Northrop Grumman has partnered with L-3 MAS to build the Polar Hawk high-altitude, long-endurance (HALE) unmanned aircraft system (UAS) for the Royal Canadian Air Force to perform continuous surveillance missions in its Arctic territory.
Northrop Grumman’s unmanned systems business vice president and general manager, Duke Dufresne, said that the company and L-3 MAS will develop Polar Hawk UAS to meet the Canada First Defence Strategy requirements.
"Polar Hawk’s operational features are uniquely suited to augment Canada’s existing surveillance capabilities and extend its reach to patrol large geographical areas, keeping constant vigil over the nation’s vast Arctic region from coast-to-coast in a single mission," said Dufresne.
L-3 MAS vice president and general manager, Jacques Comtois, added: "Together L-3 MAS and Northrop Grumman have assembled a strong Canadian industrial team to develop a very robust, long-term and affordable turnkey solution for Canada’s current and future domestic sovereignty and security concerns over its Arctic territories."
Depending on the air force’s surveillance package requirement, the team will build the new aircraft based on a variant of the existing Northrop-built Global Hawk HALE UAS.
The Polar Hawk features surveillance payloads and a wide range of instrumentation to support science and environmental missions as well as humanitarian missions while providing surveillance over Canada’s territory from the Atlantic to the Pacific territorial waters and coasts.
Image: Northrop Grumman has partnered with L-3 MAS to build the new Polar Hawk. Photo: courtesy of Northrop Grumman.
