All right, we're gonna get started. Welcome to our webinar today, Canada's Defence Industrial Strategy and What it Means for Volatus. I am Danielle Gagne, Head of Global Training Strategy and Business Development for Volatus Aerospace, and also the moderator for this call. Before we get started, just a reminder that we welcome your questions, and we will be having a Q&A session at the end of the presentation. You're welcome to submit your questions at any time during the webinar by clicking on the Q&A box at the bottom of the webinar screen and typing in your questions. If we are unable to answer your question today, we'll be happy to connect with you after the program. This presentation will be recorded and made available to everyone via email within 24 hours.
I'd also like to take a moment to point out that certain information set forth in this presentation contains forward-looking information, including future-oriented financial information and financial outlook, and actual results may differ materially. The risks, uncertainties, and other factors that could influence actual results are described in this presentation, in the press release, and in our MD&A filed with Canadian regulators. This presentation also contains non-IFRS measures, which also outlined in the presentation. There is a full disclosure on page two of this presentation, which we encourage you to read and can be found on Volatus' investors website at investor.volatusaerospace.com. The company considers the earnings call part of... Sorry, the company, sorry, this is part of our regular disclosure. And I am going to hand this over to Glen Lynch to get us started.
Thanks, Danielle. Good afternoon, everybody, and thank you for taking time to join us today. My name's Glen Lynch. I am the Chief Executive Officer of Volatus Aerospace. I'm joined by Abhinav Singhvi, Abhi, as our CFO. Abhi will be the guy you're gonna lob any hard questions at towards the end of this. Today, I'm gonna walk through three things. First, what's happening in the defence and drone sector globally? Second, we'll talk about Canada's new Defence Industrial Strategy and how that's reshaping the market. Third, we'll talk about how Volatus is positioned within that environment. The short version is this: autonomous systems are becoming a core capability in modern defence, and Canada has now made domestic drone capability a strategic priority. Volatus operates directly in that space. Let me start with a quick overview of the company.
Volatus is a Canadian aerospace company. We're focused on drones, autonomy, and remote operations. We operate across four main areas. First, drone platforms themselves. You'll hear me use the words drones, RPAS, UAVs, UAS, and autonomous or uncrewed systems all in, in throughout this, they really mean the same thing. We operate drone platforms themselves. Second, autonomy software and mission systems. Third, remote operations center, where aircraft can be managed at scale. Fourth, operational services, such as training, inspection, and mission support. We operate across Canada and internationally, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe, and Latin America. Our strategy has been to build an integrated platform that combines aircraft, autonomy, and operations infrastructure and services. That integrated approach positions us well as governments and industries move towards large-scale drone operations. That's true in Canada and in much of the world today.
The global defence landscape has changed dramatically over the past several years. Modern conflicts have demonstrated the impact of autonomous systems. Drones are now used extensively for intelligence, surveillance, logistics, and tactical operations in theater. What makes them powerful is their ability to operate persistently and at a much lower cost and danger than traditional aircraft. As a result, governments around the world are accelerating investment in uncrewed systems. We're seeing increased spending across NATO countries and significant development programs globally. In simple terms, autonomous aviation, drones, is becoming a core part of modern defence capability. Canada recently introduced new policy framework called the Defence Industrial Strategy. This strategy represents a structural shift in how, in how, Canada approaches defence procurement and industrial development.
The government has committed to more than CAD 80 billion in defence reinvestment, and a key goal of the strategy is to strengthen Canadians' domestic defence industry, while simultaneously reinforcing our economic security. The policy targets 70% of defence procurement being directed to Canadian companies. That's almost a complete reversal from what we've experienced in years gone by. It also establishes a new Defence Investment Agency, which is designed to accelerate procurement and connect industry with national defence priorities. The broader objective is clear: Canada wants to develop domestic capability in strategic defence technologies, including drones. One of the most important elements of the strategy is the designation of certain technologies as sovereign capabilities. Those include areas such as aerospace platforms, digital systems, sensors, and autonomous systems. Uncrewed and autonomous aircraft are now part of that group.
That means the government recognizes drones as a strategic capability that should be developed and produced domestically right here at Canada at home. For companies operating in this sector, this provides a clear policy signal. Canada intends to build and support a domestic drone industry. Volatus operates directly across several of these priority domains. We develop and operate uncrewed aircraft systems. We conduct operations in remote and Arctic environments, we deploy sensors and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities, also called ISR, and we provide training and operational services. We also maintain Canadian ownership and control of our intellectual property. Together, these capabilities align closely with the areas that Canada has identified as strategic. One of the key things that differentiates Volatus is that we operate an integrated platform. At the top are the aircraft themselves.
