Posted Aug 2, 2009, 4:59 AM
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Moderator
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Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: B3K Halifax, NS
Posts: 9,903
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Some of the following article is about the new office building next to Gallery 1 on Highfield Drive. Its a nice looking building. 
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Training centre could lead to big military contracts
ROGER TAYLOR
Sat. Aug 1 - 4:46 AM
SMALL BUSINESSES in Nova Scotia may have a better chance at landing a lucrative military contract now that Lockheed Martin Canada has opened the Maritime Training and Testing Site in Dartmouth.
The so-called MATTS centre opened Friday will be focused on fulfilling two long-term contracts related to the updating of Canada’s 12 Halifax-class frigates.
The Lockheed Martin-led consortium — Saab Systems, xwave, IBM Canada, L-3 Electronic Systems and CAE Professional Services — will design, build and integrate combat systems under one contract and, under a separate contract, provide in-service support for the modernized frigates.
The combat systems contract, for instance, is valued at about $1.4 billion. That will pay for the upgrading of the command and control systems, redesigning the operations room, and reconfiguring the masts on all 12 frigates to accommodate new radar suites.
The in-service support contract, valued at $600 million, will look after the combat systems.
Work on seven of the frigates will be carried out at the Irving-owned Halifax Shipyard, which was awarded a separate contract worth $549 million. The 18-month-long refit of the first frigate, HMCS Halifax, will begin soon.
The remaining five frigates will be refittted at the Victoria Shipyard in British Columbia.
Although not all the work will be carried out in Nova Scotia, the provincial economy should enjoy a significant infusion of money over the next few years.
Thomas Digan, president of Lockheed Martin Canada, says his company doesn’t have a monopoly on good ideas and wants to work with Maritime entrepreneurs and small businesses to develop products for the Canadian military.
The new Lockheed Martin facility, located next to the Gallery One furniture store in north-end Dartmouth, will include a technology collaboration centre, he says, which has been described as an incubator for small businesses that want to gain access to military contracts.
Digan says his company will be working in association with the navy to advertise the opportunities the collaboration centre will provide to industry, academia and the community at large.
One possibility may be that a company already has a commercial application but doesn’t know how to tie it into a military system, he says.
"We provide the facilitation to help them bring our ultimate
customer, the Canadian government, the Canadian navy, a better product."
By working with smaller companies, Lockheed Martin hopes to maintain its position as a leading contractor with the Canadian military, he says.
"Obviously, that’s good for us; we’d like to be the Canadian integrator of choice (and) we don’t do that by saying we’re the only ones who can do this. We’d like to be able to reap the good ideas from other places and bring them to our ultimate customer because, in the end, if you’re keeping your customer happy, you stay in business."
The collaboration centre won’t be in operation until about this time next year, he says, but Lockheed Martin wants to start promoting the spinoff opportunities.
Digan says the Maritime Training and Testing Site could have been built anywhere in the country, but Nova Scotia Business Inc. provided an incentive through the payroll tax rebate program.
There was also ready access to an educated workforce and a critical mass of expertise already located in the Halifax area, he says. About 150 people will be working out of the Dartmouth site; most will be software designers and writers.
Digan says his company was on a tight deadline tied to the modernization of the frigates, and actually had to start working with building developer Rank Inc. about six months before winning the contract to upgrade the frigate fleet.
Construction began on the $10-million structure only eight months ago, with stringent requirements to be as environmentally friendly and energy efficient as possible.
Digan says Rank was given July as a target date for the building to be completed.
"We’re moving in on Aug. 7. Pretty close."
( [email protected])
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