Discover the Dream Job - Designing Canada's Most Capable Combat Ship

Many engineers dream of working on the largest, most complex projects out there. Evan Douglas has found one such program. As Lockheed Martin Canada’s Deputy Technical Director for the Canadian Surface Combatant (CSC), Evan’s job is to guide the engineering team working on the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN)’s newest, most advanced ship.

We sat down with Evan to learn more about what his job is like and how he’s contributing to designing and building the most technologically advanced ship Canada has ever produced to keep Canadian sailors safe. 

I’m Lockheed Martin Canada’s Deputy Technical Director for CSC, so it’s my job to guide our engineering team to make sure we have the right solution for the RCN along with the necessary processes and team in place to deliver the design. In addition, I am the Above Water Warfare team lead. In this role, I work with a team to deliver the anti-air and anti-surface warfare capability of the CSC. This includes the integration of all radars, electro-optic sensors, missile and gun weapon systems to the ship itself and with the core combat management system.   

The sensors are the most interesting to me. CSC will have the SPY-7 radar, which is the most advanced radar in the world. In addition, CSC will have the Canadian designed and built CMS330. This is a combat management system that will process all the incoming sensor data (above water, under water, electronic warfare), integrate all of it, and provide sailors with actionable intelligence and options for response in a highly automated process. No ship in existence today has the combination of best in class sensors – both above water and underwater, with the level of integration and automation that CMS 330 provides and the number of weapon systems to handle any threat combination, so this really makes CSC one-of-a-kind. 

Most engineers dream of working on the largest, most complex programs out there. CSC is the largest, most complex program in Canada’s history, so really, it’s not even a once in a generational opportunity. To have the opportunity to contribute to a program of this size and to follow the program through from initial concept through to delivery is thrilling. It’s a dream job. 

Personally, I was never in uniform, but I have supported the Royal Canadian Navy for years with other programs. I understand what capability they have today and where they are evolving to with CSC to meet future threats. This one single class will support and protect Canada’s sailors through the full spectrum of missions including peace keeping, disaster relief, complex anti-air missile defense, anti-submarine warfare, and offensive and defensive anti-surface warfare. 

This is a ship built for Canada by Canadians. Lockheed Martin Canada, working with Irving Shipbuilding, has partnered with BAE Systems, CAE, L3Harris, MDA, Ultra Electronics, Rolls-Royce, IBM, OSI and many other companies to design and build CSC. Across Canada, our partner companies employ more than 10,000 people at more than 45 facilities, and it’s really a best in class example of how multiple companies can work in an integrated team to accomplish the task at hand. 

In addition to designing and building CSC for the Royal Canadian Navy, CSC creates opportunities for export to other nations, too. The CMS 330 I mentioned earlier is a great example. It was designed for Canada by Canadians, but it’s been exported to New Zealand and Chile. CSC will enable future exports of Canadian technology, benefitting Canadian taxpayers and enabling future economic development.