These include systems such as the Condor heavy-lift drone platform, our recently acquired V-Series medium altitude, long endurance drones, our Sentinel docking station, and our piloted aircraft. Below that sits the autonomy layer. The autonomy systems manage navigation, mission execution, and fleet operations. Below that is our remote operations center, which allows us to manage aircraft remotely at scale. Finally, we have operational services. These include training, inspection, mission support, and other capabilities. Together, when we take them together, these layers create a complete ecosystem for autonomous aviation. This is one of my favorite slides. Effectively, this is our national infrastructure footprint. Volatus operates infrastructure across Canada that ultimately supports our platform. Our manufacturing and innovation hub is our newest facility, located in Mirabel, Quebec. Our geomatics and data operations are located in Quebec City.
Our operations control center is based in the Toronto region. Our aviation operations hub is in Edmonton. In addition, we have operational teams across Canada and internationally. This national infrastructure gives us the ability to deploy and support operations across multiple sectors. As a company, we generate revenue from across several areas. One is drone platforms themselves, another is remote operations and mission management. We also generate revenue through data collection and inspection services. Training and simulation is another important area, Daniel will tell you that. Finally, we participate in defence and government programs. These revenue streams allow us to operate across both commercial and defence markets. That diversification provides resilience, while also positioning our company for growth as autonomous aviation expands. When we look ahead, several major drivers are shaping growth in our sector. The first is sovereign drone procurement programs as governments develop domestic capability.
I say governments, because, again, while we're focused on the Canadian Defence Industrial Strategy, this is something that's happening around the world. The second is export markets, which serve as a multiplier. Many countries are expanding drone adoption across both defence and civil sectors. You'll oftentimes hear the term dual-use technology, meaning that the technology can be applied across both sectors. That represents most of Volatus technologies. Third is increasing demand for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, and sensing capabilities. Fourth, Arctic and remote operations, where drones can provide capabilities that are difficult and dangerous to deliver with traditional aircraft. Finally, defence partnerships with larger contractors and allied governments. Together, these drivers represent significant growth potential for companies operating in our space. Another key element of our strategy is domestic manufacturing and intellectual property control.
Canada's strategy places an emphasis on Canadian-owned technologies and production capability, capability and capacity. The picture you're looking at here is our new manufacturing facility in Mirabel. This is central to this effort. Our goal is to expand domestic production capability while maintaining control over our core intellectual property. This approach supports both Canadian defence requirements and provides export opportunities. From a capital markets perspective, several factors are important. First, the new defence strategy creates long-term demand signal. Second, it reduces uncertainty around procurement priorities. Third, it increases the importance of domestic supplier. Lastly, it expands export opportunities through government-supported programs. Companies positioned within these strategic sectors can benefit from improved visibility and long-term growth opportunities. One of the things I like to point out is that when long-term demand signals are received and funds are allocated, risk is assessed differently.
As risk is reduced, the cost of capital is reduced, and the opportunity to accelerate execution is improved. Let me close with a few key takeaways. First, defence industries globally are shifting towards autonomous systems. Second, Canada has introduced a major industrial strategy focused on domestic capability. Third, drones are now designated as sovereign capability. Fourth, export opportunities in our sector are expanding. Finally, Volatus operates across several of the domains that the government has identified as strategic priority. That positioning is central to our long-term strategy and what Volatus has been working extremely hard for. With that, we're happy to take any questions.
We already have some questions rolling in, Glen, so I'll get started right away. For those who are looking to know where to ask those questions, there's a Q&A box at the bottom there, and you can type them in there. The first question is, how do you see the process of selecting and supporting champions unfolding? The 70% made in Canada stands out. Can you discuss how that works with the 50% export growth target?
They kind of. One stacks on top of the other, right? One serves, I think the export target serves as a multiplier for the domestic capacity. I think what we really have to look at here is what it means for the government. There's, there's a challenge, right? I think a lot of people are gonna be looking for Canadian procurement immediately, but the challenge is, it's been an awful lot of years since the Canadian government procured much for defence, and certainly from Canada. As the Prime Minister noted in a speech back in June, three-quarters of all of defence spending, every dollar that was spent, from Canada on defence was spent outside of Canada.
The, the result of that is, we need to make a lot of investment and put a lot of effort into our defence industry at large. But basically, what you're going to see happening is, is two things going on. Number one, the government is, is prioritizing in their buy, partner, build framework. And what does that mean? It's, it's excuse me, it's build, partner, buy. Build means if we build it in Canada or it could be reasonably built in Canada, buying from Canada is the immediate priority. The second priority is partner. That means partnering between Canadian businesses and allied friendly allied businesses to build in Canada under license, with the intention of developing and transferring IP to Canada ultimately. And third, where none of those are possible, it's to buy, right?
