Heron and MQ-9 drones approved for Canadian military program

Sur le même sujet

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  23 juin 2020 | Local, Sécurité

  Talon Helicopters AS365 Dauphin ready to fight fires at night

  Talon Helicopters of Richmond, B.C., is ready to take on nighttime fire attack missions with its night vision goggle (NVG) approved Airbus AS365 N2 Dauphin — the only Transport Canada approved NVG night fire attack medium helicopter in Canada. The nine-passenger aircraft, configured with a night vision cockpit and cabin, has been approved for day and night fire attack operations with the Simplex Model 301 belly tank, which can hold up to 901 litres (238 gallons) of water. Peter Murray, president of Talon Helicopters, said the company is taking advantage of the benefits and safety factors of NVGs, and “the ability to not have a grounding time.” Talon's AS365 is approved to fight fires at night with the Simplex Model 301 belly tank, which can hold up to 901 litres of water. Heath Moffatt Photo He added: “With doing initial attack at night... if a fire starts at 11 p.m. and you're on it at 11:30 p.m., of course you're going to reduce the impact the fire makes if you're on it six or eight hours earlier than if you got on it in the daylight. . . . So we're right on the leading edge of all this.” The NVG certification for the Dauphin has been a multi-year project for Talon. Murray said the company has had the capabilities to fight fires at night for just under a year now, but recently received approval from Transport Canada for all part 702/703 operations with NVGs, which includes flying passengers at night. All of the company's pilots have completed basic NVG training, and “the AS365 pilots have done advanced NVG [training],” said Murray, “so they can go into remote areas and land at night with NVGs.” Murray said the Dauphin outfitted with the Simplex tank is 30 per cent faster than other belly tank-equipped mediums. “It's a fast tank for this machine. With the snorkel stowed, it's 140 knots VNE. . . . With the snorkel on its 120 [knots]. If you're going out to do initial attack and go a distance, you're going to go there at 140 knots and you're going to get there faster,” he said. The Simplex tank has an easy install process with four hard points on the aircraft, and can be removed just as easily for a different mission configuration. “You can probably do the whole hook change and remove the tank within 20 minutes or a half-hour,” said Murray. In place of the belly tank, the Dauphin can be equipped with a 350-gallon FAST Bucket for daytime wildfire operations. A multi-mission helicopter, Talon's Dauphin is also used for medevac, search and rescue, aerial lift work and passenger transport operations. “We call it the Swiss Army knife of helicopters because we have a full approved stretcher kit (we got that approved in Canada), and then we have the hoist as well; we're approved for day and night hoisting” using Transport Canada approved crew harnesses and evacuation equipment, and a 300-foot hoist cable with a 600-pound load limit. Along with its night fire attack and nighttime hoist certifications, Talon is approved for night hover entry/exit. The aircraft has a number of STC'd avionics upgrades including the Garmin GTN 750 touchscreen navigator, helicopter terrain awareness warning system, traffic collision avoidance systems, and automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast. Building on the company's NVG firefighting capabilities, Murray said Talon is looking into collecting data on daytime and nighttime fire attack operations to evaluate the difference in the cost of fighting the fires and the cost of losing resources like trees, as well as structures. For example, “what would happen if we put 20,000 litres of water around one burning tree at nighttime... what would we have in the morning? Would it be a mop up for a couple of days, instead of a two-month production?” he said. While the current Covid-19 crisis has delayed these data-gathering initiatives, Murray said the company is still working to pursue them in the near future. https://www.skiesmag.com/news/talon-helicopters-as365-dauphin-fight-fires-night

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  14 juillet 2020 | Local, Aérospatial

