March 30, 2021 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security
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October 8, 2019 | International, Land
Canada reviews footage of destroyed and captured Canadian-made Saudi armoured vehicles
By DAVID PUGLIESE, OTTAWA CITIZEN
The Canadian government says it is examining video footage which appears to show Canadian-made light armoured vehicles captured by rebels in Yemen.
Yemen's Houthi rebels released the footage Sunday of the aftermath of a battle with Saudi Arabian forces. The fighting started as an ambush inside Saudi Arabia but then turned into a major cross-border battle, according to the rebels. The footage of the battle was shown on Houthi-run Al Masirah TV and Al Jazeera.
Saudi Arabia has not acknowledged the fighting and the Houthi claims have not been independently verified. The footage shows the captured and destroyed light armoured vehicles as well as Saudi troops taken prisoner.
Over the years, Saudi Arabia has purchased light armoured vehicles from Canada's General Dynamics Land Systems-Canada in London, Ont. In 2014, the then Conservative government announced a deal worth an estimated $15 billion to sell Saudi Arabia more than 700 light armoured vehicles. That controversial deal was later approved by the Liberal government.
Besides the armoured vehicles, the video shows large amounts of captured small arms. It is not clear whether the Houthi forces took possession of some of the armoured vehicles or left them at the ambush site. Houthi spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree told Al Masirah TV that the captured soldiers were moved to “secure places.”
Doug Wilson-Hodge, spokesman for General Dynamics Land Systems-Canada, said the company is declining to comment on the footage.
Global Affairs Canada spokesperson Adam Austen said Friday that department officials are reviewing the footage. It is unclear what would be done after the footage is examined.
Austen also noted the government is reviewing all export permits to Saudi Arabia but no final decision has been taken. “During this review, no new permits have been issued,” Austen added.
A March 21, 2016 Global Affairs Canada memo released under the Access to Information law noted that officials in the department pushed for the sale of the light armoured vehicles to the Saudis despite concerns about human rights abuses and the possibility such equipment could be captured by rebels from Yemen. The memo pointed to the appearance of a Canadian-made LRT-3 sniper rifle photographed in the hands of a Houthi rebel in Yemen. More than 1,300 sniper rifles have been exported from Canada to the Saudi Arabian military and security forces, including several hundred of that particular model, the document added.
“Canada's Embassy in Riyadh assesses that this rifle, along with other Saudi military equipment, was likely captured from Saudi fighters by Houthi fighters during military operations along the Saudi-Yemeni border,” then Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion was told.
The Liberal government launched the review of the light armoured vehicle contract after the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Turkey. Earlier this year a United Nations report determined that Saudi Arabia was responsible for the killing of Khashoggi who was a critic of that country's regime.
A dozen organizations sent Prime Minister Justin Trudeau a letter earlier in August, questioning the status of the review and pointing out that no updates on progress have been provided. The lack of such information has brought “the sincerity of the effort into question,” according to the letter endorsed by organizations such as Oxfam Canada and Amnesty International.
Relations between Canada and Saudi Arabia soured last year after the Canadian government called for the release of two jailed Saudi human rights activists.
The Saudis have also fallen behind in their payments for the light armoured vehicles received from General Dynamics. It was revealed in December that the Saudis owed Canada more than $1 billion for vehicles already delivered.
A Saudi-led coalition, which has been provided with arms and intelligence from the U.S. and other western nations, intervened in Yemen in 2015 after the Houthis overthrew the government. Saudi Arabia has faced severe criticism for its role in the ongoing war in Yemen, with allegations it has conducted unlawful airstrikes on civilians.
Screen shots below of light armoured vehicles were taken from the Houthi video aired Sunday:
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June 19, 2023 | International, Land
Five European states sign letter of intent to buy Mistral air defence systems - sources
France, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia and Hungary signed a letter of intent for the joint purchase of the French Mistral air defence systems, two sources aware of the matter said on Monday.
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December 19, 2018 | International, C4ISR
Marines look for IBM Watson-like artificial intelligence to plan large-scale wargames
By: Todd South The Marines are looking to big data analysis and potentially an IBM Watson-like machine or software to help conduct complex wargaming and plan for future battles in an immersive environment. The Corps' Program Manager for Wargaming Capability, Col. Ross Monta, told Marine Corps Times that a recent program announcement seeks to “bring advanced analytics, visualization, models and simulation together to create an environment that enables senior leaders” to make a host of decisions. Those range from capabilities for the future force and ways to test operational plans, develop concepts of operations and help provide information to prioritize resources. The announcement is the service's second round of information gathering in four technology areas that include modeling and simulation, wargame design, data services and visualization. The Marines are reviewing white papers submitted from industry in January, February, March and July. They're aiming to have testing begin as early as October. At the 2017 Modern Day Marine Military Expo, then-Lt. Col. Monta spoke on how the Corps was developing a three- to five-year plan for a wargaming center at Marine Corps Base Quantico that would allow planners to conduct 20 wargames a year, including two large-scale, 250-participant exercises. The simulation they sought at the time would provide, “accurate representation of future operating environments, simulate friendly and enemy capabilities” and perform “rapid, in-depth analysis of game-derived data or insights.” The then-head of Marine Corps Systems Command, Brig. Gen. Joseph Shrader, said that wargaming had to get beyond “moving yellow stickies on a map.” At that time the center was capable of conducting about 11 wargame scenarios a year, Monta said. They were looking at partnering advanced simulation capabilities, such as the one they're seeking in the fbo.gov posting, with flesh and blood experts from the Ellis Group think tank to better see high-order, long-term warfighting needs. The head of training systems command, Col. Walt Yates, told Marine Corps Times that the aim was to have ways of using artificial intelligence to run simulations as many as 1,000 times. With those numbers, planners can learn probabilities of victory, casualty expectations and the logistics required to accomplish the mission. Simulation capabilities would allow commanders to run scenarios against future threats to gauge what equipment and tactics are most needed to succeed. These factors would inform planning for everything from buying the next piece of combat gear to how best to deploy forces, Yates said. The big data analysis is just one of a list of items the Corps has been working in recent years to push their wargaming from squad to Marine Expeditionary Force-level, leveraging advances in computing, data analytics, virtual reality, augmented reality and gaming. Beginning this past year, Marines at each of the Corps 24 infantry battalions began fielding Tactical Decision Kits, a combination of laptop, VR goggles and drones that allow small unit leaders to map battle spaces and then run operations plans in VR to rehearse missions. Earlier this year, MARCORSYSCOM officials sought industry input on pushing weapons simulations for live training, force-on-force shooting past the decades old laser technology still in use today. They want shooting systems that more realistically replicate how bullets and other projectiles move and the types of damage they cause. The system that would be able to simulate all weapons and vehicles typically seen in a battalion, which would include at least: M4/M16; M9 or sidearm, the M27 Infantry Automatic Weapon; hand grenades; rocket propelled grenades; Light Anti-Tank Weapon; 60mm mortars; 81mm mortars; Claymore antipersonnel mine; Mk-19 grenade launcher; Russian machine gun; AK-47 variants; M41 TOW; Javelin missile and the Carl Gustaf recoilless rifle. It would also allow for immediate after-action review so that trainers and commanders could see where their Marines were aiming, when and how much they fired to strike a target and what damage their opponents caused. https://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/your-marine-corps/2018/12/18/marines-look-for-ibm-watson-like-artificial-intelligence-to-plan-large-scale-wargames