Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion over four years ago, Ukraine is, once again, at the frontline of the struggle between democracy and authoritarianism. Ukrainians have defended their territory, identity, and way of life – and Canada has been consistent and relentless in our support. At this crucial moment in the war, where Ukraine continues to innovate and strengthen, Canada is ready to do more.
To this end, the Prime Minister, Mark Carney, welcomed the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, to Canada this week to forge a new chapter in the Canada-Ukraine partnership. The leaders announced a series of new initiatives to bolster Canada’s sovereign drone capabilities, expand co-production with Ukraine, and establish long-term cooperation on defence and security.
First, to accelerate Canada’s own production capabilities, Prime Minister Carney today announced the creation of the Defence Drone Initiative Marketplace (DDIM) Supply Arrangement. This national digital drone marketplace will connect operators and end-users to this Canadian defence ecosystem – accelerating the discovery, acquisition, and fielding of uncrewed and counter-uncrewed capabilities. This system, modelled after Ukraine’s world-leading Brave1, will ensure the reliable, rapid, and continuous supply of drones for the Canadian Armed Forces and the Canadian Coast Guard. Canada’s Allies and partners will have privileged access to nearly 400 trusted Canadian suppliers.
Canada has awarded initial contracts worth up to $50 million that will increase the number of drones currently deployed by the Canadian Armed Forces tenfold. This is merely the first step toward our goal of ensuring Canadian industry has the capacity – the factories, supply chains, and key components – to produce millions of drones over the next two years. Additionally, these procurements put Canada’s Build-Partner-Buy approach into action – drawing on Canadian capabilities, partnering with trusted Allies and partners, and ensuring that defence investments deliver benefits for Canadians. The contracts will require training, maintenance, repair, configuration, and sustainment to take place in Canada, supporting Canadian jobs and expertise and strengthening our ability to maintain critical defence capabilities across Canada. For these initial contracts, Canada will work with the following suppliers to procure intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance drones as well as uncrewed ground vehicles (UGV):
Beonyx (Québec)
Canadian designed, owned, and manufactured system with engineering, support, assembly, and manufacturing conducted in Canada, primarily in Québec, representing a fully Canadian UGV solution.
AVSS (New Brunswick and Ontario)
Manufacturing and assembly take place in Ontario. The majority of major components, software, electronics, sensors, and support systems are sourced from Canada.
Volatus Aerospace (Québec with partners in the United Kingdom)
This Montréal-based manufactured platform features Canadian support and sustainment. Volatus provides Canadian contract management, logistics, customer support, training, and lifecycle sustainment services.
Twenty20 Insight Inc. (Ontario)
UK-designed and manufactured platform with Canadian service delivery. Twenty20 Insight provides Canadian contract management, systems engineering, training, documentation, customer support, configuration management, and sustainment activities.
Draganfly (Saskatchewan)
Established Canadian engineering, manufacturing, integration, training, and sustainment capabilities, with production and ongoing product development in Canada. The proposed platform is based on proven Australian technology, with Canadian production under licence.
Objexis AI (Ontario)
Canadian-designed and built platform with Canadian-owned IP, software, avionics, mission systems, and integration conducted primarily in Canada, supporting domestic defence innovation and advanced manufacturing.
Second, the Prime Minister and President underlined the new partnership between General Dynamics Mission Systems-Canada and the Ukrainian company Green Tech Harvest, which will develop and produce critical drones and drone-related technologies. This partnership – building on the partnership between Airlogix LLC and Sentinel Research & Development announced in May – will expand Canadian and Ukrainian collaboration on every aspect of drone production, from the critical metals and minerals to engineering. It will leverage Canadian manufacturing to respond to Ukraine’s critical defence needs, while supporting hundreds of good jobs in Canada, and will unlock new opportunities in the skilled trades, engineering, and computer science sectors. With other partnerships in negotiations, Canada is scaling up our defence industries to defend Canada and be a reliable partner.
Third, Canada and Ukraine are forging a long term, government to government, partnership to jointly produce uncrewed systems, counter-drone technologies, and priority munitions – combining Ukrainian battlefield experience with Canadian manufacturing, software, and AI.
Building on Canada’s support for the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Prime Minister Carney today announced a series of additional investments to bolster Ukraine’s defence and long-term security:
Approximately $350 million to deliver critical air defence interceptors through the United States’ Joint Ukraine Multinational Program – Services, Training and Articles Rapid Timeline (JUMPSTART). This mechanism leverages financial donations from Allies to aid Ukraine in addressing its evolving defence needs, including procuring critical equipment.
