Tender: Development and Demonstration of High-Altitude Platform System (HAPS) for Ultra-Long-Range Wireless Backhaul – Canada

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The Department of National Defence (DND), Shared Services Canada (SSC) and the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) are seeking a supplier to develop and demonstrate a High-Altitude Platform System (HAPS) solution to provide ultra-long-range (over-the-horizon) wireless backhaul for defence, surveillance and emergency operations. The solution must demonstrate travel to about 20 km (±2 km) altitude and lateral corridor movement of the same range, hold a nominal fixed point for a minimum of three days, launch/deploy and operate from land or water, supply at least 100 Watts for long-range sensors, deliver high-bandwidth, high-availability, ultra-low-latency connectivity comparable to 4G/LTE or Starlink while supporting current wireless systems, cover a minimum 1,000 km² service area plus 200 km² transit area, be deployable within six hours for heavier-than-air HAPS or within 24 hours for lighter-than-air HAPS, incorporate automated decision-making for flight maneuvers, and operate in cold temperatures down to at least -70 °C. Additional desirable features include optimized power management and renewable power generation, non-assisted launch and landing, interference resilience, communications link security and platform hardening, daisy-chaining between HAPS, support for next-generation wireless and backhauling, complementing terrestrial infrastructure, and support for point-to-point, point-to-multipoint and mesh links. The successful applicant must secure a demonstration site, obtain a Transport Canada Special Flight Operations Certificate (SFOC), travel to deploy and validate the prototype, and may compete for Phase 2 funding up to CAD 2,000,000 for a project of up to 24 months (estimated one contract). Challenge opens 20 October 2026 and closes 1 December 2026 at 14:00 Eastern time.