Sentinel Advanced Military Solutions launched an integrated Canadian defence technology consortium at CANSEC 2026, anchored by its StarForge deployable-manufacturing platform, a University of Alberta research partnership and a $10 million Lockheed Martin Industrial and Technological Benefits contribution tied to Canada's 26-unit HIMARS buy.
A Quebec defence manufacturer wants to put a working factory inside a forward operating base, and it has $10 million of Lockheed Martin money and a University of Alberta research team to help build it. Sentinel Advanced Military Solutions introduced the consortium at CANSEC 2026, Canada's defence and security trade show, tying together a coast-to-coast supplier network behind a single deployable-manufacturing platform.
The system is called StarForge, and Sentinel spent four years building it. Its most mature component, ForgeX, combines onboard power generation and storage with additive manufacturing hardware co-developed with a British Columbia partner, plus software that maintains what the company calls a secure digital stockpile of parts and drone designs.
"Imagine arriving at a remote Arctic outpost or a forward operating base where traditional supply chains no longer exist," John Soares, chief executive officer of Sentinel Advanced Military Solutions, said. "Within hours, you have command and control, secure communications, autonomous surveillance, deployable power and the ability to manufacture mission critical components on site."
The second component, Apex, is a deployable C4ISR platform using mast-mounted radar and optical sensors to detect drone incursions, with Lockheed Martin's Calgary-based Skunk Works office supplying its VCSi command-and-control software and sensor fusion expertise. The third is a library of interceptor drone designs feeding both the manufacturing and surveillance sides, letting Sentinel produce the specific system a mission requires.
Lockheed's $10 million arrives as an Industrial and Technological Benefits contribution tied to the Canadian Army's confirmed acquisition of 26 HIMARS rocket systems under the Long-Range Precision Fires Project. Canada's ITB policy requires major foreign defence purchases to generate proportional economic benefit domestically. No equity changes hands and no repayment is required.
Sentinel runs a 25,000-square-foot facility with a direct team of roughly a dozen people, drawing on parent company CMP Advanced Mechanical Solutions, a vertically integrated manufacturer with more than 700 employees. Batteries come from Quebec, generator sets from Ontario, printers and optics from British Columbia, software from Alberta, and drone components from partners in Atlantic Canada.
The University of Alberta's role centres on radio-frequency systems, antenna design and materials science, supporting field-manufacturing strategies for radar cross-section reduction and thermal signature management, alongside work on communications resiliency in contested electronic warfare environments.
The consortium model is a direct response to a structural problem in Western defence procurement. Ed Zimmermann, Sentinel's chief technology officer, pointed to sustainment challenges reported among NATO battalions in Latvia, where supply chains have atrophied and lead times stretch for months. Sentinel's pitch is that highly procedural organizations like the Canadian Armed Forces need documentation and quality assurance that distributed, improvised manufacturing setups in Ukraine do not require.
In August, a Sentinel team spent two weeks in the California desert printing drone chassis, assembling components shipped as kits, and flying missions alongside a partner unit. Zimmermann said the list of fixes coming out of that first field test was short. The company is now building a second-generation version targeting production around mid-October, aiming to capture more than 95 percent of the initial operating capability requested by evaluators.
Canada's Defence Industrial Strategy, launched earlier this year, identified $180 billion in defence procurement opportunities and $290 billion in defence-related capital investment over the next decade. The consortium positions itself as a domestic answer to that spending, competing for work that has historically flowed to established primes including Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics and Rheinmetall.
Lockheed's participation cuts both ways. The Maryland-based contractor supplies the command-and-control layer and gains a Canadian industrial-benefit credit against its HIMARS obligations, while simultaneously helping stand up a domestic integrator that could eventually bid against it for deployable-manufacturing and counter-UAS contracts.
"With over 85 years of partnership in Canada, our long-standing presence has evolved well beyond supplying military equipment," Kristen Leroux, vice president and regional executive for Canada and Latin America at Lockheed Martin, said. "Our investment in this consortium is a prime example of how we champion the growth of small-to-medium enterprises and strengthen Canadian industry to drive meaningful economic impact."
For investors, the consortium is a private-company story with public-market read-through. CMP Advanced Mechanical Solutions and Sentinel are both privately held, so there is no direct equity to buy. The tradeable exposure sits with Lockheed Martin, which trades on the New York Stock Exchange, and with the broader defence-sector theme that has re-rated on elevated global military spending. Scotiabank priced a $750 million defence bond on Sept. 22, the first Canadian issuance explicitly tied to the sector, a signal that institutional capital is beginning to price domestic defence exposure as a distinct asset class.
The near-term test is whether Sentinel converts its California field data into a production-ready second-generation system by mid-October, and whether the consortium's coast-to-coast partner network can deliver at the volumes the Canadian Armed Forces would need. Zimmermann said Sentinel has briefed senior Canadian Armed Forces stakeholders on uncrewed systems adoption and held discussions with European counterparts, declining to detail parallel conversations with U.S. stakeholders.
"If we develop an understanding of the challenge in front of us but expect to meet it by relying on how we've always done things, we're sorely mistaken," Zimmermann said. "Readiness today is about flexibility, speed, and a high degree of collaboration and interoperability with our allies."
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.
