Northrop Grumman and L-3 MAS will produce a variant of the Northrop Grumman-produced Global Hawk high-altitude, long-endurance (HALE) unmanned aircraft system (UAS) for Canada for surveillance missions on the country’s arctic territories.
The Polar Hawk will be equipped to sustain flight surveillance at 60,000 feet for more than 33 hours in extreme weather conditions, the two companies said. It will monitor land, ice, littoral and open water environments throughout the Arctic.
“Northrop Grumman and L-3 MAS are combining our formidable strengths to provide a surveillance system to meet requirements defined in the Canada First Defense Strategy,” said Duke Dufresne, vice president and general manager for Northrop Grumman’s unmanned systems business. “Polar Hawk’s operational features are uniquely suited to augment Canada’s existing surveillance capabilities and extend its reach to patrol large geographical areas, keeping constant vigil over the nation’s vast Arctic region from coast-to-coast in a single mission.”
The companies said in addition to its surveillance payloads, Polar Hawk can be equipped with instrumentation for conducting science and environmental missions and can be deployed to support humanitarian missions.