Nearly $23 million in funding to bolster the capabilities of Ukraine’s security architecture – helping detect, prevent, and respond to hybrid threats to civilian safety. This includes both support for Ukraine’s police, national guard, military, and frontline communities affected by Russia’s aggression, as well as funding to combat threats and disinformation.
As Ukraine heads into another winter, continued Russian strikes on its energy infrastructure threaten the essential services Ukrainians rely on. To help Ukraine repair and strengthen its energy infrastructure, Canada is:
Providing nearly $435 million in new loan guarantees to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development to support energy security, including winter gas purchases and secondary energy generators to produce electricity during shortages.
Allocating $200 million in concessional loans through Export Development Canada to support Ukraine’s reconstruction. It will help Ukraine repair critical infrastructure by enabling Canadian companies to support critical projects.
Providing an additional $10 million to the Ukraine Energy Support Fund, for a total of $100 million, to support Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, including the procurement and delivery of critical energy equipment to improve the resilience of Ukrainians to energy shocks.
Providing $2 million to the International Energy Agency (IEA) Joint Work Programme to support Ukraine’s Energy Resource Development. This funding will strengthen Ukraine’s energy resilience, provide regulatory support, and advance clean energy projects.
Russia’s war has taken an enormous toll on the Ukrainians, who have fought to defend their country. To support the implementation of Ukraine’s National Veteran Strategy, Canada is leading the design of a multi-donor pooled funding initiative supporting veterans and their families. Canada will provide up to $40.1 million to help Ukrainian veterans recover, rehabilitate, and transition to civilian life.
As Russia’s war continues, thousands of Ukrainian children remain separated from their families and communities after being unlawfully deported or forcibly transferred by Russia. As co-chair with Ukraine of the International Coalition for the Return of Ukrainian Children, Canada is committed to facilitating their immediate and unconditional return and supporting their reintegration and rehabilitation once they are home. To advance these efforts, Canada is announcing:
Up to $6 million to support Ukraine’s efforts to return and reintegrate Ukrainian children unlawfully deported and forcibly transferred by Russia, including support for tracing and verification, rehabilitation, reintegration, and community-based services.
New sanctions on eight individuals who have engaged in violation of Ukrainian children’s rights, including their unlawful deportation and forcible transfer, and their exposure to indoctrination and militarisation.
The leaders additionally announced a Canada-Ukraine critical minerals initiative to support joint research, bolster Ukraine’s economy and reconstruction by identifying new mineral opportunities, and help develop critical mineral production in Ukraine.
Finally, the leaders signed two declarations and issued a joint statement. The first declaration, the Canada-Ukraine Declaration for a 100-Year Partnership, along with the joint statement, establishes a new roadmap which will bolster the comprehensive strategic partnership between Canada and Ukraine. The new partnership will focus on defence innovation and cooperation, economic growth, trade and reconstruction, and people-to-people ties – underpinned by unwavering support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and long-term Euro-Atlantic integration. The partnership will extend to economic collaboration and areas where Canadian know-how can best be utilised. The second declaration, the Joint Declaration on Enhancement of the Defence and Security Cooperation between Ukraine and Canada, establishes a long-term defence partnership centred on defence industrial cooperation in cutting-edge technologies, co-development and co-production of defence equipment, and information sharing.
With the investments announced today, Canada’s total commitments of multifaceted assistance for Ukraine have now reached over $26 billion since 2022. Canada has consistently been among the largest contributors to Ukraine’s defence, recovery, and reconstruction. Canada continues to work toward securing a just and lasting peace that reunites children with their families, fortifies Ukraine’s forces, builds prosperity for the Ukrainian people, and deters Russia from ever again threatening the peace and security of Ukraine or Europe.
Quote
“Canada is, has, and always will be a steadfast ally in Ukraine’s relentless pursuit of freedom. Today, Canada and Ukraine forged a new partnership which will equip the Canadian Armed Forces with world-leading drone capabilities, create jobs across Canada, and support Ukraine as they fight to achieve a just and lasting peace. Ukraine’s fight is our fight, their struggle is our cause, and their independence will be our victory.”
The Rt. Hon. Mark Carney, Prime Minister of Canada
Quick facts
This is President Zelenskyy’s fifth visit to Canada – and his third meeting with Prime Minister Carney on Canadian soil.
