Redefining stabilized imaging.
Setting new standards for optronic performance, adaptability, and execution.
Jump to:
ourStory
Why We Started
pvLABS was founded in 2004 with the belief that EO/IR systems could be engineered better. Greater performance, precision, and integration adaptability were not afterthoughts—they were the foundation.
​
The FAST Discovery
At the center of that belief is FAST—our fifth-generation Advanced Stabilization Technology. FAST delivers the control of a multi-axis gimbal without the penalties of an inner gimbal ring, enabling true six-degree-of-freedom stabilization, greater usable aperture, and a modular architecture that allows customers to integrate sensors on their terms.
FAST is not an incremental improvement. It redefined what stabilized imaging systems can deliver.
​
Proving the Model
FAST was validated in 2019 through a US$4M Lockheed Martin offset-funded program, advancing the PV1520 from concept to TRL-7. The program proved both the engineering and a localization-first business model—one that enables in-country manufacturing and sustainment while protecting Canadian IP.
​
Momentum
That momentum has continued. In 2023, Civitanavi Navigation Systems invested US$2.5M to co-develop next-generation inertial systems. In 2024, Lockheed Martin committed C$13.5M to expand the FAST platform ecosystem. Today, PVLabs is executing its first international license and product deliveries with international defence primes—demonstrating that Canadian EO/IR and optronics engineering scales globally without compromising execution discipline.
​
Where We're Going
As Gen-V systems enter service with multiple customers, Gen-VI development is underway—focused on extending stabilized imaging performance into new operational envelopes through continued architectural innovation.
ourEngineering
FAST
Fifth-generation Advanced Stabilization Technology
PVLABS’ Gen-V FAST platform reflects a fundamental reimagining of stabilization design. Using patented Flex-Pivot Isolators and Voice-Coil Motor arrays, FAST delivers a true six-degrees of freedom (6DOF) with three-axis rotational stabilization and three-axis linear active isolation—without an inner gimbal ring.
​
By engineering-out previous-generation inner-gimbal bearings and constraint structures, FAST increases usable payload aperture and volume, enabling higher precision and performance at longer stand-off range, with less size and weight. The result is a decisive gain in SWaP²-C compared to current third and fourth-generation systems currently in service.
​
Each system in the PVLABS platform ecosystem now shares a common, scalable modular design DNA, allowing sensors and capabilities to evolve with mission requirements without airframe modification or reintegration.
Scalable Systems. Precision Performance.
FAST enables stabilized imaging systems that scale across payload classes and platforms while maintaining the precision modern ISR missions demand.
Faster Integration.
Lower Lifecycle Costs
Modular, open architectures and fiber-optic sensor management simplify integration, reduce sustainment burden, and allow capability upgrades without aircraft redesign.
All systems are ITAR-free for unrestricted export.
Size. Weight. Power.
Optimized
By combining both rotational and linear stabilization in a compact architecture, FAST delivers greater payload and aperture volume and superior SWaP²-C in a mission-ready form factor.
OurBusiness
Three Pathways. Three Partnership Models.
How we work with our customers as important as what we build.
Our business is structured around three distinct engagement pathways—each grounded in the same engineering-first operating framework, and each designed to meet customers where they are.
Direct Sales
Mission Ready Systems. Delivered
Defense, public safety, environmental, SAR, and ISR operators worldwide rely on PVLabs to deliver fully integrated, next-generation EO/IR systems.
Built in Canada, ITAR-free and deployed globally, our systems are engineered for performance, rapid integration, and long-term adaptability across platforms and missions.
ITB's and Offsets
From Obligation to Opportunity
PVLabs executes ITBs and offsets as real engineering and production work. Licensing and technology-transfer programs are structured to build sovereign capability in-country—manufacturing, sustainment, and skills that endure long after delivery—while reducing execution risk for prime contractors and partners.
​
Innovation as a Service (IaaS)
Advancing Capability Through Discovery
Innovation as a Service at PVLabs enables collaborative technology development with customers, Science & Technology partners and R&D organizations—advancing new optronic, stabilization, and mechatronic capabilities from early exploration through validation and real-world application.
​
We Build.
PVLabs will design, integrate, and deliver complete systems.
You Build
We license our stabilization IP, you assemble in-country by integrating with our supply chain
We Build Together
We co-develop, co-engineer, and co-produce to reduce risk and accelerate results.
Every Partner. Any Pathway. Every Mission.
OurPeople
High-Resolution People. Long Range Impact.
PVLABS was built by people who thrive on solving the hard problems others avoid.
Our team is made up of the industry's brightest engineers, technologists, and problem-solvers with deep expertise across EO/IR, stabilization, and ISR systems—united by a shared purpose: to redefine the state of the art in stabilized imaging.
​
We operate in a culture where innovation is normal, collaboration is natural, and execution matters. Ideas are tested, challenged, and improved. Outcomes matter more than process.
It's where precision is treated as a habit, not a target.
Our Organizational Operating System
We believe great engineering organizations are shaped by intrinsic motivation.
At PVLABS, our operating system is built on these three simple principles:
We treat engineering as a craft, not a job description.
Mastery is derived from years of ISR engineering experience applied to problems that have no precedent.
That technical depth is how we avoid technical debt, and how we move beyond incremental improvements and deliver fundamentally better technology.
We trust our teams with true ownership and decision-making authority.
That trust allows problems to be solved more rapidly by the people closest to them, with speed, clarity and purpose.
Everyone at PVLabs understands the mission. Both our own, and that of our customers.
Our systems operate where failure carries real consequences. That reality shapes how we think, act, design, and deliver.
This shared understanding becomes the standard, not the exception.
Our Leadership Team
The PVLABS leadership team is an intentional assembly of engineering and operational leaders who have helped define multiple generations of stabilized EO/IR and imaging systems. Together, they bring deep technical judgment, execution discipline, and a shared commitment to advancing what airborne imaging systems can deliver.
