Canadian UVG Production Partnership with Ukraine

"The need and demand for UGVs [uncrewed ground vehicles] in Ukraine is massive."

"The Ukrainian government has asked for 20,000 alone. We're 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."

"We definitely have the parts available in Canada and for those that we don't, we will endeavour to invest in. But sourcing entirely from Canada is the intention."

Eliot Pence, founder, CEO, Dominion Dynamics, Ottawa

AuraNet, Dominion’s Arctic-hardened autonomy stack, will serve as the onboard intelligence layer for TENCORE’s TerMIT, with companies targeting 2027 production  CDR  

 

There are firm plans underway for a production partnership in producing materiel for Ukraine's defence against its neighbour Russia's 'special military operation', now into its fifth year of conflict. Canadian defence technology company Dominion Dynamics Inc. has been in discussion with Ukraine's Tencore LLC to jointly agree to manufacture uncrewed ground vehicles in Canada for ultimate shipment to the Ukrainian military.

 

At the Association of the United States Army's annual conference that takes place in Washington, D.C., the two companies signed a memorandum (MOU) of understanding, and both are now looking forward to finalizing the agreement toward the first few months of 2027. According to Eliot Pence of Dominion Dynamics, "tens of millions" of dollars will result from the partnership.

 

Tencore, which makes UGVs and is based in Kyiv, produces them for defence and civilian use alternatives and has to date delivered some 5,000 of the units, sometimes called ground robots or land drones, since 2004 to the Ukrainian military, "We aim to scale that number up dramatically", stated Pence. Tencore's drone-making experience and Dominion's AuraNet -- a software system designed for Arctic operations -- will form a partnership to combine their assets in the production of the vehicles. 

"We were very interested in Stellantis [acquiring the soon-to-be-abandoned plant], but the reality is there are other facilities that are not in the middle of a union dispute or negotiations."

"Our timeline is much quicker and more rapid, so we just need to get moving."

"There's no reason why we shouldn't be ... aligning the defence industrial strategy with this kind of critical asset that we've built up over the last 60 years."

Eliot Pence

Ukrainian serviceman examining an uncrewed ground vehicle at a military training ground in the Zaporizhzhia region on March 13, 2025, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Photo by ANDRIY ANDRIYENKO/65th Mechanized Brigade of Ukrainian Armed Forces/AFP via Getty Images files

 

The plan is for Tencore to assign a team to lead the initial technology transfer and train Canadian technicians by early 2027, to build the UGVs. Dominion's Kanata facility is where the assembly and testing is to take place. Components needed in construction of the vehicles -- from drivetrains to robotic and propulsion system parts -- will be acquired where possible from Canadian suppliers. As well, Dominion has advocated for idle automotive and electric vehicle plants in Canada to be converted for manufacturing in the defence sector. 

 

There are three such facilities in Onario and Quebec that Dominion is assessing, to boost its manufacturing footprint to 450,000 square feet from its current 3,000 square feet facility; an aerospace and defence site in Toronto may provide the solution to the search. In Germany, as an example, Volkswagen AG converted one former auto factory into a defence manufacturing hub and Rheimetall AG is turning former auto and industrial plants into military and munitions factories. "I strongly believe that we should be doing the same", said Mr. Pence.

 

None of this has slipped by the notice of Russia. Both Canada and Germany have given dedicated assistance to Ukraine in its counteroffensive campaign against Russia's territorial ambitions to annex as much Ukrainian geography into a Greater Russia that Vladimir Putin plans to resemble the long-dissolved Soviet Union. Under his direction, Russian operatives have infiltrated the West and a type of asymmetric shadow conflict is ongoing.

 

Western intelligence has uncovered plots to have the corporate heads of weapons manufacturers whose products go toward the Ukrainian military countermeasures that strike Russian oil depots and military installations within Russia become assassination targets. A message to the West that Russia will not tolerate Western aid to Ukraine. Just as the Russian military is doing in Ukraine with its internationally illegal and human rights defying targeting of civilian infrastructure in Ukrainian cities, hitting power plants and apartment buildings with predictable human casualties, it infuriates Moscow that Kyiv has the impertinence to hit back, calling such strikes 'terrorism'.  

 

TERMIT. Image: TENCOR

 

"There's 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."

"Those are the three [pillars] that need to actually get operationalized before we have UGVs with AuraNet on the battlefield in Ukraine." 

Eliot Pence