Volatus Aerospace gains Canadian approval for advanced BVLOS drone operations

Summary points: 

• Transport Canada granted Volatus Aerospace a Special Flight Operations Certificate for complex BVLOS missions.
• The approval allows integration of MatrixSpace radar with Kongsberg Geospatial’s IRIS Terminal platform.
• The system detects small, non-cooperative aircraft and enables scalable drone-in-a-box networks.

TORONTO - Volatus Aerospace Inc. in Toronto announced that Transport Canada has issued a Special Flight Operations Certificate (SFOC) allowing the company to expand complex Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) operations by integrating MatrixSpace radar through Kongsberg Geospatial’s IRIS Terminal platform.

MatrixSpace’s compact radar is designed to detect smaller, non-cooperative traffic such as drones, unlike traditional ground-based systems. When paired with Kongsberg’s real-time airspace management software and Volatus’ Operations Control Center, the system enables reliable detect-and-avoid capabilities needed for automated drone-in-a-box networks, distributed monitoring, and autonomous services.

Volatus already holds nationwide SFOCs for BVLOS operations in low-risk and specialized airspace. The new approval will expand applications to infrastructure security, utilities, wide-area inspections, and higher-altitude missions such as forestry, wildfire monitoring, and environmental oversight.

Related: FAA grants Cyberhawk nationwide BVLOS waiver to operate UAS remotely

"This SFOC builds upon milestones such as Volatus’ approved BVLOS medical delivery operations at Halton Healthcare," said Glen Lynch, CEO of Volatus Aerospace. "With our partners, we are moving from specialized projects into wide-scale deployments like drone-in-a-box networks."

Kongsberg Geospatial President Jordan Freed said integrating real-time awareness into Volatus’ Operations Control Center demonstrates how safe, scalable drone services can be delivered. MatrixSpace CEO Greg Waters added that the approval is "a major step toward scalable autonomous drone operations."