CAE contracted to upgrade NATO E-3A AWACS training devices

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  January 17, 2019 | Local, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security

  Defence invests in Canada’s Innovation Community for Defence and Security Solutions

  January 16, 2019 – Ottawa, ON – National Defence / Canadian Armed Forces The Government of Canada recognizes the importance of investing in defence innovation and the future of our Canadian Armed Forces. In support of Canada's defence policy, Strong, Secure, Engaged, Defence Minister Harjt Sajjan today highlighted the successful conclusion of contract awards from the first call for proposals (CFP) for Competitive Projects under the Innovation for Defence Excellence and Security Program (IDEaS) program. The IDEaS program brings innovators to the table to support defence and security. In just nine months since its launch, IDEaS has demonstrated improved access to defence and security innovation by investing $26.8 million for 160 contracts under the first CFP launched in April 2018. Over 600 proposals to help solve some of Canada's most difficult defence and security challenges were received from innovators across Canada, including academia, small & medium companies, large industries, non-governmental organizations and individuals. Areas of focus included surveillance, cyber, space, artificial intelligence, remotely pilot systems, data analytics, and human performance. These efforts will help ensure that our Canadian Armed Forces have the tools and knowledge needed to mitigate new threats, stay ahead of potential adversaries, and meet evolving defence and security needs. Quotes “Through our defence policy, Strong, Secure, Engaged, we are providing the women and men of our Canadian Armed Forces with the tools and equipment they need to do their jobs. The success of the IDEaS first call for proposals is a testament to the importance of investing in Canadian innovation to support the future of our Canadian Armed Forces. These new collaborations will facilitate the flow of innovative ideas and concepts to help deliver the capabilities needed for a strong and agile military. Congratulations to all contract recipients.” – Defence Minister Harjit S. Sajjan “Our Government is committed to providing the women and men of the Canadian Armed Forces with the technology needed to carry out their important work on behalf of Canadians. These contracts not only support our brave members, they also engage Canada's best and brightest innovative minds to address key defence and security challenges.” –Minister of Public Services and Procurement Canada Carla Qualtrough Quick facts The IDEaS program allows the Department of National Defence and the Canadian Armed Forces to access Canadian innovation and ingenuity to help enrich defence capabilities and inform future defence and security decisions. The IDEaS Competitive Projects' CFP was administered by Public Services and Procurement Canada on behalf of the DND. The first CFP with 16 challenges was launched on April 9, 2018 and closed June 7, 2018. The first contracts were announced by the Department of National Defence in August 2018. The second CFP with nine challenges was launched on October 18, 2018 and closed on Nov 27, 2018. The first contract awards from this call for proposals will be initiated in February 2019. Through IDEaS, DND is: Creating networks of innovators (academia, industry, individuals, and other partners) to conduct leading-edge research and development in areas critical to future defence and security needs; Holding competitions and inviting innovators to present viable solutions to specific defence and security challenges; and Implementing new procurement mechanisms that allow DND to develop and test concepts, and to follow through on the most promising ideas. Associated links News Release- First innovation contracts awarded under the Innovation for Defence Excellence and Security (IDEaS) Program Backgrounder – Innovation for Defence Excellence and Security Program (IDEaS) Backgrounder – Government of Canada calls on innovative thinkers to solve defence and security challenges Contract recipients IDEaS website Strong, Secure, Engaged https://www.canada.ca/en/department-national-defence/news/2019/01/defence-invests-in-canadas-innovation-community-for-defence-and-security-solutions.html

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  March 24, 2020 | Local, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security

  Canadian military will no longer release info about numbers of personnel affected by COVID-19

  “This is information we don't want opposing forces to have as we're relatively a small force,” a spokesman said Friday. DAVID PUGLIESE, OTTAWA CITIZEN The Canadian Forces won't be releasing information on the numbers of military personnel who have tested positive for the novel coronavirus because of security reasons. The military had previously confirmed three cases, including one involving a reservist who had been on a personal trip to Spain. The Canadian Forces had also stated that no personnel on overseas operations had tested positive for COVID-19. But going forward, the Canadian military will no longer be confirming any other cases publicly because of operational security, Department of National Defence spokesman Dan Le Bouthillier said Friday. “This is information we don't want opposing forces to have as we're relatively a small force,” he added. Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Jon Vance has warned that the “integrity” of some military units could be threatened by personnel contracting coronavirus. The Canadian Forces could be eventually called upon by the federal government to provide support if the pandemic worsens. The U.S. military has confirmed that more than 50 of its personnel have tested positive for COVID-19. The Canadian Forces has also ordered approximately 2000 COVID-19 test kits for military clinics across the country, Le Bouthillier said. The kits are expected in the next week. “The needs of deployed units for COVID-19 testing will be considered in the distribution plan,” he added. “In the interim, we are working in collaboration with our partners, through a combination of integral, allied and host nation supports, to ensure deployed CAF members are provided with the best available health care.” COVID-19 has also caused the cancellation of Exercise Maple Resolve, the army's main training event for the year, as well as a naval exercise off the coast of Africa. HMCS Glace Bay and HMCS Shawinigan, which were to take part in that naval training, are now returning to Halifax. The ships are expected to arrive in mid-April. Troops from Canadian Forces Base Petawawa who were supposed to take part in Exercise Maple Resolve will now be training in smaller groups, Le Bouthillier said. “We will mitigate this lost training opportunity through the aggressive pursuit of smaller training events and professional development,” he noted. “We will return to our normal managed readiness cycle when conditions permit.” “The current situation with COVID-19 is unprecedented and prudence demands we adopt a posture that allows us to best support civilian authorities should the need arise while safe-guarding the well-being of our personnel and the broader Canadian public,” Le Bouthillier stated. Maple Resolve was scheduled to take place from May 11 to 24 at Wainwright Alta. It normally involves approximately 5000 personnel and 1450 pieces of major equipment. The exercise gives participating personnel the opportunity to train with a wide variety of weapons, simulation technology, armoured fighting vehicles, and aircraft in order to hone their skills in a realistic setting, short of an actual operation. Another exercise that was to have taken place before Maple Resolve has also been cancelled. That training event, scheduled to run from April 5 to May 5, would have involved around 2,000 troops. Military personnel from the U.S., United Kingdom, France and Brazil had been scheduled to take part in Maple Resolve. Many other nations are also cancelling military exercises because of COVID-19. In addition, the Canadian Forces is also limiting public access to its recruiting centres across the country. The military is continuing to recruit but has asked new applicants to begin their recruiting process using its website. “For those applicants currently going through the recruitment process, please note that all face-to-face interactions will be restricted and by appointment only,” the Canadian Forces added in a social media post. “If contacted for an appointment, please note that we are implementing additional protective protocols including increased questions specific to individual circumstances in order to ensure the continued health of our recruiting teams.” https://ottawacitizen.com/news/national/defence-watch/canadian-military-will-no-longer-release-info-about-numbers-of-personnel-affected-by-covid-19

