NRC to acquire Bombardier jet as feds earmark nearly $1B for defence research

OTTAWA — The federal government says it will put more than $900 million into the National Research Council for defence initiatives, including the purchase of a Bombardier jet for private sector research and development.

The new funding for the NRC includes $500 million in support for drone and aerospace technology and the establishment of a new “drone innovation hub” that will operate in the Ottawa and Montreal areas.

Ottawa says the funding is part of its Defence Industrial Strategy, a blueprint released in late February.

The new strategy lays out the government’s new Buy Canadian approach to military procurement and indicates broadly where the government intends to spend to build out the domestic defence sector.

Industry Minister Mélanie Joly, Defence Minister David McGuinty and Secretary of State for Defence Procurement Stephen Fuhr unveiled the new initiatives at an NRC research facility near the Ottawa airport on Monday.

The NRC will acquire a Bombardier Global 6500 private jet for industry and academics to use for research on defence-related technology — things like intelligence and reconnaissance systems, radar and electronic warfare systems.

Joly said this is “the first time” the government will have a fully Canadian-built aircraft to conduct such research in the skies.

This is the seventh purchase of a Global 6500 private jet the government has announced recently; in December it said it would purchase six to shuttle government VIPs. But the NRC’s plane won’t be built for luxury air travel.

The government says the aircraft will undergo major research technology modifications in Abbotsford, B.C., by Cascade Aerospace and Bombardier, which are expected to be complete by 2028.

For small-to-medium sized Canadian enterprises that work with airborne sensor data, the new aircraft is a big deal.

The NRC’s current fleet of research aircraft — which includes a twin-engined Convair 580 that performs a function similar to that of the Bombardier aircraft — is outdated.

Mouhab Meshreki, aircraft director general at the NRC’s aerospace research centre, said while their sensors might be cutting-edge tech, some of the planes in the research council’s current fleet are now more than 80 years old.

Compared to the Convair 580, the 6500 series jet has better performance and can fly at much higher altitudes. It also boasts more than twice the range of the Convair, making it suitable for flights far into the Arctic and overseas.

Jozsef Hamari is the founder and CEO of TerraSense Analytics, a small firm based out of Kelowna, B.C., that uses AI to analyze inflight sensor data, freeing up aircraft operators for other tasks.

His firm has partnered with the NRC for several years to use the Convair 580 to develop its technology. It currently relies heavily on a much smaller plane.

“We’re operating, together with KF Aerospace and UBC, a little Cessna 172, single engine, two-seat aircraft with sensors that we’re flying two times a week, gathering data, testing our product,” Hamari said, adding the new aircraft will allow his company to “go international.”

“It’s going to take us global. That makes a big difference,” he said.

Hamari said the last time his company flew on the government’s Convair, it was for a joint exercise with the U.S. Army Futures Command, the Canadian Armed Forces and several other private firms.

“Being able to do that (kind of operation), and take (the new aircraft) with long endurance to Europe, to the U.S., overseas, work together with coalition partners, gives us that chance to turn this into a living lab with all sorts of integrations and collaborations,” he said.

The government did not immediately offer details Monday on the cost of buying and overhauling the single Bombardier jet.

But Monday’s announcement listed a host of new defence initiatives the government is pursuing, including a “Biomedical Countermeasures Initiative” and a series of efforts related to quantum technologies.

The NRC will put more than $161 million into quantum tech research related to defence and security, and $28 million into national health security efforts, such as efforts aimed at bolstering Canada’s ability to quickly respond to biological threats.

Government officials also touted a new $241 million NRC funding stream called Defence Industry Assist. It’s meant to help small- to medium-sized enterprises dealing with dual-use technology that has both military and civilian applications.

It all comes as Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government moves to massively ramp up defence spending to meet Canada’s NATO alliance commitments, and as it searches for ways to boost small and medium-sized businesses in the defence sector.

Canada has committed to spending annually the equivalent of two per cent of its GDP on defence, and increasing that to five per cent by 2035 — defence spending levels this country hasn’t seen since the Cold War.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 9, 2026.

Kyle Duggan, The Canadian Press