At the end of the day, our soldiers need equipment, and, and we need to invest in, in Canada's military. That's kind of how it works. I think what's going on initially, a lot of the capital deployment will be done through the R&D sector, and, Abhi, you might want to provide some clarity on that?
Sure, Glen, I can, I can cover that part. First thing is on the 75% comment. The intent of the Canadian government is basically, to sum up in very shortly, they want the companies to manufacture in Canada, have the IPs, supply chain, and the skilled labor in Canada. The 50% export growth target basically reflects the goal of building the sovereign capability, basically making, make and build in Canada, but sell everywhere across the globe. That's also one of the reasons where our Prime Minister went to Europe and became part of SAFE, which is a Security Action for Europe, where Canada is one of the only non-European companies.
All this comes together where the government saying, "Build in Canada, and we'll ensure you are able, able and capable to supply everywhere else." On the second part, where Glen said, on the capabilities, government has allocated between, roughly between, I would say, CAD 600 million to almost CAD 1 billion in enabling companies to sell, I would say, all across or build the capabilities. Almost CAD 250 million has been allocated to NRC IRAP, which is basically a defence industrial assist stream. CAD 70 million for Borealis, CAD 4 billion been allocated to BDC, and almost, I would say, CAD 400 million to RDAs, Regional Development, RDAs, which is Regional Development Investment Agencies for small and medium business integrations. Apart from that, the, you know, there have been almost CAD 6 billion allocated to Defence Industrial Strategy.
That again comes back together. The intent of the government is, you know, CAD 80 billion investment in defence and CAD 50 billion, a 10-year target, where the government wants to promote small and medium businesses. They have identified broadly 600 small medium businesses within Canada that can supply or that have capability to supply to the government of Canada in terms of defence, and they have allocated CAD 50 billion in revenue over the period of 10 years. That's, that's a lot of money being allocated in defence, in R&D, in development, and also basically de-risking and showcasing that there's a significant demand, and the government has sent out those demand signals to the market to de-risk the investors and cost of capital.
Thank you. Our next question is, can you remind us of what kind of work you're doing for NATO countries and how you might leverage this when pursuing Canadian defence contracts?
Supporting NATO is something that we've been doing since the conflict or invasion of Ukraine happened at the beginning, to the extent that many of our managers, myself included, are actually banned from entering Russia as part of Russian sanctions on Canada. For the most part, our primary business to date has been the sale of equipment into Ukraine and the training of war fighters for Ukraine. A lot of that's been happening. The training happens particularly out of the U.K., and sale of equipment has been across our network for the most part.
Another question that we have is, it sounds like the sounds of drones is quickly becoming threatening to many people. Since part of your business model includes package delivery, are you prepared to respond to pushback from the public and regulatory agencies? Are you prepared to take a hit to your bottom line?
A couple of things there. At the moment, there's nothing in, in the drone delivery sector that's actually contributing profitability. It's, it's building capability for us, but, quite frankly, it's, it's a small cost to develop a strong capability that will matter over time. The only one thing I would like to do is clarify, Volatus actually doesn't do any consumer delivery. It's not a space that we focus for many of the reasons that the question was written in the first place. There's a lot of things. It has to do with, you know, there's the, let's just say there's a lot of challenges to package delivery, including the unit economics themselves, and there are some people that are really focused on that space. That's not us. We focus on medical delivery.
That's what we do right now in Toronto and, and, between hospitals in Toronto, and between the Edmonton Airport and a First Nations clinic in Alberta. For the most part, our preparation is more for remote resupply, rather than for domestic delivery. I don't see us delivering Amazon packages anytime soon, for sure.
Can you speak a little bit more, I think you, you did discuss this in your, in your talk, but maybe a little bit more about your specialized manufacturing capability and how that's gonna lie in.
I have a background in manufacturing, as do several of our senior executives. Specialized manufacturing capability is, is not so much around the manufacturing capability. Aerospace manufacturing, our factory is being established with aerospace practices, AS9100 quality management, and so on and so on. And in terms of, you know, the type of things that are important to us, it's having the correct level of autonomy, where, for example, we may move into, with any, with any success, maybe larger term production over time. No promises on that front, obviously, because it's really early in the game to say if and when those contracts will come.
The, the ideal solution for a factory to operate properly is having the correct level of automation introduced into the factory, and that's something that we're, we're working hard with partners to establish that right number. What's more specific here, though, is the fact that we're, we're making a significant commitment to meet the demand requirements, particularly for the Canadian military, but also for the dual-use platforms that can eventually serve our pipelines, and power lines, and, and border surveillance type applications.
Where do you see the most attractive opportunities amongst the segments you operate?
