Frequently asked questions.

Borealis Technologies Inc. is a Calgary-headquartered Canadian defence and disaster-systems company. We design and integrate fixed-wing and VTOL unmanned aircraft systems (the BV series), persistent ground and maritime surveillance sensors (the BG and BA series), the ARTEMIS multi-agency simulation platform for tabletop and computer-driven exercises, and we are the authorised Tiger Dam reseller for selected Asian markets. We are distinct from the federal DND BOREALIS research program, from Borealis chemicals, and from OMERS Borealis Infrastructure. Our Manila office (Borealis Philippines) supports ASEAN customers.

Yes. Borealis Technologies was previously known as ALTS Canada. The company rebranded to Borealis Technologies in 2026 to reflect its expanded product portfolio across UAS, surveillance sensors, simulation, and disaster resilience. All existing contracts, certifications, security clearances, and customer-support relationships held under ALTS Canada continue under Borealis Technologies without interruption. The Manila office (previously ALTS Philippines) is now Borealis Philippines.

Borealis is a dual-use defence and humanitarian technology company. Our customers fall into five broad categories: (a) allied defence forces and coast guards, (b) national and provincial emergency management agencies, (c) natural-resource operators in mining, oil and gas, and forestry, (d) border security and customs agencies, and (e) UN agencies and NGO humanitarian-response programmes. Every product line — BV UAS, BG/BA sensors, ARTEMIS, Tiger Dam — has both defence and civilian applications, and we design them so a single customer can run them across both mission profiles.

Borealis products are designed and integrated in Calgary, Alberta, with manufacturing partners in Alberta and British Columbia. Production for the ASEAN market is supported from Manila. Because our prime engineering, integration, and key sub-assembly work occurs in Canada, every Borealis sale to a Canadian Crown contract counts toward the prime contractor's Industrial and Technological Benefits (ITB) obligation under the Government of Canada's ITB Policy. We publish a per-product Canadian-content statement covering manufacturing location, NAICS codes, and ITB Tier classification — available on request.

Borealis BV-series UAS are designed to be NDAA Section 848 / American Security Drone Act friendly — engineered without components from the named adversary nations (China, Russia, Iran, North Korea). For US Department of Defense procurement, we work with the Defense Innovation Unit's Blue UAS Framework (the component-level certification pathway) and with the commercial-equivalent AUVSI Green UAS program. Allied non-US buyers benefit from the same supply-chain provenance without any US re-export burden, because our products are Canadian-origin and not subject to ITAR unless US-origin sub-components are present (in which case we disclose them).

Canadian-designed, Canadian-manufactured defence hardware is regulated under the Export and Import Permits Act (EIPA) and the Canadian Export Control List — not ITAR — unless US-origin components trigger US re-export obligations. For most Borealis products we can provide a fully "ITAR-free" configuration, which materially shortens procurement timelines for allies in the Indo-Pacific (Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand) and for European Five Eyes partners. Each product line ships with an export classification statement and recommended end-use certificate.

Borealis Technologies holds a Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) Facility Security Clearance at the level required for DND defence-procurement work. Cleared personnel are available for classified programme engagements, and our product development workflows segregate classified from unclassified data. For NATO and AUKUS partners, our Canadian clearance maps to recognised NATO equivalents — contact us for specific level mapping for your country.

Yes. Our Manila office (Borealis Philippines) supports the Armed Forces of the Philippines, Philippine Coast Guard, NDRRMC, OCD, DPWH, and local-government DRRMCs. Typical engagement mapping: BV-series ISR drones to AFP ISAFP and PCG; BG/BA sensors to PCG and port-security agencies; ARTEMIS to NDRRMC and LGU tabletop programmes; Tiger Dam to OCD and DILG stockpile procurement. We are familiar with the AFP Equipment Acquisition Framework and with non-US-FMS procurement pathways for partner nations. Local technical support and reseller activities are coordinated from Manila.

