MIRABEL \u2014 The federal government is creating a research facility to advance Canada\u2019s military capabilities with drones.<\/p>\n
National Defence Minister David McGuinty was in Mirabel, Que., home to a major aerospace hub, to make the announcement.<\/p>\n
A group of 30 organizations, led by A\u00e9ro Montr\u00e9al, will receive nearly $30 million over two years to establish and operate the new defence innovation centre dedicated to unmanned systems.<\/p>\n
The consortium gathers stakeholders from industry, academia, and the nonprofit sector to research, design, produce and test drones. <\/p>\n
In a news release, McGuinty says drones are changing the way modern militaries operate and Canada must adapt.<\/p>\n
The new hub will be sponsored by the Canadian Joint Forces Command.<\/p>\n
Quebec Economy Minister Bernard Drainville says the war in Ukraine has highlighted the vital role drones play in defence.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we look at what\u2019s happening in Ukraine right now, we know very well that drones are reinventing war, military doctrines,\u201d he said. The fact that Canada and Quebec are working together on drone development is \u201cexcellent news for our security, our industrial development, and our ability to take charge of our own security and defence,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 14, 2026<\/p>\n
Pierre Saint-Arnaud, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIRABEL \u2014 The federal government is creating a research facility to advance Canada\u2019s military capabilities with drones. National…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":801957,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194295],"tags":[45,49,48,24803,1688,47,20739,714],"class_list":["post-802906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ottawa","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-defence","tag-manufacturing","tag-national","tag-ottawa","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=802906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802906\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/801957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=802906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=802906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=802906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}