Well, oil and gas is always the one that's most predictable for us, right? Abhi calls it dull, boring, revenue. Abhi, why don't you, why don't you jump in on that, being that I'm stealing your line?
Oh, no, Glen, go ahead. That's okay.
All right. Dull, boring revenue, really, that's, that's in the energy and, and, really in the energy sector, sector, infrastructure. We're very, very cautious on how we forecast our defence right now, not because we don't believe there's gonna be a lot of it. I think we've, we've just seen a policy statement that's got a long-term demand signal from the government, so the opportunity is definitely there. The problem is everything's new, right? Headlines and news releases don't generate bottom line, contracts do, and the procurement cycle is what it is. I was in Ottawa today, participating in the MINERVA initiative. That's an initiative to, to modernize the Canadian Army. We're actively engaged with the Canadian Armed Forces.
Our industry is actively engaged, or better, better to say that the Armed Forces is actively engaged with industry. A lot's happening there, but we're very conservative about how we forecast what that could possibly be. The most exciting opportunity, the blue sky, is definitely Defence. It's just very difficult for us to, to, I think difficult, and it would be irresponsible for us to, to try and forecast how quickly that could happen. In, in, most of the estimates, the annual assessments that you'll actually see, there is minimal impact from, from Defence, 'cause we'd rather surprise big happy as opposed to big sad.
Can you talk about your, your bidding pipeline, defence versus commercial bidding pipeline, and how, how you treat that as a company?
We just, we talk actively, we talk actively and openly about our industrial commercial defence pipeline because that one, we have some visibility historically. Now, when you're in a nascent industry like ours that's growing, the nature and size of the contract change, so does the procurement cycle. Conversion rates of yesterday don't necessarily translate on a linear basis, but it's more predictable, right? Long-term, stable contracts in, with oil and gas, power utilities, and so on. The, I, I think that's probably, that's probably the, I don't know. Abhi, do you wanna add a little bit to that?
Sure, Glen. It's, it's a tricky one. We, we have openly said it in the market as well as to the community, that our commercial pipeline hovers between $500 million-$600 million at a given point of time currently. Our defence pipeline is significantly larger than that. With what we are seeing is, with current geopolitical tensions, significant tailwinds, NATO commitments, demand from across, across the board, right? From Europe, from Canada, U.S., the pipeline is changing, expanding much more aggressively, something which we haven't seen in the past. The only reason we don't communicate those numbers firmly is we don't know the conversion ratio. We don't know how fast the government will move.
There is policies, there are commitments. The only thing is how quickly they can move and convert those, I would say, policies into firm procurement orders. Those are the reason we generally stay away from disclosing, because we would rather underpromise and overdeliver, rather than other way around.
Can you talk a little bit about how Volatus has supported Ukraine? You mentioned it early on in the presentation. We have somebody asking kind of what we've been doing there.
Selling-- predominantly selling equipment into Ukraine, and drones specifically, also providing training. In the earlier days, I think, Danielle, you spent an awful lot of time trying to help promote some of the NGOs that were supporting Ukraine through webinars and so on. That's been our prim- primary activities. We're probably more focused on, on trying to directly support the defence agencies that are supporting Ukraine.
Another question is, how quickly do you see the Canadian government, proceeding with the goals that they, they enacted in the Defence Industrial Strategy?
Good question. I'd love to snap my fingers and say it's gonna happen tomorrow. There's a, there's a strong demand signal, typically what happens in defence procurement, especially with new technologies, they go through a period of time determining what they want. They're moving extremely quickly these days. As, as I said, I just came back from Ottawa. I drove in shortly before this call. Realistically, how quickly will it happen? Typically, the orders are small so that the government can test the technologies. You know, they go through ISED challenge competitions and so on. It's hard to say because there are some immediate requirements that the, both the Canadian Army and, and the Canadian Armed Forces at large actually require. It's just honestly, it's speculative. It's early days.
The, the document is, you know, only been out for a matter of less than a week now. We should see that visibility over the next little while. All I can say is, spending an awful lot of time in Ottawa and getting feedback from our government relations firm, the demand signal is matching the government's will. We certainly have the demand signals coming out of the out of the Canadian Armed Forces themselves, so it's simply a matter of how quickly the Defence Investment Agency can be set up and running.
You mentioned Borealis. You had passed the first stage of Borealis. What is the timeline to finalize the competition and ID the three final companies?
We're, we're, we're entering Stage 2 right now. Stage 3, to be honest with you, I'd be guessing at the window. Abhi, do you know the dates for the second one?
