Uncrewed Systems Defence Innovation Secure Hub

July 14, 2026 – Mirabel, Quebec – National Defence / Canadian Armed Forces

Accelerating defence innovation through BOREALIS

The Bureau of Research, Engineering and Advanced Leadership in Innovation and Science (BOREALIS) serves as Canada’s innovation accelerator. Aligned with Canada’s Defence Industrial Strategy and federal budget commitments, BOREALIS is accelerating innovation, strengthening Canada’s defence industrial base, and helping deliver operational capabilities to the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF).

BOREALIS brings together government, industry, academia, the CAF, and Canada's security community to accelerate the transition of promising Canadian innovations into operational capabilities. It supports research, development, testing, validation, and adoption of technologies that strengthen Canada's defence, security, and economic interests while advancing sovereign industrial capacity.

As part of this effort, BOREALIS is establishing a network of Defence Innovation Secure Hubs (DISHs), a new model to accelerate defence innovation. They provide secure environments where trusted partners can collaborate to develop, test, validate, and integrate emerging technologies into operational capabilities. By connecting operational users directly with researchers, innovators, and industry partners, DISHs help bridge the gap between innovation and operational advantage while strengthening Canada's defence innovation ecosystem.

DISHs are intended to support the maturation of technologies across Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs) 4 to 9, helping promising innovations move more efficiently from research and development into operational use. The model is designed to strengthen made-in-Canada solutions, resilient supply chains, and sovereign capabilities identified through Canada's Defence Industrial Strategy. These hubs will focus on critical areas of defence research and development essential to a resilient Canadian innovation industry, including quantum technologies, artificial intelligence, biotechnology, autonomous systems, Arctic research, space, and ocean technology.

Uncrewed Systems Defence Innovation Secure Hub

Canada's Defence Industrial Strategy identifies uncrewed systems as one of the country's priority sovereign capability areas and highlights the importance of strengthening Canada's ability to develop, test and field advanced defence technologies.

The Uncrewed Systems Defence Innovation Secure Hub (UxS DISH) is sponsored by the Canadian Joint Forces Command (CJFC) and focuses on advancing uncrewed and autonomous systems capabilities for defence and security applications. Following a competitive Call for Proposals, an Espace Aéro-led consortium was selected to establish the hub. The consortium will receive $29.6 million over two years to establish the UxS DISH.

The UxS DISH will support the development, testing, validation, and integration of technologies that enhance surveillance, force protection, logistics, targeting, command and control, and autonomous operations across maritime, land, air, and joint environments. These capabilities will help the CAF operate more effectively in increasingly complex and technology-enabled operating environments.

The hub is also intended to strengthen made-in-Canada solutions and resilient sovereign supply chains while supporting the development of technologies that can transition more rapidly into operational use.

The UxS DISH will focus on the following priority areas:

• Uncrewed systems and counter-uncrewed systems;
• Automation and human-machine teaming;
• Operations in contested environments; and,
• Sensor integration.

Activities undertaken through the hub are also intended to support advanced sensing and situational awareness, spectrum operations and electronic warfare, persistence in contested and Arctic environments, trusted autonomy, interoperability across platforms and domains, multi-UxS command and control, and coordinated autonomous effects.

Strengthening these capabilities will enable the CAF to achieve greater operational integration across all domains, rapidly address evolving threats, and enhance interoperability with allies.

As the CAF's lead integrator for joint capabilities, CJFC helps identify capability gaps and operational priorities that can benefit from innovation. CJFC supports readiness in the CAF by bringing together people, systems, and expertise from across the CAF to build and manage the joint capabilities needed to protect Canada and support our allies.

Its sponsorship of the UxS DISH will help ensure innovation activities remain aligned with current and future operational requirements while supporting the delivery of capabilities across all domains.

National UxS Capability Acceleration Hub (NEXUS)

The selected consortium's proposal establishes the National UxS Capability Acceleration Hub (NEXUS), a national hub dedicated to advancing sovereign uncrewed and autonomous systems capabilities. The hub will operate primarily from the YMX Innovation Centre in Mirabel, Quebec, providing secure collaboration spaces and specialized testing infrastructure, including access to regulated airspace for advanced experimentation and demonstrations.

NEXUS is intended to support the development, testing and validation of technologies that can transition more quickly from research and development into operational use. By bringing together expertise from across Canada, the hub will advance capabilities that address emerging defence and security challenges.

