24 septembre 2019 | Local, Aérospatial
Enemy action against satellites could include cyber-attacks, jamming, lasers or missiles, while natural threats could be solar flares or space weather
The Defence Department wants to take a page out of Star Trek and has asked researchers to develop ways to protect Canadian satellites from such threats as laser attacks and missiles.
Dubbed the “Shields Up” project, the plan would see the development of innovative capabilities that could be incorporated into the design and operation of Canada's space-based systems.
The Shields Up terminology is a nod to the sci-fi TV and movie series Star Trek in which the USS Enterprise starship is protected by deflector shields that can be instantly activated in response to a threat.
“Satellites are vulnerable to natural and artificial threats as well as, increasingly, threats from adversaries who seek to disrupt or destroy allied space systems,” said Dan Le Bouthillier, a spokesman for the Department of National Defence.
Enemy action against satellites could include cyber-attacks, jamming, lasers or missiles, while natural threats could be solar flares, space weather or collisions with debris in space.
The Defence Department and the Canadian Forces are the only Canadian entities with the mandate of protecting and defending the country's space capabilities, Le Bouthillier noted.
The call for proposals is part of a DND science innovation program.
Ideas that are accepted will receive $200,000 to further the proposal over a six-month period. The most promising solutions could receive another $1 million for additional development, Le Bouthillier said.
Most satellite services are commercial in nature and defensive measures have not been a primary criteria in their design. But the DND wants that to change.
The concepts or designs have to provide a reasonable method to deal with the threat. They also have to take into account Canada's international relations and obligations and the fact that various satellites operate in different orbits, which could influence the type of threats they face.
There are 1,950 operational satellites in Earth orbits.
Le Bouthillier said militaries are increasingly dependent on space-based systems for communication, surveillance, environmental monitoring and navigation.
The DND has a growing interest in keeping Canadian space systems safe. In August the department put out a request to Canadian scientists to try to come up with a way to rid the Earth's orbit of the millions of pieces of space junk that pose a threat to satellites and other spacecraft.
But the task is daunting; no other researcher has figured out how to collect the debris, which can be as small as one millimetre.
The DND noted that the request at this point is not about funding a system but investigating new ideas to eliminate the space junk.
The total number of “debris objects” in orbit is estimated to be about 129 million. That includes 34,000 objects greater than 10 centimetres in size, 900,000 objects one cm to 10 cm, and 128 million objects one mm to one cm, according to the DND.
The debris has been created by decades of space travel and operations. In 2007, for instance, China conducted a military test using a missile to destroy one of its satellites. The warhead obliterated the spacecraft, creating an estimated 300,000 pieces of debris. The U.S., Russia and India have conducted similar military experiments.
“There are no operational debris removal capabilities in use, globally, and existing prototypes lack important capabilities and have proven ineffective,” the DND noted in its request to researchers.
DND is also interested in ways to track some of the smaller pieces of space junk as well as methods to remove multiple pieces of debris of any size. Space surveillance networks regularly track about 22,300 objects in Earth orbits.
20 avril 2021 | Local, Naval
MBDA announced on 19 April it has been awarded a contract from Lockheed Martin to equip the Royal Canadian Navy's (RCN's) new single class of 15 Canadian Surface Combatant (CSC) multimission frigates with the Sea Ceptor air-defence weapon sy...