Yeah, I do. So end of, before end of March, Stage 2 needs to be submitted and completed. The decision will come out in probably within a few months after that. Stage 2 is basically submitting the entire prototype of the drone. Stage 3 is actually testing those prototypes. So developing three of those unit, testing in front of the right regulatory authorities and Canadian Armed Forces. That stage, right now, it's a longer, they have opened up a longer window just for the development, considering the participants, you know, whoever products and prototypes gets down selected will need time to produce them. Not the case with Volatus. We can get those out fairly quickly, given the resource, capital, and the facility we have in place now.
Stage 3, the government has been lenient and given almost, I would say, 12 months period, April 2026 to April 2027. We expect that by end of this year, all those three stages would be completed, and they should be, you know, final, I would say, shortlisted three companies. The government, the, or the intent of the project is awarding the reward to companies or to the product that 10,000 of those units can be made. If the intent is to push a button and have 10,000 units made a month, it's doable by these organizations as well. It's not just a matter of the best tech, it's the matter of speed, capabilities, scale, and also the availability of capital resources.
Another question is: Will Unusual Machines supply any equipment for Mirabel to be used in the production of drones, or will it just be parts?
Unusual Machines is a trusted supplier partner. One of the challenges that we're working through right now, as a matter of fact, they're a strategic investor in Volatus. One of the challenges that we're working through right now is the 70% domestic supply, and it's also some of the, you know, current trade uncertainties that can impact unknown tariffs going back and forth across the border can make that a little bit complex. Long term, though, they're a, they're a rock-solid partner that are doing some exciting things, and, and inevitably we'll be doing business with them.
How do you foresee the acceleration of the company's share value in the market, considering the company's position in relation to the government's new approach?
I don't, I don't, you know, it's not appropriate for me to give any advice on, on what we think can, can happen there, other than to say Canadian defence contractors in general, right? Let's, let's look at defence, not even just drones. Defense companies in Canada have typically traded at a discounted valuation compared to the U.S. peers. You know, one argument for that, that I tend to subscribe to, and there's certainly a lot of people smarter than me, so this is, this is, more the way I look at it. Without having a government that will buy from a domestic industry, it's very difficult for that domestic supplier to have credibility with foreign governments. It takes a lot more work to sell to Germany if Canada doesn't buy, so to speak.
The minute-- and I believe that's part of the problem. As a result, there's no stability, there's increased risk, and so on. What we have now is a very clear demand signal from the Canadian government, an identification of what we do as being a sovereign capability, an allocation of funding. We have a long-term demand signal. I believe that creates the environment for investors to, you know, re-evaluate where a company should sit relative to some of their, you know, foreign peers. Whether that'll be better or worse is a completely different story, but at the end of the day, I think the environment has changed for people to actually value or look at how companies are valued, and Canada has been trading as an industry at a discount to the United States.
We have a couple questions in regard to our Mirabel facility, and we have a number of them that could easily keep us well past the hour. I'm gonna try to combine a couple of them together. What is the timeline for the facility at Mirabel, and what drones will be produced in that facility? What kind of increase do we hope to expect to see once that facility is fully live?
I don't think we're ready to, to release the kind of forecast for the facility yet. What I will do is talk about its current state and the priority as a company. The facility, we have possession of the facility. We actually are and we have an office in the innovation center, and we have a standalone facility for... which is actually much better from a defence contracting standpoint for security, almost located on the same airport at Mirabel. The facility right now is in the process of going through a refit to suit what we're doing. We're in the process of finalizing the tooling, the production tooling for the aircraft portfolio that we acquired from the U.K. Those will be produced by a Canadian composite manufacturer.
We expect to be in production of those aircraft, at least for the flight test prototypes, to prove the tooling and revalidate some of the numbers, and have demonstration capabilities available within the next few months. Few months being, I would say, you know, sometime this summer, we should be having some exciting news coming out of there. The plan for the facility right now is to manufacture basically four large drones that we have in our portfolio. One remote docking system that's meant for... basically, it's our Sentinel Dock that's meant for dropping out in the middle of nowhere, to provide persistent surveillance where there's absolutely no infrastructure, and we can operate it from our OCC. Then there's the attritable drones that we're working towards for the Canadian military.
Those are the, the, ultimately the drones that are carried by the, by the soldiers themselves and ultimately used by the, the, Canadian Army.
I know we can't answer this question directly, but are we looking to do any major acquisitions that will help us in our presence in, in these markets, regions, and, and countries in the near future?
The only thing I can say to start with is, we understand that, that, you know, domestic priority or sovereign capability is not just a Canadian priority. If we want to compete in other markets, we have to develop those capabilities in the markets that we're involved in, for the most part, not entirely, but for the most part, and then we can support from one to the other. That's, that's probably the biggest focus, is, is making sure that we've got domestic capability in each of those markets. I'm not sure I answered that question, Danielle?