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  April 25, 2019 | Local, Aerospace

  Canada's fighter jet tender competition (finally) takes off next month

  Murray Brewster · CBC News The politically charged competition to replace Canada's aging fleet of fighter jets will rocket forward at the end of May as the federal government releases a long-anticipated, full-fledged tender call. There are four companies in the running: Saab of Sweden, Airbus Defence and Space out of Britain, and the American firms Boeing and Lockheed Martin. Once the request for proposals is released, the manufacturers will have until the end of the year to submit bids, defence and industry sources told CBC News. It was the former Conservative government that kicked off the effort to replace the three-decade-old CF-18s in 2010, an attempt that was shot down in a dispute over the way the F-35 fighter was selected. The program became mired in politics when the Liberals promised during the 2015 election campaign not to buy the stealth jet. A final decision will now have to wait until after this fall's election. The competition comes at a time of renewed geopolitical rivalry between the West and Russia and China, and the chief of the Swedish Air Force says his fighters have been busier than ever. Maj.-Gen. Mats Helgesson said Sweden, which has a long history of being a neutral and non-aligned country, has over the past few years found its airspace violated more frequently by both Russian and NATO warplanes. That has required a stepped-up state of readiness for the country's Gripen fighter jet squadrons. "When we look around our borders, especially over the Baltic Sea, we can see increased activity, not only Russia, but also NATO," Helgesson told CBC News in an interview. "We see exercises. We see daily training and we also see intelligence gathering in a way that we haven't seen for many years." The Swedish air force is about the same size as the Royal Canadian Air Force. It has long flown the homegrown Gripen, which has gone through various iterations and models since it was first introduced in the mid-1990s. Saab AB, headquartered in Stockholm, intends to offer the latest variant — the E version — as a replacement for Canada's current fleet of CF-18s. The aircraft's design improvements, said Helgesson, are a direct result of what the military and the country's engineers can see being developed in Russia. "It's no secret that we need to be able to meet, not only Russia, but also other high-performing aircraft in the future," he said, pointing to Russia's Su-30 fighter jet, the more modern Su-35 (known by the NATO designation "The Flanker") and the stealth Su-57. There has been a rigorous political and academic debate about whether Canada should choose a legacy design from the 1990s, such as the Gripen, or the recently introduced Lockheed Martin F-35 stealth fighter. The notion that stealth fighters are needed for conflicts with countries like Russia — countries that have advanced air-defence systems — was partly dismissed by the Swedish Defence Research Agency in a recent report. Russia's anti-access/areas-denial weapons (known as A2/AD) are not all they're cracked up to be, said the report released last month, which looked at the use of such systems in the Syria conflict. "Much has, in recent years, been made of Russia's new capabilities and the impact they might have on the ability of NATO member states to reinforce or defend the vulnerable Baltic states in case of crisis or war," said the report. "On closer inspection, however, Russia's capabilities are not quite as daunting, especially if potential countermeasures are factored in." The Gripen is intended for operations in rugged environments, such as Sweden's Arctic region, Helgesson said. "We are operating from dispersed bases," he said. "We use highways and small airfields spread all over Sweden in remote places, far away. And the logistics footprint is very small." The Arctic is, naturally, an important area of operation for the Swedish air force, and having far-flung bases has required the force to become creative about warehousing fuel, ammunition and other supplies. Canada's CF-18s occasionally operate from forward bases in the North, but those deployments are infrequent compared with the routine activity of the Swedes, experts have noted in the past. Like Canada, Sweden has just started reinvesting in defence, Helgesson said. The competition among manufacturers for Canada's fighter jet business is expected to be intense. Lockheed Martin will again pitch its F-35 stealth fighter. Boeing is in line to offer the Super Hornet — a larger, more advanced version of the F-18. Airbus Military plans to offer its Eurofighter Typhoon. https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/fighter-jet-saab-airbus-boeing-lockheed-martin-1.5096811?__vfz=medium%3Dsharebar