Our position is "Canadian-owned, customer-controlled data." BG/BA sensor telemetry is stored where the customer designates and is not mirrored back to Borealis without an explicit support agreement. ARTEMIS exercise data is retained by the customer, not by us. BV-series ground-control-station logs are local to the customer's GCS and require an opt-in to share. Every AI-assisted feature in our product line is designed human-in-the-loop — we do not ship autonomous targeting decision authority. Because Borealis is a Canadian company, we are not subject to the US CLOUD Act, which is a meaningful differentiator for allied customers comparing us to US hyperscale vendors.

The Borealis BV series is a family of fixed-wing and VTOL unmanned aircraft systems sharing a common ground-control architecture, so an operator trained on one platform can fly the others with minimal cross-conversion. The lineup scales by mission profile:

• BV 300 / 350 — man-portable, hand-launched and VTOL variants for tactical ISR and rapid-deployment disaster response. Sub-5-minute emplacement, single-operator capable.
• BV 600 — mid-endurance VTOL transition aircraft (~12 hr endurance, ~1,000 km range) carrying multispectral and EO/IR payloads.
• BV 700 — long-endurance Group 3 ISR platform with up to 24-hour persistence, 2,000 km range, and onboard AI processing for 360° persistent surveillance.

Endurance scales from approximately 3 hours (BV 300) to 24+ hours (BV 700). Operational range scales from tactical line-of-sight (BV 300) to 2,000 km for the BV 700 with appropriate datalink and SATCOM configuration. Payload capacities and power budgets are published on each product page. For Canadian operators we also publish performance figures derated for cold-soak Arctic conditions, where GNSS availability and lithium-battery output differ from temperate-climate datasheets.

Yes. Borealis operates under a Transport Canada Special Flight Operations Certificate (SFOC) for BVLOS and has access to Canada's restricted airspace at the Foremost UAS Test Range in Alberta — the country's only test range authorised for advanced BVLOS operations. For US operators we support Part 107 BVLOS waiver applications. Because we hold the operational credentials, your acquisition timeline does not have to include first-time BVLOS approvals — a procurement step that typically takes 12+ months.

The hand-launched BV 300 and BV 350 are designed for sub-5-minute emplacement by a single operator — comparable to or faster than the Quantum Vector AI benchmark. The VTOL BV 600 and BV 700 require two operators and are airborne within approximately 30 minutes from a cold start, with no catapult or launch infrastructure required. For disaster-response procurement (USAR, wildfire, flood), this unboxing-to-first-launch time is published on every product page so buyers can compare directly against AeroVironment, Insitu, and Skyfront equivalents.

BV-series platforms use frequency-agile encrypted datalinks, Visual Inertial Odometry (VIO) and alternate-navigation modes for GPS-denied flight, and a Controlled Reception Pattern Antenna (CRPA) option for jamming-resistant GNSS. This is a procurement criterion that has grown rapidly since the Russia–Ukraine war and is now standard for Five Eyes ISR tenders. For Canadian Arctic operations, where GNSS reliability degrades at high latitudes, we publish alternate-navigation performance separately from temperate-zone datasheets.

BV-series ground-control stations support STANAG 4586 for UAV interoperability, ATAK / TAK for tactical situational awareness, and standard NATO Link interfaces where mission-appropriate. We also expose a documented REST/MQTT integration for the Borealis ARTEMIS simulation platform — meaning the same Common Operating Picture you train on in ARTEMIS is the one you fly against in the real mission. No other vendor offers this closed loop from simulation to live ISR.

We publish Johnson-criteria DRI tables (Detection, Recognition, Identification) for each sensor variant — for human-sized targets, vehicle-sized targets, and small-vessel targets, across MWIR and visible bands. The BG 130 uses a Ritchey-Chrétien optical design — the same telescope geometry used in space observatories — which delivers superior off-axis image quality and longer identification ranges than equivalent-aperture catadioptric or refractive systems used by competing vendors. Per-variant range data is on each product page; we don't gate the numbers behind an RFQ.