I think, Glen, you did. I think the short answer is yes. I would say, the geographies could be Canada, Europe, U.S. Like, it's, it's wide, and the intent is, you know, one key point is it's any M&A we'll be doing has to be accretive for us.
With the Beyond Visual Line of Sight as active policy, this might be good for me to give a little bit. The Level 1 complex regulatory licensing has become live in Canada. We're one of the first countries in the globe to actually have a Beyond Visual Line of Sight ruling that enables pilots and organizations to become certified to fly, low risk Beyond Visual Line of Sight. Do you expect this to change your conversion rates to contracts to increase or?
I, I let's say that I would certainly hope that contributes to our capabilities. Volatus, through our predecessor company, Drone Delivery Canada, had the first approval to fly Beyond Visual Line of Sight in Canada. It happened before any of these regulations existed. It happened with a waiver, and it was a, a flight between Moosonee and Moose Factory, Ontario, back in the days of the Drone Delivery Canada active brand. We've been flying missions across Canada for years now, through Drone Delivery Canada specifically, which is now Volatus Aerospace. That was one of the companies that we've merged.
I would say the key point there is, to give you an idea how real this is, every day that the weather in Edmonton is flyable, every business day, we fly as many as 16 flights a day in and out of the Edmonton Airport with a drone. The thing that to keep in mind is the air vehicle is in Edmonton, the pilot operator is just north of Toronto. That gives you an idea of what's actually happening today. It ties together with the licensing, with the regulatory capabilities. By the way, Canada's Canada may have leapfrogged a lot of countries here, but these countries will catch up fast. This is a capability that's gonna continue to expand, and we've got credibility.
You know, we use the credibility of what we do here in Canada to help us in other markets.
Absolutely. There's been a lot of congratulatory notes in here about being named top 50 in the Venture. How does this translate for buyers, and does this impact your trajectory on uplisting?
I, I mean, we had some good response from the market when it was announced last week. We're super proud. I think it validates the hard work of our team. One of the things that I would say in terms of, you know, uplisting as an example, we have been working very hard as the company matures to create optionality, to basically institute, what we've been calling institutional-level hygiene, within the company. To basically put us in a position that we could make strategic moves when it was deemed to be the right time to do them. That's probably about as far as I can, I, I can, say at this point.
A lot of conversations, and including us, has been about the Canadian border. Do you think that the Defence Industrial Strategy is going to make that more of a realistic conversation in the near future?
What it, what it does is it definitely provides some, some signaling. I think the strong signal that we see is the Canadian Arctic, right? Which is a huge area of interest for Volatus. As a matter of fact, of the three drone portfolio, the three large drone we acquired, two of them are specifically earmarked for Arctic, two of the designs. Fundamentally, the southern border is something that can be handled now. I think that it's a little bit of a wait and see, because it's not-- I don't believe it was addressed anywhere specific within the Defence Industrial Strategy. Bear in mind that the Defence Industrial Strategy deals with defence as, as opposed to...
I'm not, not 100% sure that, that RCMP and, and Canada border, actually fall into that jurisdiction, although a lot of moving pieces these days.
Well, what do you think are going to be some of the, the big challenges, and how is Volatus rising to meet that to get Canadian government contracts, especially with the Defence Industrial Strategy, and how do we compare against our competitors, in your opinion?
The important thing is, you know, you, you can't really see your competitors if they're behind you and you never look over your shoulder, so you keep running, right? We've been working hard on this since November of 2024. We've had government relations firms engaged since December of 2024, right through to current day. The writing was on the wall. Canada needed to step up its defence spending. Regardless of global geopolitics, many of the things that have happened, you know, like for example, increased defence spending, it needed to happen. No matter what, politics aside, that needed to happen. Our soldiers needed, needed better tools to do the jobs that we're charging them to do, and Canada needs more independence from an industrial standpoint.
I think, I mean, it's, it's speeding things up for sure. How fast is a different story.
This is a very interesting question: What types of projects are coming with your strategic-- What types of projects are coming up with your strategic partnerships that we've announced over the couple of years? As a refresher, can you name some of them?
The partnerships that we're talking about would be partnerships like, for example, Ondas, Dufour would be a, a fairly recent one that we announced. Always, Kongsberg is a, is an active partner in our world. We're engaged actively in, in integrating their technology and with other technologies like MatrixSpace and whatnot, into our ecosystem, our collective ecosystem, I'll say, not just Volatus. Those are continuing to move forward. Little early to be able to tell you exactly what they're going to do other than to say, for example, Dufour is very much focused on, on long-range drone cargo deliveries, including, you know, potentially strategic resupply. That also fits with our Condor helicopter, which is a different type of platform as well.
