The Best Defence Conference returns to RBC Place London for its 16th year. As the official go-to conference of the Ontario Defence Association, it brings together 500+ attendees from industry, the Canadian Armed Forces, and government procurement.
Canada is ramping up defence investment, and its naval programs need ballast and keel systems built here, built to spec, and delivered on schedule. That’s exactly what MarsKeel does. This year, we’ll be in the room.
Ballast and Keel Systems for Canada’s Naval Programs
Stability isn’t a nice-to-have. Get the ballast wrong and nothing else on board performs the way it should. For over 40 years, MarsKeel has engineered keels and ballast systems that get it right the first time, for yacht builders worldwide and for navy, commercial, and autonomous vessels.
What we bring to defence programs:
- Marine and lead ballast weights, from standard ingots to custom-moulded shapes.
- Keel and ballast systems for navy vessels, commercial ships, and autonomous watercraft.
- Custom lead castings from 20 lbs to over 150,000 lbs.
- Incline test weights for stability trials.
- In-house tooling, casting, fabrication, and machining.
- End-to-end project management.
We design and manufacture internal ballast and keel systems for navy vessels, commercial ships, and autonomous watercraft, including the ballast system for the Saildrone autonomous research platform. When it’s time to prove a vessel’s stability, our incline test weights are built to exact tolerance and ready when your trial is.
Every project stays in-house, from custom lead castings to machining. We build our own patterns and tooling, pour lead castings from 20 lbs to over 150,000 lbs in a single pour, and machine and fabricate to spec. One supplier. One point of accountability. No hand-offs.
As a division of Mars Metal, MarsKeel works within an ISO 9001 and CSA N299.3-16 certified operation registered with the Controlled Goods Program, with full material traceability on every project. Need aerospace counterweights or test weights for the same program? Mars Metal produces those too, so your team still deals with one group instead of several.
Meet MarsKeel at Best Defence 2026
Bill Souter, Marine Sales & Senior Designer, will represent MarsKeel and Mars Metal at Best Defence 2026.
Sourcing ballast or keel systems for a naval or defence program? Find Bill at the conference, or book a meeting now before his schedule fills up.