Each sensor is purpose-engineered for a target platform family:

• BG 50 Lighthouse — fixed maritime tower, lighthouse, oil rig, or offshore renewable installation.
• BG 100 Maritime Hemispheric — ship deck and unmanned-surface-vessel (USV) hemispheric coverage.
• BG 120 / BG 130 — long-range ground-fixed ISR for port security, border surveillance, and forward operating bases.
• BA 100 / BA 130 — vehicle-mounted or UAV-pod gimbal payloads.
• BA 140 SIGINT / RDF — static or vehicle-mounted radio-frequency direction finding and signals intelligence.

Yes. BG-family sensors include AI-assisted video motion detection (VMD), moving-target indication (MTI), and automatic target recognition tuned for small slow-mover signatures including UAVs, USVs, and rubber-hull craft. The BA 140 SIGINT/RDF adds a passive RF detection layer — detecting drone command-and-control emissions before the drone is in EO/IR range. This multi-INT stack (RF + EO/IR + radar cueing) is a capability that neither Teledyne FLIR SeaFLIR nor L3Harris WESCAM offer natively, and is directly applicable to port security and forward-base protection in the Indo-Pacific.

Yes. Hardware is qualified to MIL-STD-810 (environmental — temperature, vibration, shock, humidity, salt fog) and MIL-STD-461 (electromagnetic interference / EMC). Maritime variants additionally meet IP-rating standards equivalent to those required by the Canadian Coast Guard and Royal Canadian Navy procurement specifications, and we will provide CSA / Transport Canada marine-equipment certifications on request for civilian maritime operators.

Yes — they are designed as nodes in a multi-domain sensor network. Each sensor exposes a documented API and STANAG-aligned interface so a third-party surface or air-surveillance radar (e.g., HENSOLDT SPEXER class) can hand off track-before-search cues to a BG or BA EO/IR head. This open-integration posture is intentional — we do not require customers to buy a Borealis radar to use Borealis EO/IR — which is the opposite of several closed-ecosystem competitors.

ARTEMIS by Borealis Technologies is a multi-agency live-map simulation platform for tabletop and computer-driven exercises. It is unrelated to NASA's Artemis lunar programme and to any space-bridge simulator game. ARTEMIS sits at the intersection of two existing markets: collaborative tabletop exercises (TTX) on a shared geographic map, and scripted computer-driven scenarios. It ships in four variants — Military, Mining (TSM-aligned), Logistics, and Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) — sharing a common engine.

Tabletop mode is a facilitated, collaborative session — agencies sit (physically or virtually) around a shared live map, the facilitator injects events, and players discuss and document their responses. There is no scripted adversary AI; the value is in cross-agency coordination and decision-making under stress. Computer-driven mode runs scripted scenarios with timed injects, automated environment effects (weather, fire spread, flood propagation), and optional adversary or hazard agent behaviour. The same ARTEMIS map and customer GIS layers serve both modes, so a customer can graduate from TTX to computer-driven exercises without re-platforming.

Yes. ARTEMIS exercise structures align with Incident Command System (ICS) and the US National Incident Management System (NIMS). The Mining variant is aligned with the Mining Association of Canada's Towards Sustainable Mining (TSM) protocol — specifically the Crisis Management and Communications Planning and the Community and Indigenous Peoples Relationships protocol areas. The DRR variant references the UNDRR Sendai Framework terminology, which is the lingua franca for ASEAN and Pacific disaster-management buyers including the Philippines NDRRMC.

Yes — bring your own basemap. ARTEMIS ingests Esri Shapefile, GeoJSON, KMZ/KML, GeoTIFF, and standard OGC web services (WMS, WMTS, WFS). Customers running Esri ArcGIS Online can hot-link their authoritative layers directly. For Canadian customers we natively support Natural Resources Canada open data. For mine sites, ports, or campus customers, you can drop in your own facility CAD and we'll bake it into the exercise basemap — a workflow that generic-terrain simulators like VBS4 cannot match for site-specific exercises.