19 mai 2020 | Local, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité
The lesson from this history is simple. Cutting defence spending in times of austerity is a bipartisan affair in Canada. This is owing less to politics than arithmetic. DND's budget –which typically ranges from 1/5 to 1/4 of total federal departmental discretionary spending –is too big to be excluded from any serious spending restraint initiative. This is well understood by Liberals, Conservatives and the Finance Department. The COVID-19 Recession and its Impact No one knows how deep or how long the COVID-19-induced recession will be. But every serious analyst agrees it will produce the sharpest drop in output since the Great Depression. The International Monetary Fund, for example, projects a 6.2 per cent annualized decline in GDP for Canada,1nearly double that of the 2009 recession. And already the government's fiscal response is without precedent and will lead to the largest deficit in postwar Canadian history (at least 10 per cent of GDP, or over $200 billion). This does not mean that Ottawa will snap into austerity mode next year. The economy will likely be too weak for that kind of action and cutting government spending is not in the Trudeau government's DNA to begin with... One big difference between now and the past is that there will be enormous pressure on Ottawa after the recession to boost spending in a wide range of areas which have been exposed in the pandemic. These include public health funding, medical research, pandemic prevention and mitigation, the social safety net, and industries particularly hard hit during the recession. There are also Liberal election campaign commitments from 2019 to honour –almost none of which had been implemented pre-pandemic –of which national defence is conspicuously absent. ...this could produce a perfect storm for Strong, Secure, Engaged (SSE). This was always a big risk associated with a defence policy that had its funding ramped up gradually over many years. As the Harper government amply demonstrated, it is relatively easy to reduce or eliminate the rate of planned increases to defence funding –the government took almost no flak for doing so in 2010. Making matters worse, DND has failed to come anywhere near meeting the spending trajectory profiled in SSE, as David Perry has analyzed thoroughly. Which means flattening DND's budget ramp is even more tempting for any government in austerity or even re-prioritization mode. Would a change in government matter here? Unlikely. While the Conservatives are more committed to national defence and the Canadian Armed Forces than the Liberals, they would likely see deficit reduction as their top priority, and it is virtually impossible to have meaningful expenditure restraint that doesn't involve national defence [what the Harper government did from 2010 on]. Conclusion Over the past generation, recessions and the fiscal consolidation that has followed them have had a seriously negative impact on DND's budget. The COVID-19 recession could be the most severe Canada has faced in at least 40 years. It has already resulted in the largest peacetime deficit in Canadian history. And, because of the pandemic, government priorities have changed radically overnight. The future for SSE and its associated funding does not look bright. National Defence probably has a year or two before the crunch hits. Now is therefore the time for strategic thinking and serious priority setting among the political, public service and miitary leadership to ensure that the 2020s don't become another decade of darkness. Eugene Lang is Adjunct Professor, School of Policy Studies, Queen's University, and Fellow, Canadian Global Affairs Institute. He was chief of staff to two ministers of National Defence in the Chrétien and Martin governments and served as an official in the Department of Finance. The 2020s most certainly will be “another decade of darkness”. It is not improbable that the Canadian military, if the Liberals win the next election, will effectively end up as a constabulary/militia force with domestic response to natural disasters of various sorts as its primary function along with very token commitments to UN peacekeeping missions. Bye bye to serious numbers of new RCAF fighters, to serious numbers of new RCN frigates, and to the needed large funding to renew NORAD's North Warning System [see this post: “So Will the Canadian Government Put Some Big Bucks into Modernizing NORAD's North Warning System?“]. And bye bye to any meaningful military participation in NATO. Canada will then finally be defenceless against help from the US ( the following quote is from the last sentence of this earlier CGAI paper's Executive Summary: “Throughout its 60-year existence, NORAD has been Canada's “defence against help.”). Any American administration will have no hesitation in demanding the use of Canadian territory and waters for its own defence purposes if our efforts fall well below what the US thinks necessary. US Air Force bases at Cold Lake, Yellowknife, Goose Bay and a US Navy one at St. John's anyone? Take a look at this as an example of an increasingly prevalent Canadian progressive view; and Justin Trudeau's “base” is progressive to the max: Spending $19 billion on fighter jets won't fight COVID-19 or climate change Instead of buying a new weapons system, the federal government should disarm and invest in a Green New Deal There it is. Plus earlier from Mr Lang: Is the “business Liberal” extinct? By the way the photo at the top of the post is of the Avro CF-100 Canuck interceptor, the first jet fighter developed in Canada–to defend against Soviet bombers...and US help. Mark Collins
13 mai 2022 | Local, C4ISR, Sécurité
The Department of National Defence’s 'cyber playbook,' obtained by Global News, calls for 'hardened' defences – but also for 'capacity to respond' to hostile nation states.