Canadian based MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. (MDA) announced today that it has signed contract amendments Worth CA$100 million with the Commonwealth of Australia, for the extension of Heron I Unmanned Aerial Vehicle surveillance service for the Australian Defence Force in Kandahar Airfield for an additional two years. In the next three months the company will conduct an assessment of activity that will provide critical information in support of Australia’s efforts in Afghanistan.
MDA has been supporting the Australian Forces by providing critically important real-time intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance information directly to ground commanders, since January 2010. The current contract was awarded in 2011 and will expire by December 2012. The Australian contract was the second undertaken by MDA with Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) Heron I UAVs leased from IAI. The first contract employing the Heron 1 supported the Canadian forces in Afghanistan from 2008 to 2011.
