OTTAWA–Canada’s air force is rushing to purchase the equipment necessary to transport patients with highly infectious diseases on military planes in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Department of National Defence is in the market for a “bio-containment evacuation system” that would allow it to safely transport patients on existing transport planes.

The purchase is explicitly tied to the current pandemic, with procurement documents released last week indicating that the Royal Canadian Air Force currently cannot safely transport numerous patients with highly infectious diseases on military aircraft “while providing the appropriate level of medical care (and) while protecting the aircrew and medical team from exposure to an infectious pathogen.”

The proposed new system would be installed on existing transport planes — the CC-177 Globemaster or the CC-130J Hercules — and must be able to safely transport at least four patients at a time.

The primary intention is to be able to evacuate Canadian Armed Forces personnel who have been exposed to an infectious disease while deployed, although the Department of National Defence noted having the medevac capability also lines up with Ottawa’s “strategic demands.”

“The project is in support of federal efforts to assist civil authorities and non-governmental partners in responding to major international and domestic emergencies,” DND spokesman Daniel Le Bouthillier said in a written statement Tuesday.

The Canadian government has been repatriating citizens from pandemic hotspots since the public health crisis began to pick up steam in late January. Between Jan. 30 and March 27, Global Affairs Canada — the lead agency responsible for the evacuations — spent roughly $5.75 million on aircraft leases and charters, according to a Star analysis of available procurement data.

The documents make clear that DND is not planning to handle evacuations on that scale. But the new medevac system will be required to transport numerous patients on both domestic and international flights, including flights to and from remote areas like Canada’s northern communities.

While DND waits for the new system — which is expected to be delivered by the end of October — Le Bouthillier said the CAF has “interim capabilities” to transport individual patients in a “specialized isolation unit by aircraft.”

The air force also has access to “individual bio-containment isolation systems” in case a passenger is diagnosed with an infectious disease during transport.