Volatus Aerospace has been awarded a five-year contract by the Government of Canada to supply low-cost tactical Uncrewed Aircraft Systems (UAS) to the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) under the Defence Drone Initiative (DDI) Marketplace.
The initial procurement includes 100 Low-Cost Tactical Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) UAS, with options for Canada to acquire up to an additional 4,900 systems. This creates a potential procurement pathway for up to 5,000 systems in total. The government framework sets a maximum price of C$5,000 per system and a maximum procurement envelope of C$25 million, though Volatus’ contracted pricing remains commercially confidential.
Selected through the first Request for Proposal under Stream 1, Uncrewed and Autonomous Systems and counter-UxS, the award represents the company’s first CAF contract following its qualification across all five DDI streams. The agreement covers an end-to-end tactical ISR solution intended to support CAF land forces across a wide range of missions, including aircraft, payloads, Ground Control Stations (GCS), data links, training, sustainment, spare parts, documentation, and software and firmware support.
Glen Lynch, Chief Executive Officer of Volatus, commented, “Canada is seeking sovereign, secure and supportable defence technologies that can be fielded efficiently and scaled as operational requirements evolve. It validates the strength of our integrated model, which extends beyond aircraft delivery to include payload integration, training, sustainment and technical support. We are proud to help strengthen Canada’s sovereign capacity to field and support operationally relevant uncrewed systems.”
Delivery of the initial tranche is expected to begin in the fourth quarter of 2026. The optional systems are not committed purchases, backlog or revenue, and any exercise of the options remains at Canada’s sole discretion and subject to applicable government requirements, approvals and contract amendments.
Volatus’ Canadian manufacturing, integration and operational footprint includes its Innovation and Manufacturing Hub in Mirabel, Québec, and Operations Control Centre in Vaughan, Ontario, positioning the company to support Canada’s objective of building a resilient domestic defence industrial base. Its qualification across all five DDI streams also enables the company to compete for future requirements involving uncrewed systems, communications, engineering and integration, testing and training, and innovation and experimentation.