When you look at, at partnerships like Kongsberg and MatrixSpace, that's all around airspace. I think those will do well. Ondas, I did see a question that came through about our partnership with Ondas. We have a very strong relationship with Ondas. I'm in relatively frequent contact with their, their CEO. It's a bit challenging to say where that's gonna go though now, because of course, we have some challenges in, in where things are manufactured. There's a big push for things to be manufactured in Canada. Ondas has some very strong technologies, and we, you know, present those technologies as solutions for problems. I suspect in the event of a, of a significant opportunity, that would lead to a different conversation with Ondas, but we're, we stay very close to them.
This is a question about ARCO. How is our relationship with them, and is it currently training and services, or are we helping with their mining in Africa? Would you like me to respond to that one?
Why don't you take that one?
Yeah. I'm heading that conversation with ARCO. Right now, we are currently exploring training capabilities and sticking to those, to that service side of the business, as well as supplying. Nothing with mining with Africa just yet. That is where we're at at this moment. Of the current government opportunities you're pursuing, are any of them in a for- formal RFP? Are you seeing RFP come, come out at this point?
There's been a, a flow of RFPs. RFPs, you know, RFIs, and early-stage consulting. There's a lot of that going on, period. It's starting to build some momentum.
Can you talk a little bit about the announcement of the new CTO, Krish, and what's his role going to be to help accelerate Volatus?
I think that's been an important one. Krish is somebody that's been associated with us for some time, but bringing him on as a Chief Technology Officer, I think that was a big win for our company. As most of you know, or many of you likely know, Volatus is a very acquisitive company. We've acquired 20 companies over the history of our organization. With that, many of those organizations had their own little pockets of engineering in there. For example, Synergy Aviation has engineering. That's our aviation brand. Drone Delivery Canada had engineering. We acquired engineers with our acquisition of the Caliburn MALE RPAS platforms, Medium Altitude Long Endurance RPAS platforms, late last year. The goal with Gokul is to centralize.
We've centralized all of our engineering capabilities. We have centralized all of our IP management and IP protection under one. Gokul now works very closely with. We've hired somebody full-time in our, in our grant writing. We have a full-time corporate counsel that joined us earlier this year. 20 years' experience in capital markets inside, she's been a general counsel for, for the best part of two decades. That's really positioned us well for the protection and management and protection of our intellectual properties. I would say between kind of bringing all of our engineering into one place, centralizing that, centralizing the IP, combined with, I think we've got to have, you know, I'm gonna guess, and say six or eight job openings out there right now for highly qualified, specialized engineering staff.
It's a pretty exciting time. Gokul and a couple of our engineers are located in, in other parts of the world right now. We'll ultimately move them to Canada in the immediate future. We're going through that process right now.
You mentioned that your company operates across multiple revenue streams. Are there any areas where you feel that, that you're looking to fill? There are the gaps, the capabilities that you're looking to strengthen internally, that, that might be better addressed through acquiring or a company.
The company has got to a size right now that we've, we've kind of, streamlined some of our things internally. Abhi is frontline on our corporate development, activities these days, so maybe I'll let him answer that one.
Thanks, Glen. Sure. We are deliberately, you know, what we have done is built a diversified platform across equipment, services, and training division. There's always, you know, we constantly assess where the strengths of the platforms make sense. There are always two areas I would say that we keep evaluating on a continuous basis, right? In the age of AI, specifically now, the first preference, or I would say immediate, area, becomes the depth in the high-value systems and softwares we have and we have been using. Autonomy, AI-enabled processing, autonomous systems, like where AI could replace the software more traditionally expensive software solutions. The integrated C2 systems we have, you know, these are the one, I would say, the first layer that's been evolving, where we are trying to find opportunities for more improvement as we evolve.
Then, of course, is the, I would say, the industrial scale and the, and the manufacturing depth and opportunity. I would say those are the two, I would say, immediate one, where we keep evolving and keep making sure that the systems and the processes we have are actually most recent, latest, you know, generates most efficiency. That also brings us, you know, towards more disciplined approach so that we have best return on capital.
Are you seeing any traction, or can you talk about some of the conversations you're having with, with government in terms of, and about different sectors, and how our lobbyists are supporting those efforts, as we've discussed in the past?
The level of engagement right now is, is encouraging, I would say. Our-- the team that's representing us in Ottawa has done a very good job of getting us meetings on a regular basis. As a matter of fact, sometimes the hardest point, hardest part is, and Danielle actually looks after this for me half the time, trying to fit holes in my schedule to meet with people. On top of that, we actually have high-ranking political officials now, several of them, visiting our facilities over the next couple of weeks. As I think we have one group in Montreal tomorrow, we have another group in Toronto later on this week. So we are getting a lot of engagement and a lot of traction right now.
