October 20, 2017 | Local, Aerospace, C4ISR

Government of Canada Announces Successful Proposals for All Domain Situational Awareness Science & Technology Program

October 20, 2017 – Ottawa

The All Domain Situational Awareness (ADSA) Science & Technology program will support the development of options, over a period of five years, for enhanced domain awareness of air, maritime surface and sub-surface approaches to Canada, in particular those in the Arctic.

Surveillance solutions explored and selected through the ADSA Science & Technology program will strengthen the Government of Canada's ability to exercise sovereignty in the North, and will provide a greater awareness of safety and security issues, as well as transportation and commercial activity in Canada's Arctic.

Canada's contributions to regional Arctic security also form a core part of the Canada-United States defence relationship. Nowhere is this more apparent than in joint efforts to renew the North Warning System (NWS) and modernize elements of the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). As the security dynamics in the Arctic evolve, Canada and the United States will continue to work side by side to secure our shared northern air and maritime approaches.

The NWS is a chain of unmanned radar stations in Canada's Arctic that provides aerospace surveillance of Canadian and United States northern approaches.

While the current NWS is approaching the end of its life expectancy from a technological and functional perspective, the range of potential threats to the continent, such as those posed by cruise missiles, has become more complex and increasingly difficult to detect.

To this end, Canada and the United States have already launched bilateral collaboration to seek innovative technological solutions to continental defence challenges including early warning. Studies are ongoing to determine how best to replace this important capability as part of the overall modernization of NORAD.

The ADSA Science & Technology program is part of this bilateral collaboration.

The following are the successful proposals from the first Call for Proposals:

Title: Acoustic Source for Ocean Propagation Experimentation
Supplier: GeoSpectrum Technologies Inc
Location: Dartmouth, Nova Scotia
Domain: Sub-Surface Surveillance
Project Type: Technology Demonstration
Funding: $4,953,038 (until 31 March 2020)

GeoSpectrum Technologies Inc has been awarded a contract to develop, design, build and test an acoustic source which will support scientific experiments in underwater sound propagation. Such a device may form part of future systems capable of providing long distance underwater communications to support, for example, an unmanned underwater vehicle engaged in open ocean or under ice survey work.

Title: Acoustic Array for Persistent Under-Ice Vehicles
Supplier: GeoSpectrum Technologies Inc
Location: Dartmouth, Nova Scotia
Domain: Sub-Surface Surveillance
Project Type: Research and Development
Funding: $1,944,175 (until 20 September 2019)

The objective of this project is to design and build a sensor array suitable for towing from an unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV). The innovative design, employing a fishing line-like cable with acoustic sensors, may be suitable for year-round underwater and under-ice operations, in environmentally hostile Arctic waters.

Title: Development of the Canadian High Arctic Ionospheric Models (CHAIM)
Supplier: University of New Brunswick
Location: Fredericton, New Brunswick
Domain: Air Surveillance
Project Type: Research and Development
Funding: $1,165,143 (until 31 March 2020)

Current ionospheric models, used for prediction of radio wave propagation for communications and other applications, have significant shortcomings in Arctic regions. This is due to inaccuracies and limited local ionospheric observations. This project aims to improve this by producing high latitude electron density models at altitudes between 100 and 3,000 kilometres.

Title: Bistatic High Elevation Long Endurance (HALE) Unmanned Air System (UAS) Scenario Study
Supplier: C-CORE
Location: Ottawa, Ontario
Domain: Surface Surveillance
Project Type: Study
Funding: $221,000 (until 31 July 2018)

This project is for the study of the potential capabilities of using a high altitude long endurance (HALE) unmanned air system (UAS) as a receiver in a bistatic configuration with commercial synthetic aperture radar (SAR) missions, both current and future. The study will look at how various configurations of transmitters and HALE UAS-mounted receivers can augment current detection and discrimination capabilities, while providing a highly mobile, persistent, all weather surveillance asset that currently does not exist.

https://www.canada.ca/en/department-national-defence/news/2017/10/government_of_canadaannouncessuccessfulproposalsforalldomainsitu.html

On the same subject

August 3, 2020 | Local, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security

