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May 31, 2019 | Local, Aerospace

Bluedrop to deliver CH-149 hoist training system to the RCAF

Bluedrop Performance Learning and its subsidiary Bluedrop Training & Simulation will deliver another hoist mission training system (HMTS) to the Royal Canadian Air Force 19 Wing Comox in addition to a similar CH-148 Cyclone simulator delivered to 12 Wing Shearwater in July 2018.

The immersive virtual reality simulator will replicate the CH-149 Cormorant helicopter and be used for search and rescue (SAR) hoist procedure and mission training. The HMTS will improve hoisting skills in challenging mission scenarios, allowing trainees to practice critical skills in a safe, true-to-life environment. The simulator provides high-fidelity cable behaviour that responds to flight dynamics and operator inputs with accurate turbulent flow zone rendering and complex rescue coordination scenarios.

“Our HMTS is proving to be the standard for rear-crew training. We are so happy to be contributing to search and rescue operations training in Canada. Canadian SAR capabilities are a national asset and priority. Bluedrop values being able to improve operational readiness and mission effectiveness through improved training of these skilled operators in some of the harshest rescue environments,” said Jean-Claude Siew, vice-president of Technology and Simulation.

https://www.skiesmag.com/press-releases/bluedrop-to-deliver-hoist-mission-training-system-to-the-royal-canadian-air-force/