The UxS DISH is structured around five operational use cases that address key Canadian defence priorities:

1. Counter-Uncrewed Systems and Counter-Robotics and Autonomous Systems
2. Sensor Integration and Continental Defence
3. General-Purpose Uncrewed Systems
4. Crewed-Uncrewed Teaming
5. Contested Logistics and Autonomous Resupply

Selected Consortium

The UxS DISH consortium is led by Aéro Montréal through Espace Aéro and includes partners from Canada's aerospace, defence, and innovation sectors. Key participants include:

• Ministère de l'Économie, de l'Innovation et de l'Énergie (MEIE)
• Consortium for Research and Innovation in Aerospace in Québec (CRIAQ)
• Aéroports de Montréal
• CAE
• ARA Robotics
• Balko Technologies
• Beonyx Robotics
• C3RiOs
• CS Group Canada
• Centre de Technologies Avancées BRP - UdeS
• DARIT Technologies
• Laflamme Aero
• Marconi Technologies
• Octasic Inc.

Defence innovation ecosystem

The UxS DISH builds on the Maritime DISH pilot announced in November 2025 and forms part of Canada's growing network of Defence Innovation Secure Hubs. Together, these hubs support collaboration among government, industry, academia and operational users to accelerate the development, testing and validation of emerging technologies. The DISHs support Canada’s sovereign defence industrial base by ensuring that defence capabilities are developed within Canada, from conception to manufacturing.

The UxS DISH further builds on previous defence innovation investments in uncrewed and counter-uncrewed systems, strengthening pathways for promising technologies to progress from research and development into operational capability.

It complements broader defence innovation efforts, including:

• The National Research Council’s Drone Innovation Hub which operates across sites in Ottawa and the Mirabel area to advance research, testing, and commercialization of uncrewed and counter-drone systems for Canada's defence and security sectors.
• The MINERVA initiative’s “True north precision: Low cost drones with laser ranging” challenge which sought innovative solutions for cost-effective range finding and targeting capabilities to be used on small drones in order to increase battlefield awareness.
• The Innovation for Defence Excellence and Security (IDEaS) program’s “Sentinel shield: Wide-area detection for early warning against uncrewed aerial systems” which sought solutions capable of persistent and timely wide-area detection, recognition, identification, and tracking of small drones. This challenge the Procurement and Operationalization of Innovation and New Technology (POINT) pilot is intended to help the Defence Team more efficiently advance successful IDEaS funded innovations from research prototype to potential operational use. POINT introduces a new path that enables an optional acquisition opportunity under the same competitive procurement process for IDEaS contract-based challenges.

It also complements other initiatives delivered through BOREALIS, Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC), Department of National Defence's Mobilizing Insights in Defence and Security (MINDS) program, Innovative Solutions Canada, and other innovation partners. Together, these initiatives help strengthen Canada's defence innovation ecosystem and create pathways for promising technologies to progress toward operational use.

In order to improve defence procurement, the Defence Investment Agency is developing procurement strategies earlier in parallel with CAF requirements, reducing misalignment and rework and using risk-based authorities rather than rigid monetary thresholds to speed up contracting. When passed by Parliament as part of Bill C-31, the enhanced procurement authorities found in the updated Defence Production Act and the new Defence Investment Agency Act, together with additional measures designed to support research and development, can be used to further advance innovations created in the DISH context and get these innovations quickly into the hands of the CAF and national security partners.

Quick Facts

• Budget 2025 committed $68.2 million over three years, starting in 2025-26 to establish the Bureau of Research, Engineering and Advanced Leadership in Innovation and Science.
• Uncrewed systems are identified as one of Canada's sovereign capability priorities under the Defence Industrial Strategy.
• DISHs provide secure environments where trusted partners can collaborate, conduct research, test technologies and address defence and security challenges.
• The UxS DISH is designed to support the maturation, testing, validation and integration of emerging technologies into operational capabilities for the CAF.
• The UxS DISH builds on the Maritime DISH pilot announced in November 2025.
• The establishment of the UxS DISH represents an important milestone in the implementation of BOREALIS and Canada's efforts to strengthen sovereign defence innovation capabilities through collaboration among government, industry and academia.
• Joint capabilities are military functions and resources that span multiple domains, such as land, sea, air, cyber, and space, and are used collectively by different branches of the armed forces.
• CJFC brings together people, systems, and expertise from across the CAF to develop and integrate joint capabilities that support operations across all domains.
• The establishment of a Defence Advisory Forum will provide industry with stronger opportunities to scale and succeed in the defence sector through improved connections to operational users, industry partners, investors, and government decision-makers.

Associated Links

• Minister McGuinty announces new drone production in Quebec
• Bureau of Research, Engineering and Advanced Leadership in Innovation and Science
• Defence Minister McGuinty announces the first project under BOREALIS
• Government of Canada launches Call for Proposals to establish Defence Innovations Secure Hubs for quantum and uncrewed system technologies
• Canada’s Defence Industrial Strategy
• Canadian Joint Forces Command
• Drone Innovation Hub
• The Innovation for Defence Excellence and Security (IDEaS) Program
• Defence Investment Agency