CAE Appoints Matthew Crawley as Vice President and General Manager, Defense & Security Canada

Canada – CAE has appointed Matthew Crawley as Vice President and General Manager, Defense & Security, Canada, based in Ottawa. Crawley will lead CAE's Canadian defense activities across training, simulation and mission rehearsal while supporting international growth, joining as the company executes long-term Royal Canadian Air Force training programs and develops its maritime capabilities.

• Crawley joins CAE following approximately seven years with Babcock Canada, where he most recently served as Vice President Corporate Affairs. His responsibilities there covered government relations, communications, business growth and technology, building on earlier roles within the company's corporate development and commercial activities.
• Before joining Babcock in 2019, Crawley held multiple senior Canadian federal government positions. At Public Services and Procurement Canada, these included Director General of the Marine Services and Small Vessels Sector and Executive Director of the National Shipbuilding Strategy, while earlier in his career he spent nine years as a systems engineer with the Department of National Defence.
• CAE specifically identified Crawley's maritime expertise as relevant to expanding its support for naval customers in Canada and internationally. CAE Defense & Security operates across air, land, maritime, space and cyber domains, combining training and simulation with analytics, systems engineering and mission and operational support.
• The appointment comes as CAE supports several long-duration Canadian military aircrew training initiatives. Its SkyAlyne joint venture with KF Aerospace is implementing the 25-year Future Aircrew Training (FAcT) program for the Royal Canadian Air Force, covering classroom, simulator and live-flight training for pilots, Air Combat Systems Officers and Airborne Electronic Sensor Operators.
• CAE was also selected in 2025 as a strategic partner to the Government of Canada to work with the RCAF on the Future Fighter Lead-in Training program, intended to prepare pilots for transition to Canada's next-generation fighter capability.
• In the maritime domain, CAE has previously developed naval warfare training systems covering areas including anti-air, anti-surface, anti-submarine and mine warfare, while its wider defense portfolio includes mission rehearsal and multi-domain synthetic training. The company has also worked with Boeing on P-8 training solutions covering pilot and aircrew training, maintenance ground school, in-service support and instructor training.
• AFM previously reported that SkyAlyne began CT-102B Astra II flying operations at 15 Wing Moose Jaw in April 2026 as part of the FAcT program's instructor development phase. Five aircraft had been delivered at that stage toward a planned 23-aircraft fleet at the base, illustrating the program implementation activity now underway within CAE's Canadian defense portfolio. 

Source: CAE