National Defence

Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC)

Defence R&D Canada – Atlantic (DRDC Atlantic)

DRDC Atlantic is the Department of National Defence centre of expertise for research and development in undersea warfare and marine vehicle technology supporting Canadian Navy Maritime Air and public security requirements. DRDC Atlantic also participates significantly in Maritime Command and Control (C2) efforts. R&D in the above areas is conducted in the form of theoretical studies, experimental data gathering, system concept demonstrators, and field validation trials. A portion of the work is carried out at the Dockyard Laboratory (Pacific) in Esquimalt, British Columbia, and at the National Research Council's Institute for Aerospace Research in Ottawa.

Fields of Research

Undersea Warfare: Ocean environmental acoustics, acoustic sensor systems, electromagnetic sensor systems, underwater acoustic transducers, sonar signal processing, sonar information management, marine mine countermeasures, torpedo countermeasures, remotely operated and autonomous underwater systems, sonar performance assessment, sonar system concept demonstration, open architecture system concepts and operational analysis.

Maritime Command and Control: Generation and presentation of maritime tactical and operational pictures (data/information management and fusion, anomaly detection, information extraction, auto alerts, visualization); decision support tools; C2 systems analysis; modeling and simulation/synthetic environments to support analysis and evolution of maritime C2 systems; and integrating the command and control efforts at other centres with DRDC Atlantic's own capabilities.

Naval Platforms: Ship and submarine dynamics, hydrodynamics, structures, and materials; their modeling, simulation, design and maintenance; their radiated and reflected noise signatures; tailored materials (shape memory alloys and polymers, dielectric materials, conducting polymers, quasi-crystalline materials, intermetallics and polymer composites) and marine corrosion science.

Air Platforms: Condition-based monitoring and prognostic health management for aircraft structures and propulsion systems. Novel battery, fuel cell and alternative energy sources.

Contact

James L. Kennedy
Chief Scientist

Defence R&D Canada – Atlantic (DRDC Atlantic)
P.O. Box 1012
Dartmouth, Nova Scotia
B2Y 3Z7

Web site:  www.drdc-rddc.gc.ca/facilities/atlantic_e.asp

Defence R&D Canada – Valcartier (DRDC Valcartier)

DRDC Valcartier's mission is to conduct applied defence research and development work in the fields of optronic systems, information systems and weapon systems.

Fields of Research

Optronics and micro-engineering, including visible and infrared components, sensors and systems, signal, image and data processing, as well as target and background characteristics and intervening media; command and control using state-of-the-art technologies in artificial intelligence, data fusion, system architectures, human-machine interfaces and decision support; emergent energetic materials including rockets, rocket and gun propellants, energetic polymers, and insensitive munitions, ordnance, including projectiles and their flight mechanics and terminal effects, weapon system performance analysis, platform vulnerability and survivability, high strain rate characteristics of materials, and smart fusing for munitions.

Contact

Christian Carrier
Chief Scientist

Defence R&D Canada – Valcartier (DRDC Valcartier)
2459 Pie-XI Boulevard North
Québec, Québec
G3J 1X5

Web site:  www.drdc-rddc.gc.ca/facilities/valcartier_e.asp

Defence R&D Canada – Ottawa (DRDC Ottawa)

DRDC Ottawa is the lead authority and centre of expertise for the exploitation of the electromagnetic spectrum to meet future Canadian Forces, departmental and national needs.

Fields of Research

DRDC Ottawa's core technologies are radar technology, including navigation, synthetic aperture radar, radar counter-countermeasures, target classification, missile approach warning systems, multifunction radar, coastal surveillance radar, and target tracking; electronic warfare technology, including radar and communications, electronic support measures, electronic countermeasures, and electromagnetic protection; space systems technology, including space environment and electronics, space systems and simulators, and space data exploitation; communications technology, including satellite communications, advanced communications networks, wireless communications, HF radar, speech coding, and antennas; and information operations technology, including network attack detection and analysis, information protection and assurance and information exploitation.

Contact

Chief Scientist

Defence R&D Canada – Ottawa (DRDC Ottawa)
Department of National Defence
3701 Carling Avenue
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0Z4

Web site:  http://www.ottawa.drdc-rddc.gc.ca/

Defence R&D Canada – Toronto (DRDC Toronto)

DRDC Toronto is Canada's centre of expertise for ensuring that Canadian Defence and National Security capabilities exploit the full potential of Human Effectiveness S&T. It achieves this by integrating knowledge from various fields of science and technology (S&T) that address human behaviour, human performance, and human protection.

