January 29, 2021 | Local, Land
From chameleon-inspired camouflage to clothing that mends itself when damaged, the Department of National Defence is looking to outfit Canadian troops with next-wave gear that provides better protection — and less detection — on the battlefield.
Those are just two technologies in a long list of cutting-edge scientific advancements that DND is spending $9 million over three years to research, spearheaded by five Canadian universities.
"Adaptive camouflage would be more like a chameleon where, depending on your background, your camouflage will modify itself. So if you are in front of a dark wall, your camouflage could be darker. If you are in front of a whiter wall, your camouflage would be lighter," said Eric Fournier, director general of innovation with DND.
That technology exists and is being worked on right now, he said.
Fournier and the researchers working for DND are tight-lipped on details about how effective this kind of technology is and exactly how it works. DND did not supply CBC with any images of the proposed designs.
"I'm not sure we're allowed to talk about it all that much yet," said Shona McLaughlin, defence scientist portfolio manager with the federal Innovation for Defence Excellence and Security program.
Carleton University, Polytechnique Montreal, the University of Manitoba, the University of British Columbia and Université de Sherbrooke are leading the work. They have all received around $1.5 million so far, except for Polytechnique, which is working on two projects and has been given almost $3 million.
A handful of businesses are also helping with the research, including athletic apparel manufacturer Lululemon Athletica and engineering and manufacturing firm Precision ADM.
Each university is researching what's known as advanced materials, which are engineered to perform a variety of specific functions. Some of those materials can be fashioned into clothing that repairs itself.
As an example, McLaughlin said a capsule could be embedded in a shirt or armoured vest that, when the garment or gear is damaged, bursts and releases a liquid or foam that solidifies and seals the hole.
Research is also being done on new materials that may one day replace Kevlar and ceramics as the chief components of body armour.
"Now we're looking at materials where we can actually tune the properties, we can make them lighter weight, stronger and less bulky," said McLaughlin.
The goal is to have armour that holds up better to bullets, high-velocity ballistics and shrapnel, and is more comfortable for the wearer.
It's innovation that would be extremely helpful to troops on the battlefield, said Randy Turner, a retired special forces soldier with years of experience in combat zones.
Turner was part of the Canadian Armed Forces Joint Task Force 2 (JTF2), a highly trained unit that handles complex and risky missions throughout the world. He had tours of duty in Afghanistan and Bosnia.
On average, Turner said soldiers carry around 60 to 65 pounds of equipment when they're on duty.
"A soldier spends a lot of time on his feet and he's moving in and around vehicles. Anything that could be a little bit smaller, a little bit lighter, would also be a little less taxing on the individual's body," said Turner.
The adaptive camouflage and self-repairing clothing are also of interest to Turner. He said anything that helps a soldier blend in is useful. Rips and tears in uniforms and damage to boots are also common, so clothing that repairs itself would be helpful.
Still, he's apprehensive about the technology and questions whether wearable tech could distract military personnel from their job.
"Has anyone asked, you know, what a soldier needs? Has anyone done a real hard needs assessment on what an infantry unit, for example, requires right now? I'm willing to bet the first thing that comes to mind is not going to be a uniform," said Turner.
He said the $9 million being spent on the research could be used for other things.
"That's a lot of money that could be, in my opinion, better utilized to give an infantry unit some bullets so they can train and become proficient with their firearms," he said. "Give some quality training to soldiers, and that is a level of protection."
At the universities, research continues with teams experimenting with fabrics that can block radio signals and printable electronics that can be woven into clothing.
Printable electronics could perform a number of functions, according to McLaughlin, but she said monitoring a military member's health is high on the list.
"It could be for health monitoring, if you want to make sure your soldiers are not overly stressed because they're in a hot environment ... the heat, the blood pressure, the actual stress from the exertion, those things you might want to keep tabs on," she said.
Fournier has no doubt these new systems could help save lives.
"Our soldiers go all over the world for all kinds of missions," he said. "Just to inform them, for example, [that] they're getting dehydrated ... It could have an impact on how missions would happen, for sure."
Teams have been working on this research for a little over a year and while progress is being made, no one has come forward with a finished project. Fournier said work like this can take years and there's no guarantee of a final product.
He said the important thing is that researchers are moving the science of advanced materials forward.
"In the end, we may not end up with a new protecting gear, but we will have learned a lot about making that protective gear in the future," said Fournier.
McLaughlin also said people should temper their expectations.
"It's not as simple as throwing everything in a pot, stirring it, and boom — you've got a material," she said.
"There's processing challenges that [researchers] have to overcome. So that's one of the big things that they're working on right now ... how to actually create these things and how to evaluate them."
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/military-research-technology-combat-protection-1.5889528
May 28, 2024 | Local, Land
The Honourable Bill Blair, Minister of National Defence, will provide a keynote address at the Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries’ (CADSI’s) annual defence industry tradeshow, CANSEC.
