Ottawa, ON – KONGSBERG Canada recently signed new agreements with MDA Space and Telesat, expanding its industrial presence here and deepening the business ties behind the Canada and Norway defence relationship.

Announced on September 21, the company said in its release that it has executed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with MDA Space, a space robotics, satellite systems and geo-intelligence company serving defence and commercial customers, and a Letter of Intent (LOI) with Telesat LEO ULC, a subsidiary of satellite operator Telesat.

Under the MOU, KONGSBERG and MDA Space will explore joint space and defence projects and technical cooperation across a range of domains.

Under the LOI, KONGSBERG and Telesat will evaluate integrating the Telesat Lightspeed low Earth orbit satellite network into KONGSBERG defence platforms. The company says that work would support secure, resilient and low-latency military connectivity for Norway, Canada and allied forces.

Both are early-stage instruments rather than contracts. KONGSBERG has operated in Canada for 50 years and says the agreements expand that presence into closer industrial cooperation.

A closer Canada and Norway partnership

MDA Space CEO Mike Greenley said in the release that the MOU reflects immediate opportunities for global industry leaders to work together to meet the defence and security needs of trusted partners and allies.

The agreements were announced alongside the official visit of Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre to Ottawa.

In their joint statement, Prime Minister Mark Carney and Prime Minister Støre pointed to the two agreements as evidence of growing business-to-business ties between the countries, and welcomed a new MOU between the Canadian Space Agency and the Norwegian Space Agency on space-based and dual-use capabilities.

“KONGSBERG’s work in Ottawa directly strengthens the security, sovereignty, and readiness of both Canada and Norway,” said Jordan Freed, President of Kongsberg Geospatial, in the company’s release.

Telesat President and CEO Dan Goldberg said the collaboration reflects a “shared commitment to advancing sovereign and allied defence capabilities,” and said pairing KONGSBERG’s defence platforms with the Lightspeed network “would create the opportunity to enhance mission-critical communications” for Norway, Canada and allied nations.

Why it matters here

Ottawa-Gatineau holds a high density of defence, security, technology, research, talent and government assets in one region. That concentration is the premise behind Canada’s Capital Region as a defence innovation hub, and agreements like these are what that work is meant to produce: allied investment, industrial collaboration and pathways to customers and global markets for Canadian companies.

Writing on LinkedIn following the announcement, Invest Ottawa President and CEO Sonya Shorey called the week’s signings a demonstration of the region’s ambition.

“This is what it looks like when we turn Canadian innovation, allied investment and industrial collaboration into sovereign capability,” Shorey said in her post. “Because national security and economic security are inseparable.”

She also framed what the agreements mean for the companies involved.

“KONGSBERG, MDA Space and Telesat are not simply doing business here,” she said. “They are building here. Investing here. Employing exceptional people here. Creating capability here. And helping Canada compete from here.”

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Learn more

• See how Canada’s Defence Innovation Hub is bringing government, industry and innovators together across the Capital Region.
• Building defence or dual-use technology and want to test, validate or scale it here? Connect with Area X.O.
• Related reading: Ottawa-headquartered Telesat secures $2.3 billion Arctic military satellite contract and the full announcement from KONGSBERG Canada.