At its Calgary headquarters, Peraton Canada supports the country’s full suite of fighter aircraft avionics and is also taking flight in the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) market with Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) innovation.
The company’s Calgary facility first opened for business in 1999 and is Canada’s only prime contractor for avionics support on a fighter platform, performing approximately 3,500 procedures every year on the country’s fighter fleet, including micro-miniature repair and secure electronic warfare repair.
“We’re a little different from many defence companies. We’re entrepreneurial. We support and grow small business — and we don’t just talk about it, we do it,” said Jim Gillespie, Vice President, Canada.
Peraton signed contracts with Calgary-based AERIUM and Canadian UAVs – as well as Foremost UAS Test Range – to fund Project SkySensus, a five-year, multi-million-dollar research and development/commercialization project centered on the routine use of BVLOS.
Simply put, BVLOS technology signifies the ability to operate an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) at a distance at which it cannot be seen by its operator; this enables drones to cover much greater distances, collect more data per flight, make critical deliveries, or perform inspection of infrastructure, among many other uses.
Peraton Canada is poised to take a leadership position in UAV technology. The company’s platform-agnostic sustainment model makes it an attractive partner for companies looking to participate in defence related unmanned opportunities that aim to bolster Canada’s Strong, Secure, Engaged initiatives.
Why Calgary?
Peraton has strong community connections in the local innovation ecosystem. The organization is a supporting organization of The University of Calgary Aerospace Network (UCAN), a team of more than 40 professors across the faculties of Science, Engineering, Arts and Business. A significant number of Peraton technicians are also Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT) grads. Peraton hires certified electronics specialists from SAIT, and then spends between six months to two years training them to perform the highly technical work required.
To learn more about Peraton Canada’s expansion in the UAV market and other opportunities in Calgary’s innovation ecosystem, visit our Live Tech, Love Life page.