Les pays de l’OTAN doivent protéger leurs entreprises stratégiques

Sur le même sujet

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  8 octobre 2019 | Local, Aérospatial, Sécurité

  Ottawa Airport Authority to test drone detection technology

  The Ottawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport Authority has partnered with NAV Canada and QinetiQ Canada to trial drone detection technology at Ottawa International Airport (YOW). Named Obsidian Counter UAS System, the technology is equipped to accurately recognise drone features and avoid classifying non-drone activity such as wildlife movement. NAV Canada and QinetiQ will work with the airport authority to install and deploy the Obsidian micro-Doppler radar unit, determining the compatibility of the system in a civilian airport environment. Ottawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport Authority president and CEO Mark Laroche said: “The trial with QinetiQ's Obsidian Counter UAS System will provide all parties the opportunity to test a viable detection and mitigation system at an active airport. “The trial dovetails perfectly with both the Airport Authority's Drone Incident Protocol and the recommendations in the BRTF's Interim and Final reports.” The trial will evaluate the accurate and timely detection of drones or remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPAS). It will assess the effectiveness of the system in initiating the right response to drone / RPAS detection between the airport authority and NAV Canada. The trial will also assess the system compatibility in an international airport environment, which is prone to interference by other partner systems. QinetiQ Canada MD Robert Aubé said: “Obsidian Counter UAS is specifically designed to meet the current and forecast threat of drone incursion upon critical national infrastructure, including daily operations in complex environments such as the Ottawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport.” NAV Canada is a non-profit corporation that owns and operates the country's civil air navigation system. Last month, two flights were diverted to nearby airports due to suspected drone activity in the surroundings of Dubai International Airport. London's Gatwick Airport closed for approximately 36 hours in December 2018 due to threats posed by illegal drones flying near its runway. It caused widespread disruption and led to the cancellation of approximately 1,000 flights. https://www.airport-technology.com/news/ottawa-airport-authority-drone-detection/

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  17 juin 2019 | Local, Naval

  Le Canada prend le commandement du 2e Groupe maritime permanent OTAN

  De : Défense Communiqué de presse Ottawa, le 17 juin 2019. – Défense nationale/Forces armées canadiennes Le commodore Josée Kurtz, des Forces armées canadiennes (FAC), a pris officiellement le commandement du 2e Groupe maritime permanent OTAN (SNMG2) lors d'une cérémonie de passation de commandement tenue à Souda Bay de l'île de Crête, en Grèce, le samedi 15 juin. Le commodore Josée Kurtz a pris le commandement du commodore Boudewijn Boots, de la Marine royale néerlandaise. Ce déploiement fait partie de l'opération REASSURANCE, et la contribution du Canada aux opérations régionales de sécurité maritime menées à l'appui des mesures d'assurance de l'OTAN dans la région méditerranéenne et en mer Noire. Le Canada continue de répondre à l'appel et de contribuer de façon significative à la paix et à la sécurité internationales. En tant que membre fondateur de l'OTAN, le Canada a fait preuve d'un leadership actif et continuera de le faire dans le cadre de sa politique de défense Protection, Sécurité, Engagement. Citations « L'affectation du commodore Josée Kurtz pour diriger ce groupe maritime de l'OTAN témoigne du professionnalisme et du leadership des Forces armées canadiennes, et de leur ferme engagement envers l'OTAN et leurs alliés. Nos militaires sont un symbole visible de l'engagement du Canada envers la sécurité et la coopération internationales dans la région et dans le monde. » —Lieutenant-général Mike Rouleau, commandant, Commandement des opérations interarmées du Canada « C'est un honneur et un privilège de prendre le commandement du 2e Groupe maritime permanent OTAN. J'ai h'te de travailler avec les marins hautement qualifiés et professionnels des pays membres de l'OTAN au cours des six prochains mois, pour relever les défis de cette mission et renforcer la stabilité mondiale et régionale, tous ensemble. » —Commodore Josée Kurtz, commandant, 2e Groupe maritime permanent OTAN Faits en bref Le Navire canadien de Sa Majesté (NSCM) Toronto participe à un déploiement au sein de la Force opérationnelle maritime dans le cadre de l'opération REASSURANCE. Il est maintenant le navire amiral du 2e Groupe maritime permanent OTAN (SNMG2). Le SNMG2 est l'une des quatre forces maritimes multinationales à haut niveau de préparation et est composées de navires de pays alliés. Ces navires sont à la disposition de l'OTAN en permanence pour effectuer t'ches, allant des exercices à des missions opérationnelles. Ils fournissent à l'OTAN une capacité maritime continue et contribuent à établir la présence de l'Alliance, à faire preuve de solidarité, à effectuer des visites diplomatiques et à améliorer l'interopérabilité des forces navales alliées. Ils constituent également une force maritime toujours prête à soutenir la Force opérationnelle interarmées à très haut niveau de préparation de l'OTAN. Depuis l'affectation du commodore Kurtz, le Canada dirige maintenant trois activités de l'OTAN à l'échelle mondiale. Depuis juin 2017, les FAC dirigent en Lettonie un robuste groupement tactique multinational de l'OTAN soumis à des rotations, en tant que l'un des quatre pays-cadre assurant la présence avancée renforcée de l'Alliance dans les États baltes et en Pologne. Depuis novembre 2018, le Canada dirige également la mission de l'OTAN en Irak (NMI), qui vise à créer les conditions nécessaires à la mise en place d'institutions et de structures de sécurité efficaces et durables dans ce pays. Le commodore Josée Kurtz est une leader exceptionnelle et un excellent modèle à suivre et son affectation témoigne du leadership du Canada et de son engagement ferme envers l'Alliance. Cette affectation à un poste de commandement multinational fait suite au récent commandement de la Force opérationnelle multinationale 150 par le Canada, de décembre 2018 à avril 2019. La Marine royale du Canada (MRC) apporte d'importantes contributions à la sécurité et à la stabilité dans le monde, et est une force de combat agile qui peut être déployée rapidement et employée avec souplesse. Partenaires compétents et inébranlables, ses marins et ses navires ont une solide réputation et sont toujours prêts à aider, à diriger et à combattre. https://www.canada.ca/fr/ministere-defense-nationale/nouvelles/2019/06/le-canada-prend-le-commandement-du-2egroupe-maritime-permanent-otan.html