On the same subject

  • Fight the Information War Without Sacrificing Canadian Values

    October 29, 2020 | Local, Land

    Fight the Information War Without Sacrificing Canadian Values

    David Scanlon Defence Watch Guest Writer Recent news reports have shown the Canadian Armed Forces are struggling to define ethical boundaries as they expand their capability to meet the rising threats of the information age. A global information war is now being fought in a “grey zone” where malign state and non-state actors are trying to sow confusion and division across the international community. American professor of strategy and author Sean McFate writes that future military victories “will be won and lost in the information space, not on the physical battlefield.” But he warns that “some democracies may be tempted to sacrifice their values in the name of victory.” Recent mishaps by Canada's military underscore this temptation. In April, the Ottawa Citizen published this headline: “Canadian Forces ‘information operations' pandemic campaign quashed after details revealed to top general.” The article reported that the “IO” campaign was targeted at Canadians and “called for ‘shaping' and ‘exploiting' information” with the aim of maintaining civil order and ensuring “public compliance with suppression measures” during the coronavirus pandemic. A parallel effort involved the “data mining” of personal social media accounts in Ontario by a team assigned to military intelligence. The military shared data with the province, including findings that some of its citizens were unhappy about its response to the pandemic. Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan ordered a review of the information operations campaign and an investigation into the legality of the data-mining activities. Given the Canadian Armed Forces were tasked with helping the provinces of Quebec and Ontario deal with the cruel impact of the coronavirus in long-term care homes, it is disquieting that such a campaign would be contemplated, let alone put in writing. Chief of the defence staff General Jon Vance reportedly avowed that, “as long as he was in charge information operations tactics wouldn't be used in a domestic situation, except in the case where an enemy had invaded the country.” Despite the defence chief's promise, only six months later the armed forces were caught conducting a disinformation campaign on Canada's Atlantic coast. Under the headline, “Canadian Soldiers Cry Wolf, Alarming Residents,” the New York Times reported that a military psychological training exercise had “gone wrong,” and that a “fake disinformation exercise had become a real one.” For reasons as yet unexplained, military personnel circulated a forged letter from the province of Nova Scotia warning certain residents to be wary of a wandering wolfpack, backed by loudspeakers blaring the sounds of growling wolves. It took some time for the armed forces to accept responsibility and apologize. Meanwhile, baffled local officials assured affected residents the province had not issued the letter and there were no wolves in the area. The defence minister rightly supports training the military “on how best to respond to foreign actors who use influence activities.” But to avoid further mistakes he ordered such training paused until an investigation into the wayward wolfpacks was concluded. Emma Briant, a US-based British academic and author who specializes in propaganda and political communication, told the New York Times she finds the recent incidents “appalling,” a “failure of governance,” a “failure to ensure restraint,” and a “failure to ensure ethics are built into training and planning operations.” “They seem to have introduced a policy of weaponization of influence, domestically,” Briant observes. Instead, she advises, Canada's military needs to be building “a relationship of trust with the public.” The military's pattern of ethical breaches appears to reveal an embedded operational mindset fixed on tactics, as opposed to a strategic one focussed on building public trust. British military historian Hew Strachan wrote that armed forces are attracted to the operational level of war, as opposed to the strategic. It allows them to “appropriate what they see as the acme of their professional competence,” enabling them to operate in “a politics free zone.” This may in part explain General Vance's decision in 2015 to “operationalize” the military's public affairs branch, which is responsible for public communication. The branch was seen as not delivering tangible “effects” in support of so-called “operations in the information environment.” By operationalizing a strategic function like public affairs, the military was in effect reducing it to an operational or tactical capability, like special operations forces or precision-guided missiles. Ostensibly, these can deliver precise, tangible “effects” under direct military control. Some of the perils of this new approach were exposed when a senior public affairs officer, Brig.-Gen Jay Janzen (then a colonel), began using his Twitter account to target journalists, commentators, and politicians. In April 2018, for instance, he sparked a heated Twitter exchange with opposition defence critic James Bezan. The defence committee had been debating a military deployment to Mali to help defeat cancerous African offshoots of ISIS and al-Qaeda. Janzen tweeted that questions about the mission from opposition Members of Parliament were “nonsensical.” He even proposed “better” questions for opposition parties to ask. For a serving senior officer to publicly criticize elected officials was unprecedented. Government ministers must have been perplexed to see a high-ranking service member tweeting better debate questions to opposition MPs. Janzen's tweets, which appear to have at least the tacit approval of his superiors, set an example for other service members. Another perplexing public information moment occurred last April when the Canadian military reported that a Canadian frigate patrolling off the Greek coast had “lost contact” with its Cyclone maritime helicopter. It was later revealed the helicopter was moments from landing on the ship when, as the CBC reported, “it went down in full view of horrified shipmates.” Tragically, all six aboard the Cyclone were killed in the crash. The military was widely criticized for misrepresenting the facts—contact was in fact never “lost” and officials failed to explain the miscommunication. Some practitioners of public affairs and information operations have been telling their military bosses that with scientific techniques like “target audience analysis” they can change people's perceptions and behaviours with astounding precision. Canada's defence department recently paid over a million dollars to Emic Consulting Limited (whose founder worked at the UK's controversial and now defunct Strategic Communication Laboratories) to teach public affairs officers and others how to conduct “actor and audience analysis” and otherwise weaponize behavioural science. But is this training being misapplied? One aim of information operations is to change the perceptions and behaviours of target audiences using a range of influence techniques, including “psychological” and “deception” operations. As the defence chief alluded, such techniques should not be approved for use in Canada, other than in exceptional circumstances against clearly defined foes, such as terrorists. Military public affairs, by contrast, is about ensuring Canada's armed forces follow federal communications policy, which calls for maintaining “public trust,” and directs that federal communications “must be objective, factual, non-partisan, clear, and written in plain language.” In a free and democratic society, public trust is a priceless strategic “effect.” As malign actors seek to create confusion and division, Canadians need trusted sources of information. Surveys consistently show that Canadians trust their military. Military leaders and their public affairs advisors must preserve this trust. As called for in defence policy, Canada's armed forces do need the tools to wage information and cyber warfare. They are already facing such threats on missions overseas. But the armed forces also need the tools to communicate with Canadians and other friendly audiences in a timely, truthful, and accurate fashion. Transparency is a potent democratic deterrent against disinformation. Informed by the investigations into recent mishaps, the defence minister and chief of the defence staff should consider the following: o To ensure that information operations have proper approvals and oversight, and are conducted ethically, robust policy, doctrine, and governance are essential. o To ensure broad awareness of ethical considerations when conducting influence activities, related training and education needs to be incorporated at all rank levels. o To explain their actions and help build public trust, the armed forces need to field uniformed spokespersons more often. (The military's “chief spokesman” cited by the New York Times in the “wolves” story was a civilian.) o To ensure coherent doctrine and effective implementation of information-related capabilities, a professional total force cadre of practitioners should be created. o Military public affairs must be reinvigorated as a strategic capability that promotes transparency, provides unhindered advice to commanders at all levels, and ensures close coordination with the civilian communication arms of government. o Policy and doctrine, along with leaders, operators, and information practitioners, must clearly differentiate between activities intended to inform Canadians, such as public affairs, and information operations designed to influence or deceive adversaries. Fighting disinformation is a serious whole-of-nation challenge. It requires an informed public, ethical and transparent government, an engaged private sector, a vigorous and valued free press, and armed forces that respect and reflect Canadian values. https://www.thechronicleherald.ca/news/canada/fight-the-information-war-without-sacrificing-canadian-values-513691/

  • Aging icebreakers, aircraft hamper Canada’s monitoring of Arctic: auditor general - National | Globalnews.ca

    November 16, 2022 | Local, Aerospace, Naval, C4ISR

    Aging icebreakers, aircraft hamper Canada’s monitoring of Arctic: auditor general - National | Globalnews.ca

    In a report tabled Tuesday, Karen Hogan says the agencies responsible for safety and security in the North don't have a clear picture of traffic in the region.

