20 décembre 2019 | Local, Aérospatial
Murray Brewster
The audacious attack on Saudi Arabia's Abqaiq refinery and the Khurais oil field last September sent shivers down the spines of some Canadian military planners.
The stunning damage caused by a swarm of drones and cruise missiles — launched either from Iraqi or Iranian territory — proved to be an almost perfect illustration of the kind of vulnerability the Canadian Army faces in the rapidly evolving modern battlefield.
It's been seven years since the army retired the last of its ground-based air defence systems. By all indications, it will be another eight years before the Department of National Defence acquires a replacement system.
The Liberal government's defence policy talks about buying new anti-aircraft equipment — and perhaps now anti-drone technology — but the project is still only in what defence officials call the "options analysis" phase.
The commander of Canada's army said restoring that anti-aircraft defence is one of his top priorities.
"Air defence is right at the top of the pile of stuff I want to get in," Lt.-Gen. Wayne Eyre told CBC News earlier this month.
"It is a capability shortfall right now. And as you see the emerging threats out there, it is one that concerns me."
Eyre, who recently served as deputy commander of the United Nations Command in Korea, described the technology used to attack the Saudi facilities as "an emerging threat" that Canada's soldiers need to be prepared for, especially "the swarming tactics of unmanned aerial vehicles."
For more than 15 years, Canadian military planners — hip-deep in fighting a counter-insurgency war in Afghanistan — were unconcerned about updating Cold War-era equipment meant to shoot down low-flying aircraft. The Taliban had no air force.
The last of the Canadian army's air defence equipment — the Oerlikon Air Defence Anti-Tank System (ADATS) — was retired in 2012 after an aborted attempt to modernize the vehicles. At the time, the federal government under then-prime minister Stephen Harper was cutting $2.1 billion out of the defence budget.
But the threat picture for Canadian soldiers changed dramatically when Russia annexed Crimea in 2014. That event launched a new era of state-to-state tensions — one where Canadian troops again face attack from the air.
At the moment, the Canadian Forces' solution for deployments — such as the current mission in Latvia — is to pair Canadians with allied forces that have air defence capabilities.
"We do it as part of a coalition to make sure somebody has that capability, but [the threat] is constantly evolving and we need to be on top of that," said Eyre.
The use of drones in the Saudi attack — and the prospect of artificial intelligence linking unmanned vehicles into a more lethal swarm in the near future — is not something Canadian military planners were looking at until fairly recently.
"One of the stressors in the security environment is the acceleration of technological change. How do we stay abreast of that?" said Eyre. "How do we get equipment into the hands of our soldiers that is advanced as some of our potential adversaries might be?"
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/anti-aircraft-canadian-forces-1.5399461
22 mars 2021 | Local, Naval
OTTAWA, Ontario — Team Cohort, a team of autonomous industry experts comprising Kongsberg Geospatial, Four DRobotics Corp and SeeByte, has been awarded a contract from Weir Marine Engineering to develop and test a Maritime Multi-Domain Control System (MMDCS), Kongsberg Geospatial said in a...
7 mai 2021 | Local, Naval
The federal government is moving ahead with building two heavy icebreakers for the Canadian Coast Guard operations in the High Arctic, federal officials announced Thursday. The 150-metre-long vessels will be able to operate in heavy ice conditions for up to nine months at a time as well carrying out important science research in the High...
31 octobre 2018 | Local, Aérospatial
DANIEL LEBLANC Canada is facing a complex challenge as it gets ready to launch a full competition for new fighter jets stemming from its long-standing involvement in the international coalition that is building the Lockheed Martin Corp. F-35 stealth aircraft. The federal government confirmed on Monday that it will maintain its membership in the F-35 consortium. At the same time, Ottawa is getting ready to send out requests for proposals for new fighter jets to five potential bidders, including Lockheed Martin. Federal officials insist that all bidders will have to adhere to Canada's Industrial and Technological Benefits policy (ITB), which requires the winning supplier to “make investments in Canada equal to the value of the contract." The cost of replacing the Royal Canadian Air Force's current fleet of CF-18s is estimated at $26-billion. Under the rules of the F-35 consortium, however, partner countries such as Canada must forego such regional offset programs, which have long been a central element of Canadian military acquisitions. Earlier this year, Canada paid $54-million to remain in the F-35 buyers' pool. “We're keeping our involvement alive to get access to that product at the best possible terms,” Pat Finn, an assistant deputy minister at the Department of National Defence, said in an interview on Monday. “If the F-35 were to win, the lowest cost access to the aircraft is through the partnership. Having been involved from the outset, we don't want to lose the privilege of that." Since 1997, Canada has paid nearly half a billion dollars to stay in the F-35 consortium. Jeff Waring, a director-general at Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, said it will be up to Lockheed Martin to determine how it can meet Canada's requirement for regional offsets if it wants to bid on the contract. “The ITB policy is a market-driven approach; it doesn't prescribe to bidders how they need to invest in Canada,” he said. The federal government has nearly finalized its request for proposal for the new fighter jets. It is now waiting for industry feedback over the next six weeks before launching the formal competition next year. Three European companies (Dassault Aviation, Saab Automobile and Airbus) and two American companies (Lockheed Martin and Boeing Co.) have said they intend to bid on the contract. In the draft request for proposal, the government has laid out new details on its “economic impact test” that will penalize companies that are deemed to have a negative effect on the Canadian economy. When it was announced last year, the test was dubbed the “Boeing clause” because of U.S.-based Boeing's trade dispute with Canada's Bombardier Inc., which Bombardier subsequently won. The new measure is expected to look at whether companies have launched a trade action in the two previous years against a Canadian company. Given Boeing launched its case against Bombardier in 2017, it will likely be in the clear by the time it would have to submit a final bid in 2020. The previous Conservative government had committed to buying F-35 fighter jets, which were deemed at the time to be the only aircraft able to meet Canada's requirements, in large part because of their stealth capabilities. The current Liberal government has modified the requirements to make sure there can be competition between the various manufacturers. “If your aircraft cannot meet [a requirement] today, we are not saying automatically that you're out; but you have to tell us what is your solution to meet it, at what price and what schedule,” said Mr. Finn. In the last federal election, the Liberals said in their platform that they would not buy the F-35, promising instead to select “one of the many, lower-priced options that better match Canada's defence needs.” However, the Liberals also promised to launch an “open and transparent” competition, which is now scheduled to be launched in May. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-ottawa-sticking-to-f-35-program-as-it-gets-ready-for-full-fighter/