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  12 mars 2019 | Local, Aérospatial

  Simulating the ‘SuperScooper’

  by Lisa Gordon The Viking CL-415 “SuperScooper” is more akin to a pick-up truck than a sports car. It's a hardworking, amphibious turboprop that was built to fight wildfires. It flies low, battling blistering heat and blinding smoke, before releasing 13,500 pounds of water in six seconds – and then returning to a nearby lake where it skims the surface to reload. Introduced in 1993 by Bombardier, the CL-415 was essentially a turboprop version of its predecessor, the piston-powered CL-215. Today, there are close to 170 CL-215/415 aircraft in operation, mostly in Europe and North America. They are now supported by Viking Air, which acquired the program from Bombardier in 2016. Pilot training in the CL-415 has historically been done in the aircraft, but TRU Simulation + Training says that due to the unique mission it performs, those training flights can be dangerous. The South Carolina-headquartered company is a division of industry giant Textron Inc., and was formed following the amalgamation of several specialty flight simulation and pilot training companies, including former Montreal-based Mechtronix. About two years ago, TRU's commercial aviation division in Montreal began designing the world's first CL-415 full flight simulator (FFS) with the capability to replicate operations not only in the air, but also on the water. The company was able to draw on its recent experience of successfully building a Series 400 Twin Otter FFS for Canada's Pacific Sky Aviation in Calgary, Alta. – the world's first seaplane simulator with water-handling capabilities. “Before the Twin Otter project, hydrodynamic modelling is something we hadn't done before,” acknowledged Thom Allen, TRU's vice-president of Technology and Innovation. “It's like a boat simulator because you're modelling the buoyancy of the floats or the fuselage in the water. Interestingly, our engineers working on the Twin Otter program actually went to the library and researched how boats work on the water. Mixing the boat sim with the aerodynamic sim is the whole package.” He said the CL-415 experience took things one step further by adding the mission component – scooping the water – to the Twin Otter build. “From a safety point of view, the types of missions you do in a waterbomber are quite a bit different from a commercial aircraft. When you're scooping water and dropping it over a fire, training in those conditions is very dangerous. The tradeoff has always been between the quality of the training and the danger of doing that sort of training.” TRU's CL-415 FFS was delivered to Ansett Aviation Training in Milan, Italy, in September 2018 and certified by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) in December to Level D standards. Although training courses have yet to be completed in the simulator, the hope is that both initial and recurrent pilot training will be done exclusively in the device. Allen said the operational characteristics of a CL-415 are complex and unique. “When you're flying over a very hot fire, you drop your water and the mass of the aircraft is cut in half. The turbulence effect is quite significant when you hit the updraft. The fire is creating turbulence, smoke, reduced visibility – and pilots are dropping every five or 10 minutes repeatedly, usually in rugged terrain at low altitudes. This is the part that made this project something new.” To gather accurate performance data, TRU rented a CL-415 and equipped it with flight test instrumentation. “We weren't doing fire drops with our engineers on board, but we did all the manoeuvres around that, and we brought in a number of senior CL-415 pilots to evaluate our work.” The result is the world's first high fidelity CL-415 simulator with the capability of replicating not just air and water operations, but various types and intensities of forest fires and changes in related environmental conditions. The cockpit noise level is accurately reproduced by a secondary audio system that – like the real aircraft – requires crewmembers to wear a noise-cancelling headset. Full article: https://www.skiesmag.com/news/simulating-the-superscooper

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  24 mars 2020 | Local, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité

  Canadian military will no longer release info about numbers of personnel affected by COVID-19

  “This is information we don't want opposing forces to have as we're relatively a small force,” a spokesman said Friday. DAVID PUGLIESE, OTTAWA CITIZEN The Canadian Forces won't be releasing information on the numbers of military personnel who have tested positive for the novel coronavirus because of security reasons. The military had previously confirmed three cases, including one involving a reservist who had been on a personal trip to Spain. The Canadian Forces had also stated that no personnel on overseas operations had tested positive for COVID-19. But going forward, the Canadian military will no longer be confirming any other cases publicly because of operational security, Department of National Defence spokesman Dan Le Bouthillier said Friday. “This is information we don't want opposing forces to have as we're relatively a small force,” he added. Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Jon Vance has warned that the “integrity” of some military units could be threatened by personnel contracting coronavirus. The Canadian Forces could be eventually called upon by the federal government to provide support if the pandemic worsens. The U.S. military has confirmed that more than 50 of its personnel have tested positive for COVID-19. The Canadian Forces has also ordered approximately 2000 COVID-19 test kits for military clinics across the country, Le Bouthillier said. The kits are expected in the next week. “The needs of deployed units for COVID-19 testing will be considered in the distribution plan,” he added. “In the interim, we are working in collaboration with our partners, through a combination of integral, allied and host nation supports, to ensure deployed CAF members are provided with the best available health care.” COVID-19 has also caused the cancellation of Exercise Maple Resolve, the army's main training event for the year, as well as a naval exercise off the coast of Africa. HMCS Glace Bay and HMCS Shawinigan, which were to take part in that naval training, are now returning to Halifax. The ships are expected to arrive in mid-April. Troops from Canadian Forces Base Petawawa who were supposed to take part in Exercise Maple Resolve will now be training in smaller groups, Le Bouthillier said. “We will mitigate this lost training opportunity through the aggressive pursuit of smaller training events and professional development,” he noted. “We will return to our normal managed readiness cycle when conditions permit.” “The current situation with COVID-19 is unprecedented and prudence demands we adopt a posture that allows us to best support civilian authorities should the need arise while safe-guarding the well-being of our personnel and the broader Canadian public,” Le Bouthillier stated. Maple Resolve was scheduled to take place from May 11 to 24 at Wainwright Alta. It normally involves approximately 5000 personnel and 1450 pieces of major equipment. The exercise gives participating personnel the opportunity to train with a wide variety of weapons, simulation technology, armoured fighting vehicles, and aircraft in order to hone their skills in a realistic setting, short of an actual operation. Another exercise that was to have taken place before Maple Resolve has also been cancelled. That training event, scheduled to run from April 5 to May 5, would have involved around 2,000 troops. Military personnel from the U.S., United Kingdom, France and Brazil had been scheduled to take part in Maple Resolve. Many other nations are also cancelling military exercises because of COVID-19. In addition, the Canadian Forces is also limiting public access to its recruiting centres across the country. The military is continuing to recruit but has asked new applicants to begin their recruiting process using its website. “For those applicants currently going through the recruitment process, please note that all face-to-face interactions will be restricted and by appointment only,” the Canadian Forces added in a social media post. “If contacted for an appointment, please note that we are implementing additional protective protocols including increased questions specific to individual circumstances in order to ensure the continued health of our recruiting teams.” https://ottawacitizen.com/news/national/defence-watch/canadian-military-will-no-longer-release-info-about-numbers-of-personnel-affected-by-covid-19