Fields of Research

DRDC Toronto conducts S&T in the following four areas: 1) Human Systems Integration; 2) Collaborative Performance and Learning; 3) Individual Readiness; and 4) Adversarial Intent. These areas of research require expertise from such diverse disciplines as: cognitive and behavioural sciences; information and decision systems; human factors engineering; simulation and training technologies; human-computer interaction; human systems modelling; life support systems; protective clothing systems; autonomic and central nervous system physiology; trauma science; biomedical engineering; social psychology; political science; and cultural anthropology.

Contact

Chief Scientist

Defence R&D Canada – Toronto (DRDC Toronto)
1133 Sheppard Avenue West
P.O. Box 2000
Toronto, Ontario
M3M 3B9

Web site:  www.drdc-rddc.gc.ca/facilities/toronto_e.asp

Defence R&D Canada – Suffield (DRDC Suffield)

DRDC Suffield is Canada's centre of expertise for defence R&D to counter chemical, biological, and explosive threats.

Fields of Research

Toxicology and Pharmacology: Toxicity and mechanisms of action of toxic chemicals (including chemical warfare agents), including pathophysiology; prophylaxis and therapy for nerve agents, vesicants, and neurotoxins.

Prevention and Treatment of Disease: Infectious disease mitigation, including vaccines and alternatives to vaccines such as protective/therapeutic antibodies and immune modulators; anti-infective drugs and drug delivery systems, including inhalation and liposome encapsulation.

Threat Assessment and Consequence Management: Development of computer models for hazard assessment, including hazardous cloud movements.

Detection, Diagnostics, and Protection: Detection and identification of chemical and biological hazards by various methods, including spectrometric particle counting/sizing, ionization, capillary electrophoresis, microfluidics, immunochemistry, and gene probe technology; personal protection equipment in hostile chemical environments, and techniques to decontaminate persons and equipment.

Military Engineering: Explosive physics in air and under water, explosively formed projectiles, fuel-air explosives, numerical methods in fluid dynamics, blast and shock wave/structure interactions, detection and identification of buried land mines, ordnance and minefields.

Autonomous, Intelligent Systems: Tele-operated and robotic surface vehicles and their control for military applications; land vehicle dynamics and advanced vehicle subsystems; image analysis and artificial intelligence.

Contact

Kent Harding
Chief Scientist

Defence R&D Canada – Suffield (DRDC Suffield)
Box 4000 Station Main
Medicine Hat, Alberta
T1A 8K6

Web site:  www.drdc-rddc.gc.ca/facilities/suffield_e.asp

Defence R&D Canada – Centre for Operational Research and Analysis (DRDC CORA)

Operational Research

The Operational Research Division provides and maintains expert, objective, and responsive analytical services based on the scientific method, which contribute to improved operational effectiveness and efficiency for the Canadian Forces and Department of National Defence now and in the future.

Fields of Research

Computer simulations and models of engagements in anti-submarine warfare and maritime air defence; campaign models of effectiveness of escorts and maritime patrol aircraft; mathematical modelling, simulation, and war-gaming of land forces equipment, structures, and tactics; tactical air defence, aerospace defence, air transport, and search and rescue operations; studies of factors affecting the employment of land force electronic warfare techniques and systems; development and evaluation of decision-support systems for optimal sparing, supply and transportation, life-cycle costing, and materiel management; development of systems to support human resources management, training, mobilization, planning, and policy formulation; studies on combat motivation, social, and military family support mechanisms; applications in numerical analysis, applied statistics, probability theory, artificial intelligence, and the design and conduct of field trials.

Contact

Jocelyn Tremblay
Chief Scientist

Defence R&D Canada – Centre for Operational Research and Analysis (DRDC CORA)
National Defence Headquarters
101 Colonel By Drive
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0K2

Contact for all DRDC locations

Annie Trudel
Manager Ressourcing
Tel.: 613-992-8395
Fax: 613-996-7063
E-mail: annie.trudel@rddc-drdc.gc.ca

DRDC Visiting Fellowship Program
Defence R&D Canada – Corporate Services
DRDHR – Constitution Building
305 Rideau Street, 9th Floor
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0K2
Web site:  www.drdc-rddc.gc.ca/about/us_e.asp