{"id":79532,"date":"2026-10-13T17:26:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-13T17:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/2026\/10\/13\/canadian-company-plans-to-make-land-drones-for-ukrainian-military-in-deal-that-could-be-worth-tens-of-billions\/"},"modified":"2026-10-13T17:26:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T17:26:10","slug":"canadian-company-plans-to-make-land-drones-for-ukrainian-military-in-deal-that-could-be-worth-tens-of-billions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/2026\/10\/13\/canadian-company-plans-to-make-land-drones-for-ukrainian-military-in-deal-that-could-be-worth-tens-of-billions\/","title":{"rendered":"Canadian company plans to make land drones for Ukrainian military in deal that could be worth &#039;tens of billions&#039;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> \n<br \/><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Why Canada best home for global defence bank\" width=\"1080\" height=\"608\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/t7ZfgvmV7ac?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p> Canadian defence technology company Dominion Dynamics Inc. and Ukraine \u2018s Tencore LLC say they will jointly manufacture uncrewed ground vehicles (UGVs) in Canada for the Ukrainian military. <\/p>\n<p> The two companies signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on Tuesday at the Association of the United States Army\u2019s annual conference in Washington, D.C., and are hoping to ink a definitive agreement by the first quarter of 2027. <\/p>\n<p> Eliot Pence, founder and chief executive of Ottawa-based Dominion Dynamics, expects the final agreement to be worth \u201ctens of billions\u2019 of dollars. <\/p>\n<p> \u201cThe need and demand for UGVs in Ukraine is massive,\u201d he said. \u201cThe Ukrainian government has asked for 20,000 alone. We\u2019re also thinking about this in terms of the broader (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) alliance, as there is a clear need for autonomous systems in the Arctic. <\/p>\n<p> Kyiv, Ukraine-based Tencore, which makes UGVs, sometimes called ground robots or land drones , for defence and civilian use cases, has delivered around 5,000 units to the Ukrainian military since 2024. <\/p>\n<p> \u201cWe aim to scale that number up dramatically,\u201d Pence said. <\/p>\n<p> The partnership will combine Tencore\u2019s drone-making experience and Dominion\u2019s AuraNet, a software system designed for Arctic operations, in the vehicles. Tencore would assign a team to lead the initial technology transfer and train technicians in Canada to build its UGVs by early 2027. <\/p>\n<p> The assembly and testing will take place at Dominion\u2019s Kanata, Ont., facility, Pence said, while the components required to build the vehicles \u2014 from drivetrains to robotic and propulsion system parts \u2014 will be acquired from Canadian suppliers where possible. <\/p>\n<p> \u201cWe definitely have the parts available in Canada and for those that we don\u2019t, we will endeavour to invest in,\u201d he said. \u201cBut sourcing entirely from Canada is the intention.\u201d <\/p>\n<p> In the near term, the two companies need to produce and test a few vehicles and Tencore needs to receive an export licence from Kyiv to authorize the technology transfer. <\/p>\n<p> \u201cThere\u2019s a contribution by Ukraine in terms of intellectual property and demand, from Dominion in terms of productive capacity and from the Canadian government to actually acquire those assets and send them over there,\u201d Pence said. \u201cThose are the three (pillars) that need to actually get operationalized before we have UGVs with AuraNet on the battlefield in Ukraine.\u201d <\/p>\n<p> Dominion has also advocated for converting idled automotive and electric vehicle plants in Canada for defence sector manufacturing . It previously expressed interest in taking over Jeep maker Stellantis NV \u2019s Brampton, Ont., facility, but the carmaker last month inked an MoU to sell its plant to Canadian armoured vehicle manufacturer Roshel Inc. <\/p>\n<p> \u201cWe were very interested in Stellantis, but the reality is there are other facilities that are not in the middle of a union dispute or negotiations,\u201d he said, referring to the automaker\u2019s ongoing contract negotiations with Unifor. \u201cOur timeline is much quicker and more rapid, so we just need to get moving.\u201d <\/p>\n<p> Pence said Dominion is currently looking at three facilities in Ontario and Quebec to boost its manufacturing footprint to 450,000 square feet from 3,000 square feet, but conversations have centred around an aerospace and defence site in Toronto. <\/p>\n<p> \u201cThere\u2019s no reason why we shouldn\u2019t be \u2026 aligning the defence industrial strategy with this kind of critical asset that we\u2019ve built up over the last 60 years,\u201d he said, pointing to similar activity in Germany. <\/p>\n<p> For example, Volkswagen AG has converted one former auto factory into a defence manufacturing hub and Rheinmetall AG is turning former auto and industrial plants into military and munitions factories. <\/p>\n<p> \u201cI strongly believe that we should be doing the same,\u201d Pence said. <\/p>\n<p> <em>\u2022 Email: ylau@postmedia.com <\/em> <\/p>\n<ul class=\"related_links\">\n<li>Dominion Dynamics breaks record for the largest Series A fundraise in Canadian defence history<\/li>\n<li>B.C. pension fund backs biggest early stage defence tech fundraise in Canada<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<br \/>Canadian company plans to make land drones for Ukrainian military in deal that could be worth &#039;tens of billions&#039;<\/a><br \/>\n<br \/>2026-10-13 17:26:10<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Canadian defence technology company Dominion Dynamics Inc. and Ukraine \u2018s Tencore LLC say they will jointly manufacture uncrewed ground vehicles (UGVs) in Canada for the Ukrainian military. The two companies&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-79532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79532\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}