Drone factory in a container: Sentinel AMS targets the Arctic with StarForge

From the outside, the shipping container hardly stands out, yet it is meant to fundamentally change how remote military outposts are supplied. With StarForge, the Canadian defence company Sentinel Advanced Military Solutions (Sentinel AMS) from Châteauguay, Québec, is developing a container-based drone factory in which drones are manufactured, repaired and deployed directly in the area of operations. The company has the Arctic above all in mind.

On delivery, the containers are already loaded with material and the current models of drones and counter-drones. 3D printers inside produce the drone airframes; components common to several models are then installed. According to the company, the parts carried by one container are sufficient for 200 to 350 drones. New blueprints can be loaded digitally from the cloud – Sentinel describes this as digital inventories that replace physical stocks. Chief technology officer Edward Zimmerman told the Journal de Montréal: “Instead of an inventory that has to travel thousands of kilometres, we produce on site ourselves”.

Three building blocks of the mobile drone factory

StarForge consists of three building blocks. The first is the mobile production of drones and spare parts, the second a command post: its radar detects both aircraft and drones within a radius of around ten kilometres, and interceptor drones can also be launched from there. The third element is a hybrid power supply, which is intended to let the system operate quietly and autonomously without relying on fixed infrastructure. Sentinel AMS is aiming for a seamless defence chain in which detection, tracking, identification and neutralisation interlock.

According to Zimmerman, such a system could support the Canadian Rangers in the Arctic for three months without the need for resupply from the south. Chief executive John Soares illustrates it like this: “Imagine you reach a remote outpost in the Arctic where conventional supply chains no longer exist”. Within a few hours, command, secure communications, autonomous surveillance, a mobile power supply and in-house production would then be available.

StarForge was presented at the CANSEC 2026 defence exhibition, at the centre of a new defence consortium whose partners include the University of Alberta. Lockheed Martin is contributing around 6.2 million euros under Canada’s industrial offset rules; the contribution is linked to the Canadian Army’s acquisition of 26 HIMARS rocket launcher systems. Engineers from Lockheed Martin Canada in Calgary are directly involved in the development. According to the company, the US Marine Corps is already using StarForge for testing and training.

The development draws on lessons learned from the war in Ukraine. Because Russia is using fast jet-powered drones, effective interception systems are needed more urgently. Reconnaissance drones and logistics drones carrying ammunition and medical supplies are also being examined. In Zimmerman’s words, the system is defensive in nature. Sentinel AMS is a subsidiary of CMP Advanced Mechanical Solutions, which has more than 700 employees, and aims to benefit from Canada’s rearmament course: Ottawa is planning defence procurement worth around 111 billion euros over the next ten years.