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  13 mai 2019 | Local, Aérospatial

  Like it or not, the U.S. needs to be a key part of Canada’s next-gen jet procurement process

  ELINOR SLOAN, CONTRIBUTED TO THE GLOBE AND MAIL RICK BOWMER/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Elinor Sloan, professor of international relations in the department of political science at Carleton University, is a fellow at the Canadian Global Affairs Institute. For a bid to buy a plane designed to cut quickly through the skies, Ottawa's pursuit of a future-generation fighter jet has been a long and torturous slog. In 1997, Jean Chrétien's Liberal government joined the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, a U.S.-led initiative conceived as a new way for allies to work together to design, develop and produce a fifth-generation fighter aircraft. In 2006, Ottawa signed a formal memorandum of understanding that gave Canada and the other eight partner nations the exclusive right to compete for contracts to produce such aircraft and, since 2007, Canadian companies have won more than US$1.3-billion in defence contracts related to the Joint Strike Fighter. With a production line that will be operating at full capacity starting this year, and is expected to produce about 10 times as many aircraft as exist today over the next few decades, this number promises to grow substantially. Meanwhile, Canada's nearly 40-year-old fleet of fighter jets – the CF-18s – continues to age. In 2010, the Harper government shelved its plan to sole-source buy the Joint Strike Fighter to replace them after a public outcry and a damning auditor-general's report that found significant weaknesses in the process used by the Department of National Defence. Then, when the Liberals took office in 2015 and promised an open and fair competition to replace the CF-18s, it also banned the F-35 from bidding – two contradictory positions. The Trudeau government quietly dropped that ban last year, and pre-qualified four companies to bid on a contract worth at least $15-billion: Sweden's Saab Gripen, Britain's Airbus Eurofighter, the U.S.'s Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet and, yes, Lockheed Martin's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. According to letters released last week, though, the U.S. government threatened to pull the Lockheed Martin F-35 from consideration last year over Ottawa's insistence that Canada receive industrial benefits from the winning bid. In response, Ottawa relaxed its requirement on Thursday: Where bidders once had to commit to spend 100 per cent of the value of the aircraft's acquisition and sustainment in Canada, bids will now only lose points in a three-category scoring system in the review process, instead. With such exhausting twists and incompatible statements, it's little surprise that it took three and a half years of the government's four-year mandate just to get to the formal request-for-proposal stage. But there is a way out of this morass: pursuing a back-to-basics focus on why we need this aircraft and what we need it to do. To do so, we must focus on the proposed jets' promised technical capabilities, which are paramount, and rightly weighted the highest of that three-category scoring system. The second category is cost, which of course is important to any government. The third is creating and sustaining a highly skilled work force within our own borders, a goal enshrined in Canada's industrial trade benefits (ITB) policy, which requires a winning bid to guarantee it will make investments in Canada equal to the value of the contract. Each bid is scored by these three categories, weighed 60-20-20, respectively. However, the Joint Strike Fighter program, which Canada has spent millions to join, does not fit neatly into the ITB policy. In those letters last year, the Pentagon and Lockheed Martin pointed out that Canada's ITB terms are inconsistent with – and indeed prohibited by – the memorandum of understanding Canada signed in 2006, which says partners cannot impose industrial compensation measures. The solution reached on Thursday allows that memorandum to be obeyed, but since Canada will still give higher grades to bids that follow its ITB policy, questions remain as to whether the playing field has really been levelled. All of this is important because of the growing competition between the major powers. Russian bombers and fighters, for example, are increasingly testing the boundaries of Canadian and U.S. airspace. More than ever, the focus needs to be interoperability with the United States, working together on NORAD and helping NATO allies in Europe. As a flying command-and-control platform, rather than a mere fighter, Canada's next-generation jet must work with the United States' most sophisticated systems, and include a seamless and secure communications capability – that is a critical and non-negotiable criterion. Indeed, as DND has said,the United States will need to certify the winning jet meets Washington's security standards. Some may question the federal government's decision to relax the ITB rules, and to grant this certification sign-off. But whatever Canada buys must be able to address threats to us and to our allies until well into the 2060s. Our relationship with the United States, both in terms of geopolitics and military technology, is crucial. Despite our trade tiff, the United States remains our most important strategic partner. Canada can either take an active part in our own security, or leave it to the United States. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-the-us-needs-to-be-a-key-part-of-canadas-next-gen-jet-procurement/