  • Idled industrial plants seen as an untapped source of protective equipment for health workers

    April 6, 2020 | Local, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security

    Idled industrial plants seen as an untapped source of protective equipment for health workers

    Families of health workers in Quebec driving grassroots campaign to get pandemic equipment to hospitals Murray Brewster Guillaume Tardif, a soon-to-be-retired army tank officer, quietly but frantically combed the internet in January as coronavirus reports coming out of Wuhan, China became more alarming. Even then, he was convinced a viral storm was approaching and was determined to do everything possible to protect his wife, a Montreal emergency room physician — up to and including the purchase of reusable face masks. Tardif, a captain who served in Afghanistan, has been at the forefront of an unusual grassroots campaign in Quebec — driven by the families of frightened health care workers — to mobilize the provincial and federal governments to requisition industrially-certified respirators from idled industries and suppliers. He spent over $800 out of his own pocket to equip his wife with personal protective equipment (PPE) for the daily battle against coronavirus. "She's the love of my life," Tardif said in an interview. "She's the mother of my children and I'm going to make sure that I do everything possible for her to come home every night and us to get through this." (Staff at the hospital where his spouse works have been warned not to talk to the media and CBC News has agreed not to publish Tardif's wife name, or the name of the facility where she works.) Tapping into industrial supplies Other families in the medical community have followed Tardif's lead by buying up large stocks of industrial masks and respirators locally, and donating them. Earlier this week, the federal government announced an ambitious $2 billion plan to swiftly increase the stock of personal protective equipment for frontline health-care workers caring for critically-ill and dying patients. Quebec Premier François Legault said Tuesday the province has three to four days before it runs out of some personal protective equipment (PPE), but that the province has orders that are expected to arrive in the coming days. The province went through a year's worth of PPE in a matter of weeks because of the surge in COVID-19 cases. The question of whether the federal stockpile of equipment is adequate has been on federal Health Minister Patty Hajdu's mind. "No we likely do not have enough," she told the daily media briefing Wednesday. "I think federal governments for decades have been underfunding things like public health preparedness and I would say that obviously governments all across the world are in the same exact situation." In all likelihood, it will be weeks before suppliers, old and new, can ramp up production of vital equipment such as medically-certified N95 masks, which many doctors and nurses throughout the country are being forced to ration and reuse. Tardif argues there is a large alternative supply of identical industrial-grade masks and respirators that can be requisitioned by the federal government and the provinces in the meantime. "We need to take every chance to avoid running out of PPE and in my opinion that involves requisitioning every device that's out there," he said. It's a good idea, says doctor Dr. Andrew Willmore, medical director of emergency management at the Ottawa Hospital, said having the provinces or the federal government coordinate the collection of industrial protective equipment is a very good idea. "I think it's absolutely useful," Willmore said. "I think it's a very important role, both federal and provincial, to be able to enact the appropriate legislative measures by which they can really dig down into industry and create a pool of resources that can be distributed equitably in a way that supports the health care system as a whole." Both 3M, the manufacturer of the N95, and Health Canada have said industrial masks — the kind used in construction, factories and paint shops, where fumes are a problem — are a suitable emergency substitute. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday that major shipments of protective equipment, including millions of masks, have started to arrive — one shipment landed on Wednesday — and federal officials are in the process of conducting inventory and getting the equipment out to the provinces. "We will be there to support the provinces and territories with whatever they need," he said during his daily media briefing. "This includes sending personal protective equipment and other supports for the health care system." The shortage of protective equipment for hospital staff was to be the subject of a teleconference between Trudeau and the premiers Thursday night. Willmore said the Ottawa Hospital has reached out to some local businesses in the hopes of laying its hands on an industrial supply. In other parts of the country, major industrial concerns have stepped forward. Honda Canada donated 1,200 masks to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Barrie, Ont., and a further 1,000 and 40,000 pairs of gloves to the Stevenson Memorial Hospital in Alliston, Ont. 'A single point of failure' Tardif said his research suggests that's a fraction of the industrial stock across the country and it's the federal government's responsibility to step in and coordinate a nationwide drive. Shortages of protective equipment for health care staff in a pandemic create "a single point of failure" for the whole system because it either puts doctors, nurses and technicians in danger or leaves them unable to provide care, Willmore said, adding that "the highest levels of government" need to engage with the problem. It has been suggested that giving health care staff reusable respirators, such as the 3M-manufactured 6000, would help cut down on the use of disposable masks. Willmore said that depends on the environment and the patient being treated, noting that there's a danger involved in overusing some equipment. Cost and availability are other factors. "These are expensive pieces of equipment and they're difficult to source, especially since there's been a pull to purchase such equipment," he said. "It's certainly effective but there are practical limitations." https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/covid-coronavirus-pandemic-masks-respirators-1.5518401

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