March 30th, 2021 – Ottawa – KWESST Micro Systems Inc. has established an ATAK Centre of Excellence in Ottawa. The centre will facilitate customer requirements for integration into the U.S. battlefield management application known as ATAK (Android Tactical Assault Kit).
ATAK is an Android geospatial and situational awareness system that provides users with a drop-down menu of approved operational applications for shared situational awareness. It is the pre-eminent system used by more than a dozen U.S. government agencies and many NATO allies and partner nations.
As mentioned in the Company’s announcement of March 16th, 2021, KWESST was officially sponsored by U.S. military authorities to integrate certain of the Company’s networked soldier applications into ATAK. In conjunction, the U.S. military provided KWESST with specialized software necessary for this work.
“Since then, we have received many requests from government agencies and defence contractors in Canada and overseas to assist them with integrating their current or new applications into ATAK and providing through-life support,” said Jeff MacLeod, KWESST President and CEO. He added that, “We are already engaged with a number of customers and have many others in the queue. As a result we are ramping up a dedicated practice for this and leveraging our expertise in ATAK integration.”
The Company stated that its ATAK Centre of Excellence is a natural extension of its core business around digitizing applications “at the tactical edge” for shared situational awareness and targeting. KWESST’s other applications include its TASCS system and its related Integrated Fires Module (IFM) application, currently being delivered to a major U.S. military customer.
“Apart from the revenue potential, this further positions KWESST as a leader in the digitization of land forces at the tactical level, pushing critical information and high-value applications to the individual soldier on the ground and back up through the chain of command,” said MacLeod. “This continues to be a key missing link in the modernization of soldier systems.”
The Company added that digitization of land forces at the tactical level is happening now and happening everywhere. One market study(1) projects it to be worth more than $15B CAD by 2024. “To our knowledge, KWESST is the only Canadian company with the credentials, official U.S. military sponsorship, specialized software and the experience to facilitate ATAK integration,” said MacLeod.
The Company stated that its ATAK Centre of Excellence can assist government and industry clients with end-to-end ATAK application development, facilitate approval with U.S. ATAK authorities, and provide ongoing support. “We believe that this can contribute incrementally to our 2021 revenue plan, with recurring support revenue growth in out-years,” concluded MacLeod.