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TACTIQL is revolutionizing defence interoperability through data quality, standardization and accuracy
On today’s battlefield, technologies rarely work as intended due to various complexities, such as the harshness of the physical environment, the actions of a capable adversary, and operating in a coalition environment far from home. When technologies fail, our soldiers, sailors, and airpersons must manually do what the machine was intended to do, slowing down the decision-action cycle and opening opportunities for an adversary to gain the advantage. It also means that scarce human and financial resources are not being utilized effectively and hinders the employment of evolving technology-dependent capabilities.
Introducing KILO, an innovation that builds trust in machine autonomy to empower human ingenuity
The Department of National Defence (DND) and Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) recognized the need for high-quality, structured, geospatially accurate data to be available when and where it’s needed. It turned to the Innovation Solutions Canada (ISC) program to find and test a pre-commercial prototype that would digitally enable tactical and operational-level decision-makers. A contract was ultimately awarded to TACTIQL – a military-focused engineering company that develops data-conditioning software – to test its premiere product, KILO. KILO is an application that leverages advanced mathematics to automate the generation, validation, and standardization of sensor data.
Addressing critical data quality with KILO
Several years ago, Michael Nelson, TACTIQL’s founder, was perplexed by the dependency on junior members of the CAF to manually input data when supporting ongoing missions, especially when technologies were already in place to automate those tasks. What he found was that metadata packets were often faulty or lost in transmission, and that in-service systems and emerging technologies were dependent on high-quality data. Nelson believed that by addressing data quality he could help ensure systems, including Command, Control, and Intelligence platforms, reliably work as intended. He made several calls with leading scientists to conceive a feasible solution, and once validated, he rapidly assembled a team of AI and software engineers. Within twelve months of launch, they had their Minimally Viable Product – KILO – and applied to the ISC Testing Stream. The rest is history.
What ISC did for TACTIQL
Nelson believes that ISC represents a significant opportunity for those interested in the defence market, he said:
“Despite best intentions, it is extremely challenging for start-ups and small businesses to deliver innovative software products to the CAF. Procurement is incredibly complex and requires significant resources from private sector suppliers and defence consumers to navigate successfully. ISC, through an open and transparent competitive process, allowed TACTIQL and the CAF to focus on what matters most: solving problems that strengthen our collective competitiveness to the benefit of Canada’s defence and economy. We were also able to achieve product-market fit and secure market validation through access to end-customers. That feedback means everything for us at this stage and now we are ready to deliver operationally and scale internationally.”
How KILO worked for DND
Through the testing process, which occurred over six months between August 2023 and February 2024, the Canadian Army (CA) vigorously tested the KILO prototype, and TACTIQL’s team worked tirelessly to adapt and mature the product to successfully deliver on expectations. By the conclusion of the test, the CA had operationally validated the technology and explored deployment architectures to inform next steps. Brigadier-General André Demers, who worked with TACTIQL described the innovation as being a simple and elegant solution, with a huge capability output. He also had some kind words for the ISC program, and said:
“ISC supported us every step of the way. Every time we had a question or needed interaction during the testing phase, an ISC employee was there to guide us.”
TACTIQL’s success has not gone unnoticed by other elements of the CAF, as well as Canada’s Defence Industry, which will hopefully enable TACTIQL to scale its success at home and abroad. TACTIQL has since been awarded an Additional Sale by the CA to integrate KILO into in-service hardware and architectures in preparation of deploying the solution in support of domestic and deployed operations.