11 juin 2018 | Local, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR
It's been a week since the Trump White House slapped Canada with steel and aluminum tariffs on the ground that reliance on our imports was threatening the “national security” of the United States.
If Canadians are particularly galled at this, it might be because no foreign country in modern times has done more to arm and equip the United States than Canada. “I would not be surprised if every single major aircraft or warship in U.S. military service today has Canadian components in it,” said Richard Shimooka, a senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute.
Below, a cursory summary of some of the Canadian stuff used by history's most powerful military.
Landing gear
We'll start with an entry that directly concerns steel and aluminum. Quebec-based Héroux-Devtek is the world's third largest aircraft landing gear company, and some of that is thanks to a longstanding relationship with the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy. Specifically, Héroux-Devtek is in charge of landing gear repair and overhaul for several large U.S. aircraft, including the heavy-lift C-130 Hercules. Of course, landing gear is made almost entirely of steel or aluminum. So, thanks to these new tariffs, American military procurers are either going to start getting hosed on their Héroux-Devtek contracts — or they're going to have start getting their landing gear overhauls from a U.S. company that isn't their first choice.
Armoured personnel carriers
“Canada and the US have been building military equipment for each other since the summer of 1940,” David Bercuson, a military historian at the University of Calgary, told the National Post. “Literally billions of dollars of such equipment has passed the border since then.” The most obvious example is the Stryker. There are nearly 5,000 Stryker armoured personnel carriers in the U.S. military, and all of them were built in London, Ontario. Not only that, but the Stryker is even based on a Canadian design, the LAV III. Coming in at a rock bottom $4 million apiece, the Americans use Strykers for everything: Ambulances, firefighting, missile platforms, chemical weapons defence and mine detection. They even started rigging them up with giant lasers to shoot down enemy drones. Armoured vehicles happen to be a Canadian specialty. While the United States was busy throwing money at big ticket items such as tanks and attack helicopters, the shoestring Canadians have gotten very good at the much cheaper task of simply strapping guns and armour to oversized trucks. And if a U.S. diplomat found themselves touring Iraq in an armoured Toyota Land Cruiser, chances are good they were shielded from bullets and IEDs by Canadian workmanship.
Specialized aircraft
Here again, the United States has it covered when it comes to big ticket aircraft such as fighters or bombers. But the U.S. military will occasionally call up Canadian plane-makers when it needs something quirky. Bombardier has retooled some of its airliners and business jets to act as airborne radar platforms. When the United States Army Parachute Team appears at air shows, they're jumping out of a Canadian-made de Havilland Twin Otter. De Havilland has also hooked up the Americans with some of its famously rugged prop planes for use in electronic warfare, remote cargo drops or simply moving National Guard troops around Alaska. All told, the U.S. military is flying more planes built in Canada than in any other foreign country.
The U.S. military's only cargo drone (and it has the most Canadian name imaginable)
A U.S. special forces unit is pinned down on a remote Central Asian mountaintop. Surrounded by militants on all sides, it needs an emergency airlift of water and ammunition to even see daybreak. Enter the SnowGoose, an unmanned autogyro specializing in precision deliveries to special forces. The SnowGoose is the U.S. military's only cargo drone, and it's an all-Canadian creation. An emerging theme on this list is that Canada is great at building niche military hardware for cheap, and the SnowGoose is no exception. As the drone's Stittsville, Ont. builders note, it can move cargo across a battlefield at a fraction of the price of other drones.
Nuclear fuel
Uranium is a big part of the modern U.S. military. It has more than 100 nuclear-powered vessels in the navy, and there's also those 7,000 atomic weapons it still has lying around. Canada has sold a whole lot of uranium to the U.S. military, going all the way back to the initial atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. However, the taps were somewhat shut off in the 1960s, when Canada started limiting uranium exports to “peaceful” purposes. Still, with Canada ranking as the United States' top uranium dealer, we help keep their uranium topped up enough to have plenty left over for the military. Speaking of nuclear weapons, it might behoove the White House to remember that if a Russian or North Korean missile should happen to be fired in their direction, a Canada-based NORAD station will likely be among the first to let them know.