  Canada’s Secret Cold War Submarine Drone Is Still Relevant Today

  Extra-large autonomous submarines may revolutionize intelligence gathering and espionage under the sea. One of these ground breaking projects is the U.S. Navy's Boeing Orca extra-large uncrewed underwater vehicle (XLUUV). It is much larger than any other underwater drone currently in the water. But there is a historical precursor that, despite its epic Cold War story, is not widely known. And its mission, to lay covert sensor networks in the arctic, may be as relevant today as it was then. During the Cold War, NATO believed that Russian submarines were using the ice cap in the Canadian Arctic as cover to covertly move between the Atlantic and Pacific. So the U.S. and Canada placed a special sonar network there, deep under the ice. Canadian engineers had to build the world's largest autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV), Theseus, to lay a cable where ships could not reach. The project started in the 1980s, at a time when Russian submarines were getting much quieter. To listen for them, a joint U.S. and Canadian sonar array was to be placed several hundred miles north of the remote Canadian base at CFS Alert. The array was codenamed Spinnaker, in honor of the bar where scientists made many of the unclassified decisions in the project. This was similar to the now-famous SOSUS (Sound Surveillance System), but used classified technology to match its operational circumstances. In fact it must have been much more advanced than the original SOSUS. Connecting the sonar array to the base would require laying a fiber-optic cable for hundreds of miles under permanent ice cap. The solution was to build the world's largest autonomous underwater vehicle. The uncrewed submarine would swim from an ice hole nearer to the base all the way to the Spinnaker array. As it went the cable would unreel out of the back. Thus ‘Theseus' got its name from the mythical hero of Ancient Greece who trailed thread behind him when he ventured into the labyrinth to fight the Minotaur. When we think of advanced Canadian military projects which were ahead of their time, the Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow springs to mind. That delta-winged Mach-2 fighter flew in the 1950s and was cutting edge technology at the time, one of the all-time great aircraft. But it was cancelled abruptly in 1959 before it could enter service. The Theseus AUV is up there with the Avro Arrow, but less well recognized. And unlike the Arrow, it was used operationally, in one of the boldest projects started during the Cold War. The project had many secret aspects. Years later much of what we know about the project comes from Bruce Butler, one of the core team involved. Bulter has written a book, Into the Labyrinth (on Amazon), and recently talked to the Underwater Technology Podcast about the project. Theseus was 35 feet long and about 4 feet across. In AUV terms this is large, even today. In modern naval terminology it would be categorized as a large-displacement uncrewed underwater vehicle (LDUUV). The Spinnaker sonar system was placed on the sea floor right on the edge of the arctic shelf. It was about 84 degrees north, up in the top right-hand corner of Canada, near to Greenland. Such an advanced project took years to realize, so it was not until spring 1996 when Theseus could go to work laying the cable. The whole operation was pushing the boundaries of uncrewed underwater vehicles at the time. Despite some close calls along the way, Theseus was able to navigate to the Spinnaker, letting out the vital thread as it went. Many details of the project and technology involved are still classified. And we may never know whether Spinnaker ever picked up any Russian submarines. By the time it had been laid the Russian Navy was in steep decline following the end of the Cold War. But with a resurgent Russian Navy today, the relevance of systems like Spinnaker may be greater than ever. And one of the roles which large submarine drones like the Orca might do is lay cables on the sea floor, unseen from above. Historical precedents like Theseaus can help us understand the way that these might be employed, and the challenges that they will face. https://www.forbes.com/sites/hisutton/2020/07/12/canada-secret-cold-war-drone-submarine-is-still-relevant-today/#121a2da51e96

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  28 juillet 2020 | Local, Naval

  It's the mileage, not the years: Military says it plans to keep subs afloat past retirement dates