Since launching the Defence Drone Initiative in July, the government has now gone from project launch to first contract in 50 days.
Canada has stood with Ukraine from the beginning. Following Russia’s illegal attempted annexation of Crimea in 2014, Canada launched Operation UNIFIER at the request of the Ukrainian government, and our military support has continued to expand since then. In February, we extended Operation UNIFIER by an additional three years, to 2029, ensuring the Canadian Armed Forces can continue providing military training and capacity-building support to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Today’s JUMPSTART donation builds upon Canada’s prior donation of a National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System (NASAMS), as well as over $1.2 billion in Canadian investments in priority air defence initiatives, including:
$1.18 billion to NATO’s Prioritised Ukraine Requirements List (PURL).
$76 million to Germany’s Enduring Action on Air Defence (EAAD).
$33 million to the United Kingdom’s Air Defence Consortium.
As the nature of war rapidly evolves – driven by the proliferation of drones, autonomous systems, and weapons in orbit – and the possibility of conflict comes closer to our borders, Canada’s drone capability is more crucial than ever before. As partners, Canada benefits from Ukraine’s unique operational expertise in this area.
For Canada, uncrewed systems are a key sovereign capability enabling persistent surveillance, force protection, precision effects, contested logistics, and maritime and Arctic awareness. The DDIM will help rapidly field, sustain, and modernise these systems at scale.
Ukraine has employed drones at scale for reconnaissance, precision strikes, logistics, mine-laying, electronic warfare, and counter-drone operations, demonstrating how relatively low-cost uncrewed systems can deliver disproportionate effects and reshape modern warfare.
Collaboration between Canadian and Ukrainian companies benefits both countries by supporting the development and production of critical technologies, strengthening industrial resilience, and fostering opportunities for innovation and cooperation.
Since 2022, Canada has committed over $26 billion in economic, military, humanitarian, development, security, stabilisation, and immigration assistance to support Ukraine and its people.
Canada’s support has included direct financial assistance, military assistance, recovery and reconstruction support, humanitarian assistance, peace and stabilisation programming, and measures to help repair and strengthen Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.
As co-chair of the International Coalition for the Return of Ukrainian Children since 2024, Canada has been working with Ukraine, Norway, European partners, and the United States to secure the immediate and unconditional return of Ukrainian children – in line with international humanitarian law and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Since 2014, Canada has imposed extensive economic measures on Russia, including sanctions against more than 3,500 individuals and entities, under the Special Economic Measures Act (SEMA) in response to Russia’s violations of Ukraine’s sovereignty. This includes imposing sanctions against those involved in violations of Ukrainian children’s rights.
Noah Note: A few things have gone unmentioned here; chief among them is that Canada would be joining the Freyja IAMD Initiative, providing an industrial capacity and support to help Ukraine and our European partners develop the Pan-European Missile Defence system. No, that isn’t a commitment to acquire anything, but they are Canadian contributions, though right now vague and unnamed, to a broader IAMD system.
Obviously, a lot has been put here; chief among them is the list of suppliers for the first DDI contracts. These cover both Low-Cost Uncrewed Aircraft Systems (UAS) and Complex Terrain Uncrewed Ground Vehicles (CT-UGV). These are the first two RFPs released under DDI, and are the baseline test for many on whether the program can execute.
Of course, I gotta shout out my boys at AVSS first for securing a contract today. I am so insanely proud of them. The amount of work they have been putting in to develop their own ecosystem over the last few years, to start designing and building the in-house capacity for critical components, and to design their own UAS system makes me nothing short of proud to watch.
Flying Beehive, their proprietary ALE Mothership for the air-launching of FPV drones, is such a cool concept to see a Canadian manufacturer jump on that I always feel the need to bring it up to them. It's especially interesting with RALE-P coming along soon. It comes in two variants, a Parachute-based and Glider. Both are both <20kg and each able to carry several FPV, launchable from drones, rotaty, and Fixed-Wing aircraft.
I like the Glider myself, which is why I always include the testing videos.
Volatus obviously got their name out earlier today. Draganfly, which has remained fairly quiet all things considered, will be licensing an Australian system; as I know their catalog, I am not familiar with them having such a system, so that is one I have to hunt down today as well.
On the UGV front, a lot of smaller players came out on top today. Beonyx is a relatively young Quebec company currently offering their B1 8x8 UGV. Info on it is scarce, but it was designed with complex terrain in mind. I have reached out to the company for more information on it so we could report; obviously, they impressed. There are a few cute graphics available, though.
