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.
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.