Making fighter jets last forever
This entry should fill thrifty Canadians with particular pride: We've gotten so good at squeezing every penny out of our CF-18s that we're now globally renowned experts at fighter jet life extension. Among other things, Canada invented “robotic shot-peening,” a method of using robots to restore aging aircraft with a precision never before known. The technology has been exported to Europe, Australia and, in 2013, the U.S. Navy brought in the Quebec aerospace company L-3 MAS to give its jets a makeover.
Battlefield communications
Tactical radios are another niche technology in which Canadian companies have a built a slow but steady reputation with the Americans. In a 2017 reporton Canada/U.S. military industrial cooperation, the Center for Strategic and International Studies noted that the U.S. military has been using Canadian radios since the 1960s. Ultra TCS, headquartered in Montreal, remains a supplier of tactical radios to both the U.S. Army and Marine Corps. And these aren't just walkie-talkies; they're hyper-advanced networks that can provide email, voice and even video hook-ups to American troops in battle.
Jeeps
That's right. The Second World War-era Willys Jeep — one of the most American vehicles in history — was manufactured in part by Canada. Ford Motor Company of Canada churned out thousands of Jeeps after the Second World War. In 1952 alone, Canadian factories were making an average of seven of them per day. According to Ford Canada's website, “these postwar Canadian-made Jeep were shipped to the United States, for the American military forces.”
Space robots
DARPA is the U.S. agency tasked with pursuing military so cutting edge that they occasionally veer into outright science fiction. Last year, DARPA signed a deal with Canada's MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates to design robots that could be dispatched into space in order to repair U.S. military satellites. And like most times Canada is brought in for U.S. military stuff, the robot space mechanic program is indeed intended as a cost saving measure. Canada has been a leader in space defence for some time. Our beloved Canadarm, in fact, technically qualifies as an early military space robot. Over the course of the space shuttle program 11 missions were sent up to perform classified work for the Pentagon. We still don't know the specifics of what the Canadarm did for Uncle Sam on those missions, but the arm is a certifiable Cold Warrior.
26 mai 2022 | Local, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité
The Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries (CADSI) is the national industry voice of more than 900 Canadian defence and security companies.
17 juin 2019 | Local, Aérospatial, Sécurité, Autre défense
Agence spatiale canadienne LONGUEUIL, QC, le 14 juin 2019 /CNW Telbec/ - Pour protéger l'économie numérique du Canada, il faut empêcher les pirates informatiques d'avoir accès aux données. La cybersécurité est une priorité du gouvernement du Canada. La mission satellitaire canadienne QEYSSat (pour Quantum Encryption and Science Satellite) aura recours à la technologie quantique pour protéger les télécommunications dans l'espace. L'Agence spatiale canadienne accorde un contrat de 30 millions de dollars à l'entreprise Honeywell pour la conception et toutes les étapes de la réalisation de la mission QEYSSat. Les méthodes de chiffrement actuelles devraient être dépassées d'ici une dizaine d'années à cause de la puissance de traitement exceptionnelle des ordinateurs quantiques. QEYSSat, dont le lancement est prévu pour 2022, fera la démonstration de la technologie de distribution quantique de clés (DQC) par satellite. Cette technologie de chiffrement en émergence offrira au Canadaune méthode encore plus efficace de sécuriser la transmission d'informations. Dans le cadre du contrat, l'entreprise Honeywell sera chargée des activités suivantes liées à QEYSSat : construction, tests, livraison, formation des opérateurs et mise en service. Le satellite servira de lien dans l'espace pour transmettre des clés de chiffrement entre les stations terrestres. Le travail de l'entreprise devrait se poursuivre jusqu'à la fin de 2022. La mission QEYSSat est le point culminant d'une série d'activités de recherche et de développement technologique réalisées par l'Institut d'informatique quantique avec le soutien du gouvernement du Canada. Gr'ce à QEYSSat, le Canada sera de plus en plus près de disposer d'un service de télécommunications quantique opérationnel dans l'espace et d'une technologie de pointe