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Canada will purchase an Australian radar system for use in Arctic conditions. This $1.75 billion contract marks the first time Australia has exported military technology of this type. This financial transaction is the largest overseas arms sale in the country’s history, as well as the first instance of the sale of technologies that support the operation of its own Jindalee radar surveillance system.
For many decades, Canberra has been refining this specialized radar station, which is capable of transmitting pulses into the ionosphere and receiving them back, allowing it to detect objects thousands of kilometers away despite the curvature of the Earth. All this time, the government had kept the technology exclusively for its own use, but on Sunday, it made its first sale to a foreign partner.
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As part of the agreements reached, Ottawa will integrate an Arctic over-the-horizon radar – based on Australian scientific and technical achievements – into its defense system. Official representatives in Canberra are positioning this development as the greatest export success of their defense-industrial complex. The document was signed in the Australian capital by the country’s Minister of National Defense and Deputy Prime Minister, Richard Marles, as well as Canada’s Secretary of State responsible for defense procurement, Stephen Fur.
The foundation for this project was Australia’s Jindalee operational radar network, which Canberra uses to monitor its northern air and sea borders. Australian officials describe it as the world’s most effective large-scale long-range detection system, with a range of 1,000 to 3,000 km. BAE Systems Australia is the primary contractor for this project.
The primary objective Canada aims to achieve through this procurement is to establish continuous surveillance of the Arctic region. Due to the gradual thinning of the polar ice cap, this region is becoming increasingly navigable and is turning into an area of geopolitical rivalry. In light of this, the country’s authorities have been seeking effective tools to monitor the vast and largely uninhabited northern territories. The use of over-the-horizon radar makes it possible to effectively monitor airspace for the presence of aircraft or missile systems without the need to install numerous standard radars across the tundra.
This acquisition is an integral part of a large-scale plan to modernize the NORAD system, for which Ottawa allocated 38.6 billion Canadian dollars ($27.2 billion) in 2022. This program is designed to span two decades and is being implemented in close cooperation with the United States to ensure the security of the entire continent. It took some time to reach the current financial agreement. As early as the beginning of 2025, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced Canada’s intention to join forces with Australia to develop polar radars. In June of that same year, representatives from both countries signed a memorandum of understanding on technological cooperation. In late 2025, following public consultations, Canada identified the first geographic locations for deploying the equipment, with analytical reports mentioning the Kawartha Lakes region, located in southern Ontario. The system is not expected to be fully operational for several years.
For Australia, the benefits of the agreement lie, in particular, in the development of industrial capacity. The project’s implementation will help preserve and create hundreds of jobs within the country. At the same time, the management of BAE Systems Australia has declared its readiness to cooperate with Canadian companies to organize the local assembly of radar stations, which will have a positive impact on Canada’s defense industry. According to preliminary estimates, the active construction phase will create thousands of new jobs each year across the country through the early 2030s.
Sharing its own unique technological developments with another country also helps strengthen military-political ties between the two nations, both of which are classified as medium-sized powers. Their interests increasingly align, as both sides have alliance commitments to the United States and are watching geopolitical shifts in the Asia-Pacific region and the Arctic with caution.
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