Twenty20 Insight is another strange one, as I don’t know them as a UGV company. Evidently, they are teaming with an unnamed British firm. Even more for me to track! Of course, in many cases these sorts of things tend to stay hidden until they are formally announced, though, sadly, it does create a bit of a gap in what we can discuss immediately, as we don’t know what exactly will be utilized.
It’s a very license-heavy field to start: Volatus, Draganfly, Twenty20. Most of these I will sadly have to track down more information on before jumping into what the CAF will actually be receiving. Of course, the Prime Minister did provide a bit of an updated DDI figure, stating that nearly 400 companies were currently selected for the marketplace.
That marketplace as of today is now ‘officially’ stood up with these recent contracts, a symbolic but notable gesture considering how quickly we’ve gone from DDI’s initial launch to now seeing the first contracts delivered. Again, we will have to follow up as companies release more information on their platforms.
Tied but separate to all this is the expanded relationship between Canada and Ukraine when it comes to collaboration. A deal on joint production and co-development of autonomous systems, munitions, etc., has been ongoing for over a year now. It is not a new development by any means, but it seems we are reaching the final stages of negotiation.
DDI and things like the Canadian Deep Precision Strike Capability have been explicit in their carve-outs and support for integrating Ukrainian systems into the Canadian ecosystem, going as far as to reference the country directly. There is certainly a belief among many decision-makers that Ukraine is an optimal partner for building up capability as we await Canadian solutions to be developed and move to production.
Concern, of course, always comes from how much we allow foreign systems to dominate the market, and how much emphasis we place on teaming agreements that promise eventual local production of systems, oftentimes separate from discussions on how localization works, whether the Canadian supply chain has the necessary components needed to support local production, and how much control Canadian companies have over access and IP.
In the early stages, I get it. I get the attraction and why we see value, especially in larger companies, in these sorts of agreements. What we can’t do is allow them to dominate at the expense of a very capable Canadian industry that is looking for support at the same time. The balance, in this case, has to come from somewhere. Integrating and supporting foreign systems isn’t what we want to see long-term, nor is final assembly of systems.
Again, I look to AVSS and Objexis here. They are both Canadian suppliers, with Canadian designs available. AVSS is going a step beyond by trying to build themselves also as an end-to-end supplier of critical components, cold weather ground stations, and sensors. That is the kind of thing we want to see. I see people like Kraken, Cellula, NVD, Landing Zones, Laflamme, and ARA, and I see a wonderful industry ready to deliver.
I just hope they don’t get sent to the side over export potential and the ease of established designs. This is one area where I feel we could contribute significantly. One note also to put here: Canada will send Ukraine one-third of all drones made by domestic companies in support of the war effort. How that works and what that looks like, I don’t know fully at this time.
The current deal being negotiated builds off the 2024 Agreement on Security Cooperation between Canada and Ukraine, which set the stage for deeper defence collaboration. Again, it seems like we could see the proper defence strategic partnership signed by the end of the year, if all goes well. Maybe that’s a bit too quick; we will see, but it looks like we’re close to a deal.
Either way, it is a big day for the autonomous side of the CAF as the first DDI contracts go out. Obviously, the goal now will be to translate that to both deliveries and manufacturing at scale, especially if options start to be exercised. We have several more DDI contracts coming in the coming weeks, including a new RFP out today for a Canadian-designed Autonomous Mine Countermeasures (MCM) Uncrewed Surface Vehicle (USV).
This though is just the start. It is only the beginning of DDI. If all works out, we can expect to see a lot more coming in the future. That requires though that everyone can deliver on their promises, and can provide in a way that encourages further investments into the ecosystem. That starts with the five announced today.
I don't know if we are likely to get any details for some time about what and about many UAS units are sent to Ukraine, but I would be very interested to know order of magnitude figures. If I have understood the one-third to Ukraine comment in the Noah Note, am I correct that this implicitly means that CAF procurement will determine donated unit count?
Considering the rate at which drones are used in Ukraine - they are functionally a munition at this point - and the rate at which Ukraine is manufacturing them domestically, I worry that the number Canada buys in the coming months and years will result in Ukraine getting an inconsequential number of units with no military relevancy.
When details for previous Canadian drone donations have come out, notwithstanding the technical sophistication of the units, the numbers are paltry (e.g. the 800 SkyRanger R70 ISR drones made by Teledyne FLIR announced in Feb 2024).