January 11, 2019 | Local, Aerospace
by Chris Thatcher The Aerospace Engineering Test Establishment (AETE) is unlikely to move from 4 Wing Cold Lake, Alta., until at least 2021, but already its location is attracting interest from potential future tenants. “The AETE building is the second-largest we have on the base, [so] there are a lot of eyes on my hangar,” Col Eric Grandmont, AETE's commanding officer, told Skies in a recent interview. While no one has shown up with paint swatches and asked to measure for new drapes, “a few people at different levels did walkthroughs,” he said. “There is a lot of interest, and rightly so. It could help a lot in the transition as new fighter capabilities come in and allow the base to grow.” The AETE hangar had been considered a likely destination for a new squadron of Boeing F/A-18E and F/A-18F Super Hornets, had the government proceeded with a plan to acquire 18 aircraft as an interim measure to augment the Royal Canadian Air Force's current fleet of 76 CF-188 Hornets. Though the Liberals have since opted to acquire 25 Royal Australian Air Force F/A-18 Hornets–18 operational and seven for spare parts–following a commercial dispute with Boeing, the AETE building is still part of the RCAF's future expansion plans for the fighter fleet. AETE's pending move made headlines in early December when Patrick Finn, the assistant deputy minister for materiel (ADM Mat) at the Department of National Defence (DND), told the Standing Committee on Public Accounts that the $470 million allotted for acquisition of interim fighter jets and an upgrade program to the entire Hornet fleet also included funding to cover AETE's relocation. The comment touched off an exchange with the committee chair, Conservative MP Kevin Sorenson of Battle River-Crowfoot, Alta., over when the decision was made and whether it might impact jobs in Cold Lake. In fact, the possible relocation of AETE dates back to the Defence Renewal Plan, an effort begun in 2012 to streamline business processes, find efficiencies, and maximize operational results across the Canadian Armed Forces and DND. As part of a change introduced in 2016 to how the RCAF and ADM Mat contract maintenance and support service, known as the Sustainment Initiative, DND conducted a review called the Engineering Flight Test Rationalization to assess ways to make AETE more sustainable, effective and efficient. The Flight Test Establishment had originally moved to Cold Lake from Ottawa in 1971 to take advantage of the large test range and more favourable flying climate. At the time, AETE owned a substantial fleet of instrumented test aircraft. Today, of the RCAF's 19 fleets of aircraft, AETE operates just two: two CF-188 Hornets and two CH-146 Griffons. It also has five CT-114 Tutors that are used mostly for proficiency flying. “For the remaining 17 fleets, we go on the road and deploy to do testing,” explained Grandmont, a flight test engineer. “Which means we are on the road a lot.” As fleets have become more digital, AETE has changed how it conducts tests. Where in the past an aircraft might have been instrumented from nose to tail–a process that could take months–AETE now has instrumentation packages that leverage the digital architecture of aircraft and can be quickly installed on location. “The technology is there to be able to get pretty much all the data we need,” he said of the newer and upgraded fleets. “Every project will have specific requirements, so it doesn't mean we don't have to put string gauges and stuff like that on an aircraft, but we are trying to maximize the existing systems onboard the aircraft.” However, that expanded travel, which can range from three to seven months a year, has made it difficult to attract test pilots and flight test engineers to Cold Lake. Aside from fighter pilots, who are already based at 4 Wing, few from the transport, tactical aviation, maritime patrol, maritime helicopter and search and rescue fleets are willing to volunteer. “We are asking people to move their family to Cold Lake and then deploy all the time to do testing,” said Grandmont. “And it's not that easy to travel to and from Cold Lake. It can become a 14- to 15-hour day or a two-day (trip) each way.” In addition to attracting and retaining talent–“I am starting to have a line up just based on the news from a couple of weeks ago; there are already people calling and asking, when are you guys moving?” said Grandmont–the return to Ottawa would also allow AETE to capitalize on testing resources already at the Ottawa International Airport operated by Transport Canada, which also employs test pilots and flight test engineers, and the National Research Council Canada's flight research laboratory. Transport Canada and the NRC focus primarily on commercial flight, but all three organizations use similar support systems to develop aircraft instrumentation packages, to test basic systems, and to analyze data. Transport Canada also has a new flight simulator building to accommodate the CAE 3000 Series helicopter cockpit simulators for the Canadian Coast Guard Bell 412EPI and Bell 429 helicopters, as well as fixed-wing simulators for a Cessna Citation C550 and a Beechcraft King Air. “We gain a lot of efficiency because those simulators are way cheaper to operate than what we do right now,” said Grandmont. The aim would be to create a Canadian centre of excellence for flight test science, engineering instrumentation and evaluation, he added. Among AETE's 50 to 60 recent and current projects were systems testing on the CH-147F Chinooks prior to their first operational deployment to Mali under hot and dusty conditions; preparation of the CH-148 Cyclone maritime helicopter for its first deployment aboard HMCS Ville de Quebec in summer 2018; test and evaluation of CF-188 Hornet systems and gear as the RCAF finalizes an upgrade package; and testing of systems and the airframe as the CP-140 Aurora completes a four-phased incremental modernization project and structural life extension. “Any question that cannot be answered using computer models or wind tunnels, then flight test is the last test to be able to answer those questions before a system on an aircraft can get an airworthiness certification,” explained Grandmont. https://www.skiesmag.com/news/aete-to-join-testing-centre-of-excellence-in-ottawa
March 12, 2024 | Local, Security
Keynote Address by Minister of National Defence Bill Blair to the CDA Institute Ottawa Conference on Security and Defence