Team V-BAT - A Proven Tactical UAS Solution for RCN ISTAR

HALIFAX, NS, Oct. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Team V-BAT announces the collaboration of three leading technical organizations each providing highly specialized and experienced capabilities to enable a very low-risk, non-developmental solution for the upcoming Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition and Reconnaissance (ISTAR) Project.  

Voyageur Aviation Corp., a division of Chorus Aviation, will provide full airworthiness and special mission services, life-cycle management as well as in-service support (ISS), Shield.AI will provide the V-BAT tactical UAS platform and Kongsberg Geospatial will provide the Control Stations as well as shipboard system interfaces.

The Shield.AI V-BAT is an Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) equipped for shipborne operations and proven during thousands of hours of shipboard operations for clients including the US Navy, Marine Corps and US Coast Guard. The V-BAT can carry multiple ISR sensor payloads simultaneously to provide a variety of tactical mission capabilities over land and at sea. Its unique design requires no ship modifications to enable ease of storage, ease of passage through standard hatches and safe launch/recovery off a ship deck in high sea states.

"Shield.AI recognizes the importance of working with established Canadian companies and building on the important contributions that Canadian industry partners can play in the global growth of Shield.AI," said Brandon Tseng, President, and Chief Growth Officer of Shield.AI. "We will build on these relationships with Voyageur Aviation and Kongsberg Geospatial as a part of our growing supply chain network in Canada."

"We are very pleased to join Team V-Bat to leverage our strong Canadian capability in delivering aircraft maintenance and in-service support solutions for the Canadian Forces," said Cory Cousineau, President of Voyageur Aviation Corp. "Our in-depth experience as an operator on deployed missions will help ensure that we deliver reliable and available operations for the RCN."

"Kongsberg Geospatial is proud to join Team V-Bat. Kongsberg Geospatial has extensive experience across the breadth of defence ISR systems and particularly as a supplier of unmanned systems control systems and sensor data management solutions. We will bring these made-in-Canada capabilities to Team V-Bat to help deliver a world-class, operational Canadian capability based on the best-of-breed aircraft in this category," said Jordan Freed, president of Kongsberg Geospatial.

Together Voyageur Aviation, Shield.AI and Kongsberg Geospatial (Team V-BAT) will offer the Royal Canadian Navy a high-performing and proven UAS supported by Canadian partners for both domestic and global operations.

Please see Team V-Bat and the aircraft at DEFSEC (Halifax) on Oct 5 - 6^th 2022 in booth P109-110.

Voyageur Aviation Corp. is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Chorus Aviation Inc. (TSX: CHR), a company whose vision is to deliver regional aviation to the world.

Voyageur Aviation Corp. delivers innovative solutions to customers with unique aviation requirements and operates under the core principles of comprehensive safety management, quality assurance, and client-focused solutions.  www.voyav.com

Shield AI is a venture-backed company built around a team of proven executives, warfighters with relevant national security experience, and world-class AI engineers. The company is headquartered in San Diego, CA with satellite offices across the United States and abroad. Shield AI's products and people are currently in the field actively supporting operations with the US Department of Defense and allies. For more information, visit www.shield.ai. Media contact: [email protected]

Based in Ottawa, Canada, Kongsberg Geospatial creates precision real-time software for mapping, geospatial visualization, and situational awareness. Kongsberg Geospatial has pioneered powerful new solutions for UAS applications. These include IRIS UxS™ - an airspace situational awareness and UAS control system for BVLOS flight operations, both for individual aircraft and for fleet operations with multiple semi-autonomous aircraft and MDCS, a multi-domain C2 application developed based on the IRIS UxS architecture to allow operators to manage multiple unmanned systems for multi-domain missions; and MIDAS™ - a near real-time system for processing, exploiting, and disseminating (PED) sensor data from Unmanned Systems. Kongsberg Geospatial is a subsidiary of Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace.

Media contact: 1-613-271-5500 or reach us by email at [email protected]

SOURCE Kongsberg Geospatial