30/05/2022 | Press release

The partnership between Rheinmetall and Lockheed Martin in pursuit of the Canadian Army’s Land Vehicle Crew Training System (LVCTS) project has a new name —FORC3— and a lineup of Canadian suppliers to fulfill its mission.

First announced in June 2020, the strategic partnership led by Rheinmetall Canada includes Lockheed Martin Canada, Rheinmetall Electronics (Bremen, Germany), and Lockheed Martin Training and Logistics Solutions (Orlando, Florida). The agreement created an international alliance with unrivalled experience and expertise in the design, development, and implementation of world-class combat vehicle virtual simulation centres used by Canada’s most important allies.

Pietro Mazzei, Vice-president, Rheinmetall Canada, explains, “The name FORC3 is all about promoting a partnership between Rheinmetall, Lockheed Martin, and the Department of National Defence (DND), united through excellence to enable training for adaptive dispersed operations.”

Together with the leading Canadian defence, service, infrastructure, and simulation companies, FORC3 has secured the domestic capabilities to build and operate five state-of-the-art LVCTS simulation centres across the country. The Canadian team comprises Rheinmetall Canada (Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu), Lockheed Martin Canada (Ottawa), the ADGA Group (Ottawa), Bluedrop Training and Simulation (Halifax), EllisDon Construction and Building Services (London), Paladin AI (Montreal), and REDspace Incorporated (Halifax).

FORC3 will draw upon its partners’ global experience and cutting-edge technologies to fundamentally transform operational training for the Canadian Army. Each proposed simulation centre will create highly realistic synthetic environments that replicate the future land operating environment. Canadian forces will train as they will fight and where they will fight, encountering virtual adversaries posing a full range of hybrid, conventional, and emerging threats. Within these simulated operational scenarios, Canadian soldiers will have access to sophisticated analytical tools to exploit training to the fullest. The LVCTS will become a key enabler in training for adaptive dispersed operations, the Canadian Army’s capstone operating concept.

With FORC3’s team, the LVCTS program’s benefits will be felt across Canada. The project will bring modern technologies to the nation’s industries and create new and enduring high-quality jobs at the five simulation centres. As a member of the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business (CCAB), Rheinmetall Canada is committed to including Aboriginal businesses in its supply chains for the project. Additionally, the LVCTS project offers significant environmental benefits as traditional field training makes way for simulated operations hosted in carbon-neutral buildings.

Says Mazzei, “FORC3 is about Canadian industries uniting with DND to effectively and comprehensively prepare the Army’s women and men for the challenges they will face in the coming decades.”

The five custom-built simulation centres will enable progressive training at the individual, crew, platoon, and higher echelon levels using high-fidelity trainers, medium-fidelity reconfigurable trainers and standard trainee workstations combined with a robust virtual environment and comprehensive instructional system.

About the ADGA Group

For more than 50 years, ADGA has built a reputation for empowering our partners to keep Canadians safe in mission-critical, time-critical, and budget-critical situations. ADGA’s Defence Division has supported the Canadian Armed Forces with field-proven software development and systems integration in C4ISR, reliable fire support systems, leading-edge simulation systems, and secure networking solutions for all operating environments.

About Bluedrop Training & Simulation

Bluedrop Training & Simulation designs, develops, and integrates advanced training solutions including state-of-the-art training and simulation products and highly interactive courseware and technical documentation. The company’s approach meets the demands of today’s modern armed forces providing blended training solutions from the classroom through to simulated virtual environments aimed at improving safety, productivity, and efficiency. Bluedrop has developed a unique suite of cutting-edge virtual rear crew and hoist mission training systems and armoured vehicle simulators. Bluedrop Training & Simulation is a small to medium-sized enterprise providing a strong value proposition offering 100% Canadian designed and developed solutions.

About EllisDon Construction and Building Services

EllisDon is a world-leading construction and building services company that completes in excess of 5 billion dollars worth of contracts annually, in every market sector and across the globe. The company’s ability to successfully manage design and to deliver unique and challenging projects has placed its services in the spotlight. With over 2 billion dollars of completed or ongoing defence projects across Canada, EllisDon is recognized as both industry and defence sector leaders.

About Paladin AI

Paladin AI is a Montreal-based high-tech company deploying artificial-intelligence-powered training analytics solutions for immersive training environments. Its platform, InstructIQ™, accelerates training, standardizes instruction, and objectively assesses trainee performance. The company’s founders believe that the future of training should be adaptive, personalized, and equitable.

About REDspace Inc.

REDspace is a full-service digital engineering firm specializing in cloud, platform, and enterprise systems integration solutions across the Canadian defence and international media and entertainment markets. REDspace is a Canadian-based, small and medium enterprise with 20 years of experience providing development capabilities and innovation supporting the evolution of Canada’s defence sector. REDspace is an industry-thought leader and has designed and built highly integrated, performance-based solutions for some of the world's largest organizations with information systems that reach millions of concurrent users globally. REDspace is bringing this capability to the LVCTS community.