Defence awards contracts worth $46.2M to bolster surveillance in the North

The Department of National Defence has awarded two contracts worth a total of $46.2 million to address surveillance challenges in Canada’s North. Raytheon Canada Limited will receive $31.2 million to build electronics for a study of over-the-horizon radar detection by reflecting signals off the ionosphere. The University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies’ Space Flight Lab (UTIAS SFL) won $15 million to develop a prototype surveillance microsatellite that would enable rapid detection and identification of surface and airborne targets. The funding for both contracts has been awarded under Defence’s five-year, $133-million All Domain Situational Awareness (ADSA) Science & Technology (S&T) Program, which seeks to leverage expertise from other government departments, academia, industry and allies, in order to identify and validate technologies for air and maritime surveillance.