COM DEV Corrects "The Last Days of the Current CSA President"

Gary Calhoun, the Chief Financial Officer of Cambridge, Ontario based COM DEV International (COM DEV) has responded to the October 6th, 2012 Commercial Space blog post on “The Last Days of the Current CSA President” with the following e-mail:

RADARSAT Constellation.

The restructuring announcement on Tuesday (October 2nd, 2012) reflects our expectations for future business available to our Canadian government division.

To clarify, we expect to work on the Radarsat Constellation Mission (RCM), so the restructuring is unaffected by Dr. MacLean’s announcement (as outlined in the October 1st, 2012 Space.com article "Canada Poised To Award RADARSAT Constellation Contract”).

We have expressed concern with respect to the uncertainty around continuation of the current development funding and the progression to a reasonable Phase D manufacturing contract for RCM. Delays in this regard would lead to further job losses, as we highlighted in our press release, so Dr. MacLean’s comments are welcome.

The Commercial Space blog article quoted the October 2nd, 2012 Canadian Business article "Satellite component maker Com Dev cutting 31 jobs in restructuring," which stated that COM DEV had laid off 31 employees working on RCM and "reassigned" ten more to other duties.

Based on the above email from COM DEV, the blog article was incorrect about the cause of the layoffs.

The e-mail from Mr. Calhoun states unequivocally that COM DEV staffing levels for RCM were unaffected by the restructuring although this could certainly change without “the progression to a reasonable Phase D manufacturing contract” and “lead to further job losses.”

According to the CSA website, RADARSAT Constellation is the evolution of the RADARSAT program with the objective of ensuring data continuity, improved operational use of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and improved system reliability.

It’s always helpful when an executive at the center of a decision responds to correct any errors and omissions in published reports and this is certainly no exception. The Commercial Space blog appreciates the e-mail from Mr. Calhoun.