L3 WESCAM Wins Contracts Valued at More Than U.S. $200 Million During First Half of 2017

On the same subject

• 

  December 9, 2024 | Local, Aerospace

  Canadian special forces spy plane unit sees staff exodus

  Exodus of military staff from Canadian special forces spy plane unit.

• 

  January 28, 2021 | Local, Aerospace

  ‘First-class’ fighter pilot becomes eVTOL entrepreneur

  BY NATASHA MCKENTY | JANUARY 28, 2021 Estimated reading time 14 minutes, 58 seconds. Brandon Robinson's Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) and Top Aces fighter pilot exploits compare to those of a protagonist in a blockbuster movie. After graduating from the Royal Military College of Canada with First Class Honours, his career quickly skyrocketed from frontline fighter squadron to being selected for the prestigious Fighter Weapons Instructor Course (FWIC) – the Canadian version of Top Gun. He obtained an MBA at Royal Roads University, and then did a tour in Ottawa where he “managed over $4 billion in procurement projects for the Fighter Force.” He spent the next few years instructing for FWIC. “Think ‘Viper' from the movie Top Gun,” he laughed. I then completed our Joint Command and Staff College program for those flagged for senior leadership.” While instructing for FWIC, Robinson earned the CF-18 fighter pilot instructor role at 410 Squadron in Cold Lake, Alberta, leading into oversight of CF-18 Fleet Tactical Standards, and then onto senior project management with a deputy director role in multiple Air Force projects. Robinson is modest. He credits his competitive nature “and a lot of luck” for his success. “I fully acknowledge that without exceptionally talented and competitive friends, I would not have passed, let alone have been fortunate enough to fly jets,” he told Skies. He found Military College to be physically and emotionally demanding, having a way of teaching you your limits and how to “be at peace with them.” Despite the challenges, he was one of the top five engineers in the program all four years. For Robinson, aviation was innate. His grandfather, RCAF Capt Eric Robinson was a Second World War bomber pilot. His father, Brian Robinson, began flying at the age of 14, but his hopes of joining the Air Force were grounded when he learned his vision wasn't good enough. “My father was very young when he and [my grandfather] built from scrap metal what is now a family airplane — an old RC-3 Republic Seabee aircraft.” Brian retired from his day job to turn the family hobby into a successful custom aviation engineering business. There was always “an army of airplanes” in and around Robinson's home. The first time Robinson piloted a plane, he was three years old. His grandfather let him sit in the seat in front of him. “I couldn't sit. I had to stand,” he laughed. “He said, ‘OK, you have control, so take us over there.'” That experience “made an imprint” for Robinson. After high school, much to his “mother's chagrin,” he joined the RCAF to “fly fast jets.” After military training, “there's a big [graduation] ceremony where they hand out the slots, and I remember looking at the card and seeing the CF-18 symbol on the bottom,” he said. Internally, he was bursting. Not surprisingly, when asked about the memorable moments of his career, he said it's difficult to choose. Robinson recalled, after being on the Squadron for just three months in Bagotville, Quebec, he was deployed to Hawaii for a joint exercise with the U.S. Navy. “The U.S. Navy has this big exercise, and the Canadians were asked to go,” he said. “So, we ferried CF-18s across the country, from Quebec to Comox, British Columbia. We overnighted, met up with an aerial refueler and then the next thing I know I'm in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, tanking off a refueler. There's a portion where, if you can't get gas, you're going to have to eject because you can't get back to land. I'm a 27-year-old kid who only has 200 hours of experience in this CF-18, and I'm over the middle of the ocean thinking, ‘OK, you better make this happen.' It's not the easiest maneuver either,” he laughed. Robinson shared the story of how he earned his call-sign: Repo. “I was flying, and my left engine essentially blew up; one of the main turbine hubs fractured. It severely crippled the aircraft, placing it into a reversionary control architecture. The engine was destroyed, and the aircraft was on fire,” he said. After 10 “very long seconds” of being “out of control,” he “dealt with the fire” and regained control. “I was able to land it safely back at the base. However, it was too badly damaged to fix. So, the joke was that the government had to repossess or repo it,” he laughed. “The damaged engine almost fell out when I landed.” He remembered flying low-level over the ocean while “shooting missiles at drones and dropping bombs on remote-controlled moving ships; being in front of 100 angry fighter pilots leading a NATO coalition strike mission; [and] early morning departures over Torrey Pines in California to dogfight over the ocean.” In 2018, with 20 years of service and a list of neck and spine injuries in his rear-view, he knew it was time to find adrenaline elsewhere. “You can't pull seven-and-a-half Gs for 20 years without hurting a few things,” he laughed. Leaving, he admitted, was a difficult decision, but entrepreneurship was also on his radar. The kid that grew up in rural Ontario, Canada, with an “army of airplanes” at his disposal and a military career most would envy, headed out to his next call of duty. He joined forces with his father to start Horizon Aircraft, an aerospace startup that is currently developing the Cavorite X5 — a new eVTOL (electric vertical take-off and landing) design for the urban air mobility market. Horizon has been developing the Cavorite X5 for the past two years. The concept for the X5 came from the company's initial prototype, the X3 — an amphibious design with a hybrid electric power system. “When we were asked to push the performance even further, we naturally began investigating distributed electric propulsion and the potential for eVTOL modification of the core X3 concept,” explained Robinson. “That's how the X5 The five-seat Cavorite X5 is powered by an electric motor coupled with a high-efficiency gas engine, but is ultimately built for fully electric flight. Horizon is building the aircraft to fly at speeds up to 350 kilometers per hour, with a 450-km range. The focus is to produce an aircraft “able to do real work in harsh environments,” including disaster relief, medevac, air cargo and personnel transport. Today, Robinson has his hands full with multiple patents pending, including a “fan-in-wing design” that would allow the Cavorite X5 to fly either like a conventional aircraft or an eVTOL when required. The X5 “flies like a normal aircraft for 99 percent of its mission,” said Robinson. The wing design “allows the aircraft to return to normal wing-borne lift after its vertical portion is complete; when moving forward, the wings close up and hide the vertical lift fans.” Horizon is working towards a large-scale prototype it hopes to have flying by the end of 2021. Robinson has become comfortable fielding questions based on skepticism. He's built an army of support from his highly-skilled network, including Virgin Galactic test pilot and close friend, Jameel Janjua. “Our team is extremely experienced, formed out of my father's previous custom aviation engineering business. We also have an individual leading the technical development who has designed, built and tested two novel aircraft designs from scratch. https://skiesmag.com/news/first-class-fighter-pilot-evtol-entrepreneur

