The Australian and Canadian governments have announced an export agreement covering the supply of Australia’s High Frequency Surveillance capability to establish an Arctic over-the-horizon radar system in Canada, in what the company stated will be Australia’s largest ever defence export.
BAE Systems Australia will act as the industry partner supporting both governments on the programme, valued at $2.5 billion. The agreement covers the delivery of an Arctic over-the-horizon radar, referred to as A-OTHR, drawing on the same lineage of technology that underpins Australia’s Jindalee Operational Radar Network.
Over-the-horizon radar systems work by refracting high-frequency electromagnetic waves off the ionosphere, allowing operators to detect and track objects thousands of kilometres beyond the geographic horizon, well past the line-of-sight limits that constrain conventional microwave radars. The result is a wide-area surveillance picture that can extend across vast stretches of ocean or polar terrain from a single ground site, making the technology particularly attractive for nations with long coastlines or remote approaches to defend. For Canada, the Arctic remains a strategic gap in continental surveillance, and the acquisition aligns with longstanding work between Ottawa and Washington on modernising North American Aerospace Defense Command warning systems.
Craig Lockhart, chief executive of BAE Systems Australia, positioned the agreement as commercially significant for the domestic industrial base. “The export of Australian OTHR capability presents a significant opportunity for both Australian and Canadian industry and positions domestic firms to expand exports of high-value goods and services, particularly into allied defence and technology markets,” he said, as quoted in the company’s release. He added that “Canada’s acquisition of a cutting-edge Australian OTHR system supports the strategic interests of both nations through enhanced detection and tracking of threats to North America, strengthening Five-Eyes situational awareness,” according to the company.
The Australian solution offered to Canada is built on what BAE Systems Australia described as more than 40 years of expertise in the field. JORN, the Jindalee Operational Radar Network, has been in Australian service for decades and provides wide-area surveillance covering the country’s northern and western approaches.
Beyond its core defence role, the network is also used to support border protection tasks as well as disaster relief and search and rescue operations. The company said it has accumulated lifecycle support experience across installation, operation, upgrade and sustainment of complex OTHR systems through its work on JORN.
According to the company, the agreement also opens the door to deeper bilateral collaboration on future capability development. BAE Systems Australia said it stands ready to support rapid delivery of operational capability to Canada with an experienced workforce already engaged in similar tasks at home.
We are also looking at JORN.
It is very welcome in Canada.
Probably need two systems, one looking north and another looking south.
The more, the better.
JORN is well suited to Canada. With the 3000km maximum range if the radar were sited at Churchill on the western side of Hudson Bay a 180 degree array would give a field of view from the northern coast of Alaska, to the northern tip of Greenland and out to the eastern edge of Newfoundland. However the 1000km minimum range would prevent tracking of any objects within Hudson Bay itself.
I have wondered whether we could get an OTHR similar to France’s Nostradamus, which has 800-3000km range and 360 degree capability. BAE at Cowes are apparently working on something called AKERU which is a slightly different type of OTHR but they also build the Australian system.
We already have an OTHR, it’s in Cyprus.
Recieve, Transmit sites at the southern end of Ayios Nikolios and at the Salt Lake site at Akrotiri.
You mean for siting in the UK?
So we do. I’m not surprised I’ve never heard of it (Pluto II), the only references come from websites for amateur radio operators to identify noise signals. Any idea of its range?
Yes, I mean for UK and European use. A 3000km array in East Anglia would reach (dependent on atmospheric conditions) as far as Georgia on the Black Sea; well past Moscow or as far as Svalbard, Greenland or the Azores. The minimum range would be to the Shetlands, to Poland and to southern France so it would be a theatre-wide asset.
PLUTO II has been mentioned on sites concerning intelligence matters in Cyprus ( 5 Eyes/UKUSA ) of being able to see as far as Afghanistan and into the southern areas of the old Soviet Union.
I’d have no idea on the truthfullness of that, only that it’s there.
Akrotiri-Afghanistan gives a range bracket of 2500-3500km and to get into Kazakhstan gives a azumith angle of about 60 degrees. It’s a good range but quite a narrow FOV.
I recall, might be wrong, that an experimental OTHR of sorts was placed at Orford Ness during the Cold War. In East Anglia as you suggest.
BAE didnt build Australia’s JORN OTHR. It was built by DSTO based upon research that started in the 1950s. So far as Im aware BAE Australia have only been involved in maintenance and upgrade contracts since 2018.