It's, it's definitely been, been a good experience so far, and it's, it's sending, you know, very positive signals. Again, you can't buy a loaf of bread with a signal, but, but, but it is, it is extremely encouraging.
This one might be for both Abhi and Glen. Is the company on track for positive income this year?
I can probably take that, Glen.
Okay.
We, we generally don't issue the formal guidance, we rely on the consensus estimate. We are working towards the, you know, positive operating income, specifically through scaling the revenues. We are witnessing, we have significant tailwinds, and also, I would say, call as fixed cost absorption. Now, this being a public call, I would, you know, use more investor-safe language. You know, whether this translate into full-year profitability, of course, depends on two major items. One is the program timing, specifically on the defence side, and, and the second one is the capital deployment decisions and strategy we make, which is mostly, I would say, is the R&D investment by the company.
We're getting to the end of our questions. We are answering them rapid fire here. Sorry, I'm, I'm, I'm trying to pick the, where, where we're at next. Do you have any update on what we've done with tree planting in the, in the past? I know this is a little bit off topic, but we did get that question. Our tree planting trial that we did with Irving, and do you have any interest in moving that capability further?
I think-
Is that still moving forward?
Reforestation is a huge thing. The project last summer was successful. We very much hope to continue to do it again this year. Even more than that, we're facing wildfires as another substantial threat to Canada. You know, we burn, we burn millions of hectares of trees every year, and we plant hundreds of thousands. The real difference between that is, where we're cutting trees, we're planting trees, but where they're burning, historically, the governments around the world have allowed the forest to reforest themselves. The problem is the intensity. The environmental changes have resulted in fire intensities being substantially more than they have been in the past, and seed bases being incinerated. We believe that there's an opportunity to continue to scale with companies like our partner.
We announced, some time ago, a partner with Ki Reforestation out of Toronto, that's doing some interesting seed technology work. For, for large-scale, aerial seeding, using drones like the Condor, for example, I think that there's, there's real potential in the future for those type of activities.
Right. As we near the top of the hour, I just wanna kind of bring this all together, 'cause we, we've talked about a lot of different moving pieces. What are the key takeaways from the Defence Industrial Strategy that you want everyone to walk away from from this webinar for?
I would say, first, the Defence Industrial Strategy represents a shift in how the Canadian government looks at defence procurement. They have pledged substantial funding, and they have said they're going to spend that money to the greatest degree possible within Canada. They have identified their sovereign sectors, sectors that are considered priority for Canada, and Volatus lives in one of those sectors, and we're working, actually, we live in a few of them, depending on how you look at them, and we're working very, very hard to leverage that opportunity. The other thing I do wanna say is, the opportunities that we're seeing in Canada are not limited to Canada, right?
We're focused on Canada because Canada has a massive opportunity, and it's right in our backyard, and the, you know, the reality is the scale and number of the competitors is very different here, which, which creates a real opportunity. Those same opportunities are being felt in other countries that are, are being impacted by the same influences that are affecting Canada.
Absolutely. All right. With that, I, I, I... Unless, Abhi, you have something you would like to say to wrap it up?
Sure. You always throw a curveball at me.
I always do that.
I put it from the more financial perspective, right? Defence Industrial Strategy has laid down a path, a 10-year path, not a one-year path. Which is the most critical one for defence companies to grow domestically, because the capital return on investors or the capital invested is always have a long-term investment of, or a long-term return gestation period, I would say. Allocating CAD 50 billion over 10-year period, promoting 70% built in Canada, 50% export opportunities, priority sectors being autonomous systems, ISR, advanced manufacturing, those are the priority capabilities areas. It fits right into Volatus, I would say, circle, ex- what we've been trying to do for the past several years. I would say the timing could not be better for the company.
The model is all about build in Canada, partner with allies, and expand the opportunity globally to drive long-term growth in the industry. It does de-risk capital, sends the right demand signals to the community, and something which I would say Canada, specifically in the defence segment, hasn't seen it in the last couple of decades.
Danielle, just, just before we wind up, there were a few straggler questions that we are not going to have time to answer. I'd like to encourage anyone to- anybody who has questions we weren't able to answer during this, or that you've thought of and haven't been able to get into the chat, to please direct those, questions to our investor relations. You can find that. Danielle will give you the information on that, and we'd be happy to follow up with you.
Absolutely. You can reach us at investorrelations@volatusaerospace.com, we will get back. We'll answer your questions right away. Thank you everyone for joining us, just a reminder that the presentation will be sent within 24 hours and on, via our website. If you have any additional questions, again, please reach out to us. Have a great day, and thank you for joining.
Thanks, all.
Thank you.