When we talk about Canadian control over defence software, we mean something practical. Can the user keep working with the information they have? Can they retain their plans and decisions? Can the people responsible for the product understand and improve it?
Those questions are more useful to our work than treating a company’s address as an answer to every concern about its software.
Start with the work the user needs to keep
Aerlattice stores plans, assessments, review decisions and recordings in a local desktop workspace. Core planning and checking work offline, and complete workspace backups keep that record portable.
This means the planning workflow can continue without depending on a connection to the public internet. It also gives the user a way to retain the context around a decision, rather than only its final route.
Optional connected features have separate requirements. The external ADS-B aircraft layer needs internet access, for example. Being clear about those boundaries is part of explaining what the user controls.
Understand the dependencies
Local operation answers one question about availability. It doesn’t settle questions about security, support, licensing or long-term maintenance. Those need their own examination when software is evaluated for a particular use.
The same is true of a Canadian supplier. A local company can take responsibility for developing its product, but the product still needs to demonstrate that it is suitable for the work expected of it.
Our contribution is a specific application
Incanta is based in Ottawa. We’re building Aerlattice as our first contribution to Canadian defence software: an application for planning uncrewed flights, examining conflicts and recording review decisions.
It is currently a demonstrator, with representative studies and operational validation still ahead. That gives us a concrete place to work through questions of control, continuity and responsibility without claiming to have answered them for an entire sector.