OVA : AFWerx Fusion
Recently selected among the finalists for the challenge of "Leveraging Operational Effectiveness Through Technology", OVA presented their new augmented reality solution which allows operators to have more information at their fingertips, but also to improve the detection and anchoring capacity of the Microsoft Hololens 2. For more info please watch the video : https://youtu.be/wyHGMRn1kR8 Or visit their virtual booth : https://fusion.afwerxshowcase.com/exhibitor/ova-inc-8724 Building on recent work scientifically demonstrating the effectiveness of such an approach, we have adopted interdisciplinary human factors and cognitive engineering methods to design and test our innovative solution based on augmented reality (AR). Changes in cognitive load have predictable effects upon physiological measures and provide an objective and non‐obtrusive index of the load imposed upon distinct brain systems with specific functions, while state-of-the-eye metrics (e.g., pupil dilation, and blink rate and duration) can indicate workload and fatigue level. Enhancing the Hololens' tracking and identification capability with artificial intelligence has fixed major flaws in the hardware's adoption by main OEMs.
May 27, 2024 | Local, Aerospace

Canada purchasing 16 new fighter jets out of current budget, minister says | CBC News
The first 16 of the air force’s new F-35 fighters will be paid for out of the current federal budget, even though Canada isn’t expected to take delivery of the warplanes until 2026.
June 16, 2020 | Local, Naval

Canada to pay $4.1B for Navy support ships in latest cost increase
The Canadian Press OTTAWA — Canada's national shipbuilding plan was rocked by yet another cost increase on Monday as the federal government revealed it will pay $4.1 billion for two long-overdue support ships for the navy — an increase of $1.5 billion from initial estimates. The revelation came as Ottawa officially awarded a contract for the full construction of the two new Protecteur-class joint support ships to Vancouver's Seaspan shipyards, which has already started work on the first of the vessels. Seaspan was first tapped to build the two ships and several coast guard vessels in 2011, at which point the supply ships were expected to cost $2.6 billion. The figure was later revised to $3.4 billion before another $700 million was added Monday. The first of the support ships was to have been delivered by 2019. The government says it now doesn't expect the first ship before 2023, with the second due in 2025. Seaspan has been under contract to work on some parts of the first ship since June 2018. The Royal Canadian Navy has been without a full-time support ship since 2014 and is currently relying on a converted civilian vessel that is being leased from Quebec's Chantier Davie shipyard to fill the gap. That ship, the MV Asterix, was at the heart of the failed prosecution of retired vice-admiral Mark Norman. The Liberal government was playing down the cost increase to the support ships on Monday, with senior ministers touting the importance of the vessels to the Royal Canadian Navy and the jobs that the project is creating in Vancouver and elsewhere. "These new ships will provide a necessary capability for our Royal Canadian Navy, while providing significant economic benefits and jobs to Canadians, including thousands of jobs created or sustained," Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan said in a statement. Yet the cost increase is the latest to hit the shipbuilding plan, which has been plagued by delays and budget increases for years. The plan is intended to recapitalize the majority of Canada's naval and coast guard fleets. The entire plan to buy new warships to replace the navy's frigates and destroyers, several Arctic patrol vessels, a polar icebreaker and four science vessels for the Canadian Coast Guard in addition to the two support ships was pegged in 2011 at $35 billion. The warships alone are now expected to cost at least $65 billion while the rest of the projects have either seen similar budget increases or their budgets are under review. The delivery schedules for the projects have also been pushed back numerous times. Defence analyst David Perry of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute noted the new cost for the support ships is almost exactly how much Parliament's budget watchdog estimated following an analysis in 2013. The Conservative government at the time refuted the parliamentary budget officer's estimate, with then-public works minister Rona Ambrose saying appropriate safeguards had been put into place to protect taxpayers. "There's not a lot of detail in this today so it's hard to do a line by line," Perry said. "But superficially at least, the PBO's report from 2013 — which I recall being pooh-poohed pretty extensively — has held up pretty well." Ottawa has in recent years produced update cost estimates for most of the vessels being built through the federal shipbuilding plan. However, budgets for the polar icebreaker and an offshore science vessel for the coast guard are still under review. This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 15, 2020. https://www.kamloopsthisweek.com/news/canada-to-pay-4-1b-for-navy-support-ships-in-latest-cost-increase-1.24153254

All news

Government of Canada Announces Successful Proposals for All Domain Situational Awareness Science & Technology Program

On the same subject

Canada purchasing 16 new fighter jets out of current budget, minister says | CBC News The first 16 of the air force’s new F-35 fighters will be paid for out of the current federal budget, even though Canada isn’t expected to take delivery of the warplanes until 2026.

Canada purchasing 16 new fighter jets out of current budget, minister says | CBC News
The first 16 of the air force’s new F-35 fighters will be paid for out of the current federal budget, even though Canada isn’t expected to take delivery of the warplanes until 2026.