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  15 juillet 2021 | Local, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité

  Mises à jour: Achat et mise à niveau d’équipement de la Défense

  Chers collègues et partenaires du milieu de la défense, Comme c'est aussi le cas dans la plupart des secteurs commerciaux et industriels du Canada, la pandémie de COVID-19 a eu une incidence considérable sur une grande partie de notre travail ici au ministère de la Défense nationale au cours des 18 derniers mois. Cependant, nos équipes ont travaillé avec acharnement pour s'assurer que les principaux projets continuent de progresser afin que nos militaires disposent de l'équipement dont ils ont besoin et que l'industrie canadienne ait une charge de travail durable. Bien que nous ne connaissions pas encore toutes les conséquences de la pandémie, nous vous transmettons aujourd'hui des renseignements à jour au sujet de nos principaux grands projets d'acquisition d'équipement, qui reflètent les effets de la première année marquée par la COVID-19. Comme vous pourrez le constater dans les documents ci‑joints, nous continuons d'évaluer les effets de la pandémie et les changements qu'ils pourraient entraîner sur le calendrier ou les coûts des projets. Voici quelques‑uns des principaux changements que vous remarquerez : un retard éventuel de 16 mois dans la livraison du dernier navire de patrouille extracôtier et de l'Arctique en raison des travaux d'ajustement causés par la COVID-19 et d'autres considérations. Il ne devrait pas y avoir d'incidence sur les opérations ou la production des futurs navires au même chantier naval, mais nous continuons d'effectuer un suivi étroit du calendrier. d'importants progrès ont été réalisés en ce qui concerne le projet des navires de soutien interarmées; 122 des 123 blocs du premier navire sont en cours de construction. Depuis que les documents en pièce jointe ont été préparés, le progrès continue et tous les 123 blocs sont maintenant en cours de construction, ou presque complété. À la lumière de ces progrès, nous nous attendons à recevoir le premier navire comme prévu, en 2023. le Projet de remplacement d'aéronefs de recherche et sauvetage à voilure fixe progresse; six aéronefs sont maintenant acceptés en Espagne, dont deux ont été livrés au Canada. Nous sommes donc sur la bonne voie de réaliser notre plan d'atteindre la capacité opérationnelle initiale en 2022. des changements importants ont été apportés au Projet de modernisation à mi‑vie du Cormorant, puisque la proposition initiale a été jugée inabordable. Nous continuons de collaborer avec le fabricant d'équipement d'origine afin d'en arriver à une solution acceptable, mais cela pourrait entraîner certains retards dans la réalisation du projet. la production des véhicules blindés d'appui tactique se poursuit; 14 ont été fabriqués jusqu'à maintenant, ce qui nous permet de rester sur la bonne voie d'atteindre la capacité opérationnelle initiale en 2023. Depuis la préparation du document en pièce jointe, la production a continué et le total de véhicules fabriqués est maintenant 22. Le Projet de système de véhicule de soutien moyen et le Projet de véhicule blindé tactique de patrouille sont terminés. Maintenant que tous les véhicules ont été livrés et que la capacité opérationnelle totale a été atteinte, ces projets sont maintenant considérés comme terminés. Nos pages Web seront mises à jour au cours des prochains jours afin de refléter ces récentes informations, et elles continueront d'être mises à jour lorsque d'autres changements seront apportés à l'avenir. Il est possible d'accéder aux renseignements de tous nos projets d'acquisition majeurs sur le site suivant : https://www.canada.ca/fr/services/defense/achat-mise-a-niveau-equipement-defense.html. Vos questions et commentaires sont les bienvenus, et nous espérons que vous continuerez à participer à cet effort tout au long de son évolution. Vance White Directeur par interim Direction de Relais d'opinion et allocutions [DROA] | Sous-ministre adjoint (Affairs publiques) [SMA(AP)] Ministère de la Défense nationale | Gouvernement du Canada Vance.White@forces.gc.ca | C: 613-222-3272