UAVS: A story in search of fuss

A front-page Ottawa Citizen article really seems to be trying to question procurement and even raise alarm when there isn't much there there. Note that everything is very preliminary. By the way the JUSTAS UAV program was created long-ago under the Liberals. The aircraft have been intended for both foreign and domestic operations--this from 2005:

...
Smith, who is JUSTAS project director, said he has a five-person team working on determining the Canadian Forces’ UAV needs. The aim is to employ UAVs for sovereignty missions such as surveillance of Canada’s coastlines as well as for overseas operations. By 2007, the military hopes to approach industry to meet its initial UAV needs...

Well, that's a year late on approaching industry (not bad given the sudden demand to get UAVs fast specifically for Afstan). What does seem new (the story link) is the likelihood that some of the aircraft will be armed (rejected heretofore--see end of this post); and it does seem odd putting "worldwide operations" before domestic ones given our 2011 exit from Afstan. We're unlikely to be engaged in a major overseas mission almost immediately after. I suspect that priority is just a bureaucratic hangover that may change:

DND seeks armed drones by 2012
Craft could be used for 'domestic' operations [shudder--we're going to use weapons domestically, right? "Armed drones. Attacking within Canada. We're not allowed to make things up."]

Canada's military is pushing ahead with its plan to buy aerial drones outfitted with weapons even as the Harper government is promising to pull troops out of Afghanistan in 2011.

The government's Afghanistan Procurement Taskforce has released details to the defence industry about the $500-million project to purchase a fleet of unmanned aerial vehicles or UAVs.

The first of the UAVs would be delivered in February 2012, according to the material provided to the defence industry on Sept. 5.

Executives from aerospace and defence companies will meet in Ottawa on Oct. 2 and 3 to get further information about the project from Canadian Forces officers and officials from Public Works and Government Services Canada.

Armed UAVs have been playing a key role during the last several years in hunting down Taliban and al-Qaeda insurgents in Afghanistan and more recently in Pakistan.

The aircraft, mainly U.S.-built Predators, have launched missiles at a number of locations where insurgent leaders are thought to have been meeting. Some top insurgent officials have been killed in the attacks, but at the same time, civilian casualties have been reported [so what?--as they have with manned aircraft strikes, and fire from crew-served weapons and small arms].

The Defence Department program, called the Joint UAV Surveillance and Target Acquisition System or JUSTAS, has been planned for some time [now we are told]. According to the documents, the project would initially purchase a fleet of drones for "primarily overland operations both domestically and overseas."

"Phase 1 will acquire a long-range UAV system, suitable for worldwide operations, and capable of carrying a suite of sophisticated payloads and precision weapons," the documents added.

Sensors on board the UAVs will be required to track targets as small as a human carrying a weapon...

In a previous interview, Lt.-Col. Alex Tupper, the air force's UAV project director, said meeting various procurement deadlines was expected to be challenging. "To get a contract awarded in 2010 and to have an initial operating capability in 2012 is going to take a lot of work," he said.

Lt.-Col. Tupper noted the project still needed government approval [empasis added]...

...last year a similar UAV project was also sidelined. That one was also to have involved the purchase of surveillance drones, and, although the ability of the aircraft to carry weapons was regarded as "highly important," it was not mandatory, according to documents released at the time.

In this latest UAV procurement, though, having the systems capable of providing all-weather "precision strike capabilities" is a main component of the program.

The U.S.-based General Atomics, the firm that builds the Predator, and its partner, the Ottawa-based General Dynamics Canada, are reviewing the details of the government's letter of interest. General Atomics spokeswoman Kimberly Kasitz said the firm remained convinced the Predator B was the best solution for Canada's UAV needs.

David Hargreaves of MacDonald Dettwiler in Richmond, B.C., said that company was hoping its upcoming experience leasing UAVs to the Canadian Forces for the Kandahar mission would put it in a strong position to bid on the JUSTAS project.

"The lease is going to allow us to gain an awful lot of experience operating and maintaining the aircraft in an operational theatre," Mr. Hargreaves said.

It will also provide the Canadian Forces with the opportunity to appreciate the capabilities of the Heron UAV being offered by MacDonald Dettwiler and its partner Israel Aircraft Industries, he added...

The letter of interest sent to industry is considered the first step [emphasis added] in moving ahead with the project. Information gathered from defence companies will then be used to further refine the proposal, which still needs approval from the Treasury Board and cabinet...

A second phase of the UAV project would involve the purchase of drones for maritime surveillance off Canada's coasts and limited surveillance in the Arctic...

It's not at all clear to me that the aircraft for domestic operations will themselves be armed--look at that headline again.

And from David Pugliese's blog:

...
Phase 1 of JUSTAS will acquire a long-range UAV system, suitable for worldwide operations, and capable of carrying a suite of sophisticated payloads and precision weapons. JUSTAS Phase 2 will provide a domestic maritime and limited Arctic surveillance capability. In order to achieve the greatest operational flexibility and the lowest total lifecycle cost, these two increments will be linked by a common UAV system, a common support network, and common infrastructure, according to material provided to the defence industry. “To limit risk, the project will base the development effort on a suitable, commercially available MALE [medium-altitude long-endurance] UAV system and integrate the subsystems and payloads required to meet the user’s operational requirements,” the documents note.

The project still has to receive Treasury Board and Cabinet approval. But here is the proposed schedule:

• Letter of Interest – September 2008;
• Draft RFP for Industry comment – Summer 2009;
• RFP Release – Winter 2009;
• Contract award – Fall 2010;
• Phase 1 Initial Operational Capability – Feb 2012;
• Phase 1 Final Operational Capability – 2016;
• Phase 2 Initial Operational Capability – 2016;
• Phase 2 Final Operational Capability – 2017; and
• Decommissioning and Disposal – 2032...

It does seem odd to me that the domestic version, with its maritime capabilities, is not scheduled for service until 2016 given the difficult situation our destroyers and frigates (contract for their upgrade still not announced--see middle here) will be in by then. Then there will be the diminishing Aurora patrol aircraft fleet.

Update: Here's the government's MERX posting--very broad parameters indeed (via Ammo).

Predate: Another approach to maritime surveillance (that includes Air Force UAVs):

A civilian maritime patrol aircraft fleet?