The U.S. Air Force announced today it entered into a December foreign military sales contract that will see U.S. drone manufacturer General Atomics provide MQ-9B aircraft to Canada for polar reconnaissance and maritime patrol duties. The contract is valued at $108 million for an undisclosed number of the Skyguardian remotely piloted vehicles.
Long overdue. This “poor man’s taskable satellite” is what Canada needs to monitor their borders, especially the northern one. I suspect they will find out a lot more happens up there than they currently know.
Perhaps Bombardier would like to offer its prototype surveillance bizet that Canada did not purchase (instead ordered B737 derivative). Prove the PR in service.
There is slow movement to get more assets into the Arctic, basing fighters further north, buying F-35s for even more compatibility with US fighters (to share radar data). The big hole IMO is Resolute Bay, presently 6000 feet of good gravel. Cambridge Bay is also central, gravel long enough for B737-200C. There’s preliminary work on a real port in the NE, IIRC on big Baffin Island. I suggest Alert, a weather station on Ellesmere Island about 80N, (Thule AFB is up there but well inland in Greenland (long fjord), basic runway that Hercs risk in summer for resupply, small port, I don’t know if that’s a good location for expansion.)