdrivers and Rolls-Royce had an interesting “fidget”.
So two days I’ll never get back.
To see all the images, CLICK HERE.
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