pour l'aider à respecter ses priorités en matière de cybersécurité. Les leçons tirées de la mission QEYSSat serviront au développement de futurs systèmes opérationnels pour le gouvernement qui assureront aux Canadiens un accès très sûr aux services. La sécurité renforcée autour des activités en ligne et des transactions financières de tous les jours, comme au guichet automatique bancaire, figure parmi les applications commerciales visées. En plus de respecter le principe de la sécurité de la Charte canadienne du numérique, cette mission s'inscrit dans le Plan pour l'innovation et les compétences et la nouvelle Stratégie spatiale pour le Canada du gouvernement du Canada puisqu'elle permettra de sécuriser les futures télécommunications et de renforcer la sécurité et la souveraineté nationales. Citation « La mission QEYSSat constitue une autre étape du plan de notre gouvernement de veiller à ce qu'au Canada, les citoyens soient sûrs que leurs données et leurs renseignements personnels sont protégés. Le développement de ces nouvelles technologies offrira aussi un grand potentiel de transformation des marchés et permettra d'établir une économie solide qui profitera à tous. » L'honorable Navdeep Bains, ministre de l'Innovation, des Sciences et du Développement économique En bref Les ordinateurs quantiques seront plusieurs millions de fois plus rapides que les ordinateurs actuels. Ils pourront donc déchiffrer rapidement les mots de passe, les numéros d'identification personnels et les autres mesures de protection actuelles, ce qui accroit la vulnérabilité des renseignements confidentiels et personnels. La technologie actuelle de distribution quantique de clés (DQC) nécessite des c'bles à fibres optiques au sol, où une clé ne peut être distribuée plus loin que 200 kilomètres. QEYSSat vise à démontrer la DQC entre un satellite et un réseau de stations terrestres, ce qui permettrait de surmonter cette limite de distance. En testant et en faisant la démonstration de la DQC dans l'espace, l'Agence spatiale canadienne veut fournir une plateforme spatiale gouvernementale aux intervenants fédéraux et au milieu scientifique canadien. Le budget de 2017 prévoit 80,9 millions de dollars pour l'Agence spatiale canadienne afin de soutenir la réalisation de nouveaux projets et l'utilisation d'innovations canadiennes dans l'espace, comme la mission QEYSSat de chiffrement et de science quantiques. La mission appuiera les capacités émergentes du Canada dans le domaine de la distribution quantique de clés, qui pourrait assurer la sécurité des télécommunications à l'aide de codes de chiffrement impossibles à pirater. La valeur du contrat (30 millions de dollars) ne comprend pas les taxes. https://www.newswire.ca/fr/news-releases/cybersecurite-dans-l-espace-investissement-du-gouvernement-du-canada-dans-la-technologie-quantique-884578930.html
25 février 2020 | Local, Naval
Federal government tables figures showing what it's spent on the projects to date Murray Brewster The federal government has spent slightly more than $1.01 billion over the last seven years on design and preparatory contracts for the navy's new frigates and supply ships — and the projects still haven't bought anything that floats. The figures, tabled recently in Parliament, represent the first comprehensive snapshot of what has been spent thus far on the frequently-delayed project to build replacement warships. It's an enormous amount of money for two programs that have been operating for more than a decade with little to show for their efforts to date. It will be years before the Canadian Surface Combatant project — which aims to replace the navy's frontline frigates with 15 state-of-the-art vessels — and the Joint Support Ship program for two replenishment vessels actually deliver warships. The numbers and details for each advance contract were produced in the House of Commons in response to written questions from the Conservative opposition. The money was divided almost evenly between the federal government's two go-to shipyards: Irving Shipbuilding in Halifax, the prime contractor for the new frigates, and Seaspan of Vancouver, the builder of the supply ships. The breakdown raises critical questions about at least one of the programs, said a defence analyst, but it also shines a light on promises made by both Liberal and Conservative governments to keep spending under control for both of these projects — which could end up costing more than $64 billion. "I think there should be a level of concern [among the public] about whether or not what's being delivered in practice