Yes. ARTEMIS is browser-based for participants; only the facilitator workstation requires a thicker client. Distributed exercises across provincial EOCs, between Calgary and Manila, or across an ASEAN multinational exercise are supported by design. We integrate with Microsoft Teams and Zoom for video-conference inject delivery. Bandwidth requirements are modest enough to support participants on field-deployed LTE/Starlink connections — important for capacity-building exercises in remote regions.

Yes — and this is a deliberate differentiator from purely military simulators. ARTEMIS supports non-kinetic injects including power-grid failure, SCADA intrusion, water-system contamination, infectious-disease outbreak, and supply-chain disruption. In the Mining variant we ship a tailings-dam-failure-plus-downstream-contamination-plus-regulatory-notification scenario as a starting template. In Logistics we model multi-modal disruption: a cyber attack on port operations combined with a flood blocking the alternate land corridor. These multi-domain combinations match the modern threat profile and are not addressable by VBS4, CAE STE, or Everbridge 360 alone.

Tiger Dam is a water-filled bladder flood barrier — industrial-grade fabric tubes that fill in as little as 90 seconds from any local water source, including the floodwater itself. A single 50-foot 18-inch Tiger Dam unit replaces approximately 500 sandbags. The system is manufactured in Calgary, Alberta and Richmond, British Columbia, Canada (and in Kenner, Louisiana, USA). Borealis Technologies is the authorised Tiger Dam reseller for selected Asian markets — coordinated from our Manila office.

Yes — all four standard sizes (18", 24", 36", 42") are Platinum-Level FM Approved. FM Approvals tested Tiger Dam at the US Army Corps of Engineers' Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) in Vicksburg, Mississippi against FM Approvals Standard 2510, which is ANSI-recognised and comparable to UL, CSA, and European testing standards. FM Approval is the gold standard referenced by FEMA BRIC grant compliance, by insurance underwriters, and by international flood-mitigation procurement. Tokyo Fire Department and Kansai Airport are among the documented Asian deployments.

Tiger Dam deploys in approximately one-fifth the time of an equivalent sandbag wall (per US Army Corps of Engineers testing) and at approximately half the cost on first use, with the economic gap widening on every subsequent reuse. A typical two-person crew using a portable trash pump can emplace and fill a 50-foot section in minutes. For typhoon-prone Asian markets — particularly the Philippines, which faces 20+ landfalling typhoons per year — annual reuse delivers a strongly favourable total cost of ownership over a 5-10 year planning horizon.

Yes — Tiger Dam is the only water-filled barrier patented to be stackable from 18 inches to 32 feet in height. This is decisive for extreme-event scenarios — monsoon surge, typhoon storm surge, river ice-jam flooding — where a single-tier barrier is insufficient. Stacked configurations have been independently engineered and tested under the FM Approvals and Army Corps protocol. For a 4-metre storm-surge scenario in the Philippines, a stacked 42-inch configuration is the recommended specification.

Yes. Tiger Dam is the only water-filled-barrier system patented to connect together into any shape — circles, 90-degree turns, complex polygons — for continuous protection over miles. Practical examples include encircling a water treatment plant, protecting a curved river bend, or routing around rural infrastructure. Deployment diagrams for non-linear configurations are available for Asia-market customers on request.

Yes — Tiger Dam is designed for repeated reuse. Each 50-foot 18-inch unit weighs approximately 50 lb dry and 6,300 lb when filled. Between deployments, units are drained, cleaned (fresh-water or appropriate decontamination depending on flood content), rolled, palletised, and stored in a covered warehouse. For government stockpile procurement in Asia we provide standard footprint calculations: rolled inventory for one kilometre of 18-inch Tiger Dam fits within a footprint significantly smaller than the equivalent in pre-filled sandbags, with no degradation between hurricane seasons when stored per specification.