  Conservative critic says maintenance plan ignores fact that not everything on a submarine can be replaced Murray Brewster The Canadian navy has found a very creative way to keep its second-hand submarines afloat until the late 2030s and early 2040s — a plan that emphasizes maintenance over age in predicting how long the vessels can remain seaworthy. The plan — according to a newly-released briefing note prepared in the run-up to the release of the Liberal government's marquee defence policy — would not see HMCS Victoria decommissioned until the end of 2042, giving the warship over 45 years service in Canada. That estimate does not include the time the boat served with Britain's Royal Navy, which would add at least a decade to its working life. The retirements of the other submarines — HMCS Chicoutimi, HMCS Windsor and HMCS Corner Brook — would be staggered throughout the 2030s, with Windsor being the first to go in 2033. "The [Victoria Class Submarines] are a well-designed and solidly constructed class of modern conventional submarines that have had an unusual life since entering service with the [Royal Navy] in the early 1990s," said the August 2016 briefing analysis, recently obtained by Conservative Party researchers. "'While chronologically 20 years older, they have not been operated extensively during that time." The boats were first constructed for the Royal Navy in the 1980s, but Britain decided to sell them when the government of the day made the policy decision to operate only nuclear-powered submarines. One aspect of the Liberal defence policy, released in June 2017, that has puzzled military experts and opposition critics alike was its assumption that the submarines — which have had a tortured technical history that includes one fatal fire — will remain in service until at least the 2040s. The briefing note spells out in detail — and for the first time publicly — how the navy intends to squeeze more life out of boats it was supposed to start retiring in four years. It was originally envisioned, the briefing said, that the Victoria-Class submarines would retire one at a time, beginning in 2024. he report argues it is possible to operate the submarines beyond their expected working lives if the military assesses the "material state" of each boat rather than following "a simplistic calendar driven" evaluation of their operational condition. In others words, the report argues that what matters most is not how old the submarines are, but rather how hard have they been driven and how well have they been maintained. The submarines operate on what's called a "6-2 schedule" — six years of service at sea followed by two years of deep maintenance before returning to duty. The briefing note proposes that the boats do nine years of service and then go into a longer refurbishment of up to three years. The submarines would need a full life-extension overhaul in addition to the extended maintenance plan. As evidence to support the plan, the briefing note to senior defence officials pointed to a 2013 study of the Victoria-Class submarines — which said that "although there are numerous technical and supportability challenges, there was no single obstacle precluding a life extension of up to 12 years." 'Lower expectations' The briefing offers one note of caution, however: "It is reasonable to assume that operational availability will decrease as the submarine ages." The briefing note predicted higher maintenance and sustainment costs as the boats get older. To save money, it said, the navy might have to lower expectations of what the boats can do. The existing plan "assumed that there would be no relaxation of operational performance requirements, although in fact some discretion by the Operational Requirements Authority in this regard may be feasible as a cost saving measure," said the note. Conservative defence critic James Bezan said he was astounded by the plan to stretch out the operational life of the subs. He said he doesn't blame the naval planners who drew up the document — but he does hold the Liberal government accountable, arguing it must have ordered the Department of National Defence to give it some justification for putting off the purchase of new submarines. "It is ridiculous," Bezan said. "There was potential for some political direction on how this was written." Canada's submarine fleet spent 'zero days' at sea last year: government documents Canada's front-line frigates have suffered 10 fire and smoke incidents since 2018 In an interview with CBC News at the end of last year, the commander of the navy, Vice-Admiral Art McDonald, defended the plan to extend the life of the boats, saying he had full confidence in the "pretty resourceful and capable" submarine engineering community. The defence policy, he said, "directed us to operate and modernize" the submarine fleet and he's confident it can be done safely. "We know there is still excellent life in the Victoria-class submarine," McDonald told CBC News. "I've seen that personally as an outsider who has come into the program and taken a look at it." The focus of the subs' modernization project — which was in the early stages of being developed when the pandemic hit back in late winter — will be on survivability and making the submarines more livable for crew members. "We're going to be able to operate those boats into the 2030s, but to do that we have to continue with the routine investments we've made and modernize, as was directed" by the defence policy, McDonald said. Not everything can be replaced A series of assessments was conducted between 2008 and 2014. The defence department's naval board, which is charged with planning the future shape of the fleet, met in November 2014 to study the life expectancy of the second-hand boats. "While it is considered unrealistic to predict the material state of 40-year-old platforms, 20 years into the future, certain items such as the pressure hull and main motor will require additional monitoring and maintenance above the current regime, since unpredicted degradation in such areas may not be cost effective to repair and mitigate," said the 2016 briefing note. And that's the problem with the life-extension plan, said Bezan: some key parts of a submarine — such as the pressure hull and the engines — can't be upgraded. He also pointed to how the submarine fleet had "zero days at sea" in 2019 because all of the vessels were tied up for maintenance. The analysis, Bezan said, shows that the Liberal government should immediately begin looking for a replacement for the submarines — something the previous Conservative government was in the process of doing when it was defeated in 2015. The options that were discussed before the election, he said, included partnering with the Australians — who were in the process of acquiring their own submarine replacements — or buying an off-the-shelf design for inclusion in the federal shipbuilding strategy. None of those ideas got very far before the election, he added. https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canadian-forces-navy-submarine-1.5665020