is what was advertised at the outset," said Dave Perry, a procurement expert and vice president of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute. A design still in flux Most of his concerns revolve around the new support ships, which the Liberal government says are in the process of being built now. The written responses, tabled in Parliament, note that the projected cost for the two supply ships — $3.4 billion — remains under review "as the design effort finalizes." Perry said he was astonished to learn that, "seven years and half-a-billion dollars into design work on an off-the-shelf design," the navy doesn't have the support ships, even though "the middle third of the ship is built" — and officials now say "the design effort isn't finished." Usually, he said, ships are designed before they're built. The head of the Department of National Defence's materiel branch said most of the preparatory contracts were needed to re-establish a Canadian shipbuilding industry that had been allowed to wither. 'A lot of patience' "I think we have to look at the totality of everything that's being accomplished under" the national shipbuilding strategy, said Troy Crosby, assistant deputy minister of materiel at DND. "Over that period of time, and with these expenditures, we've built a shipbuilding capability on two coasts, not just through National Defence but also through the coast guard, offshore fisheries science vessels. I understand it has taken a lot of patience, I suppose, and probably some uncertainty, but we're really getting to the point now where we can see delivering these capabilities to the navy." The largest cash outlays involve what's known as definition contracts, which went individually to both shipyards and were in excess of $330 million each. They're meant to cover the supervision of the projects and — more importantly — to help convert pre-existing warship designs purchased by the federal government to Canadian standards. The choices on each project were made at different times by different governments, but ministers serving both Liberal and Conservative governments decided that going with proven, off-the-shelf designs would be faster and less expensive than building from scratch. Now, after all the delays, it's still not clear that choosing off-the-shelf designs has saved any money. "I would be completely speculating on what it would cost to invest to develop the kind of expertise and capacity inside the government, inside National Defence and everybody involved, to be able to do something like that in-house," said Crosby. "The approach we've taken at this point, by basing both the Joint Support Ship and the Canadian Surface Combatant on pre-existing designs, allows us to retire a lot of risk in the way forward." When Crosby talks about "retiring risk," he's talking about the potential for further delays and cost overruns. Among the contracts, Irving Shipbuilding was given $136 million to support the drawing up of the design tender for the new frigates and to pay for the shipbuilding advice Irving was giving the federal government throughout the bidding process. Years ago, the federal government had enough in-house expertise to dispense with private sector guidance — but almost all of that expertise was lost over the past two decades as successive federal governments cut the defence and public works branches that would have done that work. The last time Canada built major warships was in the 1990s, when the current fleet of 12 patrol frigates was inaugurated. The federal government has chosen to base its new warships on the BAE Systems Type-26 design, which has been selected by the Royal Navy and the Royal Australian Navy. The hull and propulsion system on the new frigates will be "largely unchanged" from the British design, but the combat system will be different and uniquely Canadian, said Crosby. The project is still on track to start cutting steel for the new combat ships in 2023. Crosby said he would not speculate on when the navy will take delivery of the first one. Delivery of the joint support ships is expected to be staggered, with the first one due in 2024. There will be a two-year gap between ships, said Crosby, as the navy and the yard work through any technical issues arising with the first ship. If that timeline holds, the first support ship will arrive two decades after it was first proposed and announced by the Liberal government of former prime minister Paul Martin. https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/frigates-joint-supply-ships-navy-procurement-canada-1.5474312