• 

  October 28, 2022 | Local, C4ISR

  Canadian Centre for Cyber Security releases National Cyber Threat Assessment 2023-2024

  The Canadian Centre for Cyber Security (Cyber Centre) has released its National Cyber Threat Assessment 2023-2024, alerting that state sponsored and financially motivated cyber threats are increasingly likely to affect Canadians, and that foreign threat actors are attempting to influence Canadians through use of misinformation, disinformation and malinformation in online spaces. This report outlines the most common cyber threats to Canadians and Canadian organizations, the likelihood that these cyber threats will occur and how they will evolve in the coming years. This unclassified assessment found that ransomware is almost certainly the most disruptive form of cybercrime facing Canadians and that it remains a persistent threat to Canadian organizations. It also says critical infrastructure is increasingly at risk from cyber threat activity but, in the absence of direct international hostilities involving Canada, it is unlikely that state-sponsored actors would intentionally disrupt Canadian critical infrastructure. The Cyber Centre has assessed that state-sponsored cyber threat activity is impacting Canadians, with state actors targeting diaspora populations and activists in Canada, Canadian organizations and their intellectual property for espionage and individuals for financial gain. We have also observed cyber threat actors' attempts to influence Canadians using misinformation, disinformation and malinformation (MDM), and we assess that Canadians' exposure to MDM will almost certainly increase over the next two years. In addition, the assessment details that disruptive technologies, such as cryptocurrencies, machine learning and quantum computing, are bringing new opportunities for cyber threat actors and, thus, new threats to Canadians. While threats continue to evolve, the Government of Canada has made cyber security a priority. Investments include the passage of the CSE Act, which gave the Communications Security Establishment the ability to better intercept and disrupt foreign threats. Budget 2022 has allowed $875.2 million to bolster CSE's ability to deter, defend, and prevent cyber-attacks. These investments will protect Canada, our critical infrastructure, our government systems, and our national security. New this year, the Cyber Centre has also compiled its best advice and guidance for Canadians, Canadian organizations and critical infrastructure to address the cyber security threats outlined in the assessment. Background This is the Cyber Centre's third National Cyber Threat Assessment. The first was published in December 2018. In addition to publishing the National Cyber Security Assessment 2023-2024 today, the Cyber Centre has also published an updated edition of its Introduction to the Cyber Threat Environment. This introductory reference document provides baseline information about the cyber threat environment, including information about cyber threat actors and their motivations, their techniques and tools in a Canadian context. About the Cyber Centre Part of the Communications Security Establishment (CSE), the Cyber Centre is the Government of Canada's technical authority on cyber security and the single, unified source of expert advice, guidance, services and support on cyber security operational matters. The Cyber Centre works with businesses and organizations that have been victim to a cyber incident in order to mitigate the impact of cyber security incidents. https://www.canada.ca/en/communications-security/news/2022/10/canadian-centre-for-cyber-security-releases-national-cyber-threat-assessment-2023-20242.html