IRC to help build new radar defence system in NWT

A subsidiary of the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation has been awarded a share of the work involved in creating major new North American radar systems.

The Inuvialuit Development Corporation has formed a joint venture with Atco Frontec to “design, build, intall and operate a new radar defence system in the Northwest Territories,” the two announced last week.

The two-year contract is valued at $48.4 million and could be extended.

Through Norad, the air defence group it shares with the United States, Canada has committed to spending billions of dollars to upgrade its radar capabilities in the North.

There are two main streams: Polar Over-the-Horizon Radar (POTHR) and Arctic Over-the-Horizon Radar (AOTHR).

AOTHR will be based in the south and cover “early warning radar coverage and threat tracking from the Canada-United States border to the Arctic circle,” the federal government says on its website.

In Iqaluit last month, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Canada would spend $6 billion developing AOTHR with Australia.

POTHR, the one involving the IRC and Atco Frontec joint venture, will look farther north to cover the area “over and beyond the northernmost approaches to North America, including the Canadian Arctic Archipelago.”

The full value of POTHR is unclear – the funding recently announced is understood to be for one phase of the broader project.

Over-the-horizon radar works by bouncing signals off the atmosphere, allowing radar to “see” farther.

“Our equipment would be the first warning of any aviation vehicle that is over top of our sovereign airspace,” another firm contributing to POTHR told Red Deer’s RDNewsNow last month.

“We are the ones that will see it and we are the ones that will give the position, the velocity and the tracking over to our Royal Air Force.”

That kind of technology is considered increasingly important as Canada repositions itself in the Arctic, promising to invest more in northern defence while characterizing the likes of Russia and China as growing polar threats.

The joint venture is partnering on POTHR with D-TA Systems, a Canadian firm with expertise in designing this kind of system.

Of note, D-TA Systems recently said it was passed over for the Canada-Australia AOTHR partnership, calling that a “slap in the face” for Canadian business.

“We are proud to leverage our deep knowledge of the region and work alongside Inuvialuit businesses to drive this project forward,” IDC chair Robert C McLeod, formerly the NWT’s finance minister, was quoted as saying.

“This collaboration will create lasting economic opportunities, strengthen local capacity and deliver direct benefits to Inuvialuit beneficiaries for years to come.”