Click here to visit our new markets resource hub for the latest on the evolving trade landscape
Answer a few quick questions about your business and we'll direct you to incentives, programs, and services you may be eligible for.
Bluedrop Training & Simulation’s story is one of steady transformation, from a training services company into an internationally recognized defence technology business developing and producing advanced training and simulation solutions from Nova Scotia.
Today, the company supports major Canadian defence programs and serves customers in international markets. Its growth demonstrates how a defence SME can build specialized capability in Nova Scotia, develop its own intellectual property and compete globally.
Over the past decade, Bluedrop’s workforce has grown to more than 180 employees, with the core of its operations based in Halifax.
Building on its experience developing courseware for major defence programs, Bluedrop began investing in its own intellectual property and new technologies, expanding from a primarily services-based business into one capable of developing proprietary products for Canadian and international defence markets.
Nova Scotia provided many of the conditions needed to support that growth, including access to technical talent from universities and colleges, experienced former military personnel with operational expertise, proximity to defence customers and programs, and provincial supports that encouraged investment in digital technologies and innovation.
“Nova Scotia gives us access to both sides of what we need — the technology talent coming from universities and colleges, and the operational experience of people who have served in the Navy, Army, and Air Force,” says Jean-Claude Siew, Executive Vice President of Technology and Simulation at Bluedrop. “That combination of technical knowledge and real defence experience is incredibly valuable to us.”
Halifax also placed Bluedrop close to active defence operations and an established industry. The company has supported the Maritime Helicopter Program at 12 Wing Shearwater and participated in major Canadian naval, aerospace, and army programs, including work connected to the Arctic and Offshore Patrol Ships. From its Nova Scotia base, Bluedrop now supports defence programs across Canada.
Its training solutions are designed around the specific platforms military personnel operate, from aircraft to naval vessels. That work can begin with the training required to introduce personnel to a new platform and continue through its lifecycle as equipment, systems, and technologies are modernized. For Bluedrop, those long-term relationships have helped create the foundation from which the company could continue investing in new capability.
Bluedrop’s investment in proprietary technology has increasingly opened opportunities beyond Canada. The company has established a presence in the United States, is delivering a program in Singapore, and is pursuing additional opportunities internationally, while its products and software have reached markets such as Australia and Europe.
The technology supporting that international growth continues to be produced in Nova Scotia. Bluedrop develops and produces its products here, drawing on regional suppliers for specialized manufacturing and components before finished solutions are delivered to customers outside the province and country.
The company’s ability to make that transition has been supported by a combination of its own investment, provincial and federal programs, and partnerships with larger industry players. Invest Nova Scotia has supported Bluedrop’s efforts to reach international markets, including through programs that helped the company participate in global trade shows and build its presence outside Canada. Bluedrop has also drawn on federal innovation funding and Industrial and Technological Benefits relationships, including a partnership with Boeing that helped build its R&D capability.
Bluedrop’s growth has taken place alongside an increasingly established defence ecosystem in Nova Scotia, where major primes and OEMs operate alongside specialized SMEs, military operations, shipbuilding and aerospace activity, research institutions, and an experienced supplier base.
For a company of Bluedrop’s size, those connections have provided access to defence expertise, customers, partners, and suppliers while allowing the company to remain lean and specialized. Bluedrop now works with larger defence companies on major programs while also creating opportunities for regional businesses that contribute to the products it builds in Nova Scotia.
As Canada expands its defence industrial capacity and advances major new naval, aerospace, and other procurements, Nova Scotia is building from an established base of companies and capability already delivering in the sector. Bluedrop’s experience shows how that ecosystem can support a SME as it grows from a regional services business into a technology company with Canadian and international reach.
As Nova Scotia’s defence sector continues to expand, Bluedrop’s established capability gives global companies considering the province access to experienced partners, specialized talent, and a supply chain already delivering into Canadian and international defence markets.
“Building a defence company takes more than one thing. You need the right people, the ability to invest in R&D, strong industry relationships and the right supports around you,” says Siew. “We found those different pieces in Nova Scotia, and they helped us build the capability we have today.”
Learn how Nova Scotia's defence ecosystem can support your company's growth.
