A Hamilton-based defence tech startup says it’s now selling drones directly to Ukraine. However, the company wouldn’t clarify whether that meant the Ukrainian government, military, or Ukrainian firms were its clients.
The news: In remarks at the Nrth conference in Toronto last week, Sentinel R&D CEO and co-founder Kath Intson said on stage that the company is “selling directly to the Ukrainians.”
This is a separate deal and product from the company’s recent joint venture with Ukraine’s Airlogix, Intson told BetaKit in a follow-up interview. That deal lays out an agreement for the Canadian Commercial Corporation to purchase drone components from Sentinel R&D and donate them to Ukraine for use in the Russia-Ukraine war. Intson did not provide further details on the new sales.
From the source: In an interview, Intson said that in Canada, “if an adversary has technology in our territory, we seem to be putting methods in place of detecting it, but not any capabilities [for] dealing with it.”
“We have to stay at the bleeding edge of new military strategies and technologies that are changing warfare, including and especially drones,” she added.
The context: Intson previously said at the BetaKit Most Ambitious: Town Hall in May that Western nations are “seriously outgunned” in this era of modern warfare, which has been characterized by lethal, precision technology like uncrewed, AI-powered drones.
The Canadian government has responded to this with, among other defence commitments, the Defence Drone Initiative to speed up the development and procurement of drone technology. It also signed a deal with Ukraine for a digital procurement platform to acquire drones and counter-drone systems, which awarded six Canadian companies $50 million in total contracts.
Final thought: Sentinel appears to be selling defence and weapons technology to a foreign nation, shortly after its joint venture with Airlogix previously prompted accusations from Russia that Canada is a “warmonger.” While Canada is looking to diversify its arms sales away from the US in favour of Europe under its Defence Industrial Strategy, it still faces significant challenges breaking into that market, such as requirements that portions of the arms components be made in Europe.
Feature image courtesy Lilac for BetaKit.