Saab outlines potential expansion in Canada

On the same subject

• 

  April 27, 2020 | Local, Land

  Canada extends ban on arms sales to NATO ally Turkey

  Murray Brewster Canada's ban on new arms exports to Turkey has been extended indefinitely, Global Affairs confirmed today. The Liberal government imposed a suspension on the approval of export permits last fall after Turkish forces launched an incursion into northern Syria. Charles-Marie Matte, deputy director of the export controls division at Global Affairs, said in an email that approvals have been suspended "until further notice." The government of Turkish President Recep Erdoğan has insisted the incursion was necessary to create a buffer zone against Kurdish militia forces. Turkey is on a Canadian government list of "trusted" countries where Canadian defence contractors can safely do business and sell sophisticated, restricted weapons. While some permit applications are reviewed on a case-by-case basis, the revised notification makes it clear that certain military items "will be presumptively denied" to Turkey. In other words, companies with those goods shouldn't even bother applying for permission to sell them to Turkey. 'Exceptional circumstances' The items in question include ammunition, light weapons, armour, protective equipment and electronics. "Exceptional circumstances" related to Canada's international alliance commitments might see the government consider issuing a permit, the notice said. An example might be the export of components for "a NATO missile defence system," Matte said in an email. Turkey has said it's willing to buy U.S.-made MIM-104 Patriot air defence missiles system if it gets a good price from Washington. The country's foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, was quoted in international publications last week saying his country was interested in the purchase as part of a solution to the stalemate with the Trump administration over the Erdogan government's purchase of a Russian-made S-400 air defence system. Cavusoglu also repeated Turkey's offer to lead "a technical working group" with NATO to iron out concerns about his country operating the Russian system while still being part of the alliance. U.S. defence contractor Raytheon, which has a branch in Canada, manufactures the Patriot missile system. Rising tensions with Syria Since the incursion last fall, tensions between Turkey and Syria have only increased and came close to boiling over last winter. There were direct clashes between the Turkish army and Syrian government forces in late February and early March. An air strike on rebel-held territory in the northwestern Syrian province of Idlib on Feb 27 killed 34 Turkish soldiers. In response, Turkey shot down three Syrian warplanes and has used armed drones to carry out several attacks on forces loyal to Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. Several other countries — including France, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Norway, the Netherlands, Finland, Spain and Germany — have imposed an arms embargo on Turkey. https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/turkey-canada-arms-sales-nato-1.5541714

• 

  November 8, 2018 | Local, Aerospace

  Why do some planes in Canada lack potentially life-saving emergency beacons?

  David Burke · CBC News More than half of the 27,000 civil aircraft in Canada aren't equipped with a modern device that could save lives by allowing search and rescue crews to more easily find potential crash survivors, according to the Transportation Safety Board of Canada. Modern emergency locator transmitters, or ELTs, emit radio distress calls that can be picked up by satellites, but many small, private and recreational aircraft use older technology that's of little use to rescuers if a plane goes down, because the signal is unlikely to be picked up. "There's no way to tell where it's coming from, no way to tell the identity of the source," said Steve Lett, head of the Cospas-Sarsat Secretariat, the international organization that runs the satellite-based search and rescue system. "It relies on the luck of having another aircraft possibly flying nearby and that aircraft having its receiver tuned to 121.5 MHz, and also that aircraft not assuming that it's some sort of a test." Search and rescue satellites no longer pick up the 121.5 MHz distress signal, which isn't a problem for large commercial airplanes most Canadians use to travel because they use up-to-date ELTs. Those systems are designed to go off when a plane crashes, sending a signal to orbiting satellites that is relayed to a mission control centre. Local search and rescue crews are then advised where they can find the crash site. "Private aircraft, general aviation aircraft, they are not as closely supervised. They tend to crash much more frequently and yet governments ... the Canadian and U.S. governments included, continue to allow them to fly with only a 121.5 MHz ELT," said Lett, whose organization stopped monitoring the 121.5 MHz frequency in 2009. The older distress signals weren't accurate, so Cospas-Sarsat began monitoring ELTs that emit a 406 MHz radio signal instead. Those signals are digital and capable of providing more accurate location information and even the identity of the aircraft. But in Canada, it is not mandatory for planes to have a 406 MHz ELT. The Transportation Safety Board of Canada determined in 2016 there were approximately 27,000 aircraft registered in Canada that required an ELT, but only 10,086 equipped with a 406 MHz ELT. Full article: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/emergency-locator-transmitters-search-and-rescue-aircraft-planes-1.4895600

• 

  July 18, 2022 | Local, Aerospace

  Military plans to create Canadian Space Division in coming weeks

  The division would be responsible to the Royal Canadian Air Force commander for the generation of space capabilities for various missions.