Canadian drone industry is spinning – with lessons from Ukraine

24 years have passed since the largest killer of the drone: an attack on predators on the convoy of Al Qaeda vehicle in Afghanistan only nine weeks after the September 11 attacks.

The strike was killed by Muhammad Atf, the son -in -law of Osama bin Laden and the head of the group’s military operations, and made it clear that the 20th century war would have witnessed a major role for unmanned air vehicles (drones).

The drones are still large and expensive, like the predator and Riber have their place. Canada has A fleet of similar drones It is expected to arrive and operate in 2033.

But the war in Ukraine has turned the focus away from millions of dollars drones into cheaper and sometimes disposable drones.

Like armies all over the world, the Canadian Armed Forces witnessed the transformation of the conflict in Ukraine, which was largely artillery war just 18 months ago in a nightmare competition between the reckless machines and the operators that guide them.

“It is a revolution in part of the battlefield,” says Lieutenant Colon in the Canadian Royal Air Force. Chris Labe, who heads the Office of Joint Joint Aircraft Systems, is not engraved to the forces. “You will see different scientists or analysts who are now talking about” coastal air ” – the distance between the Earth and 1000 meters in the air, and perhaps above it.

Labi said that this space was dominated by helicopters. but Nagorno War KarabakhThen the war in Ukraine, the progress of the drone war accelerated.

He said that the Canadian army is determined to keep pace with this change.

House weapons industry

Almost everything about the smaller drones is a change in the direction of military thinking and industrial production. For decades, purchases have headed towards high prices and longer timetables. F-35, for example, is a very complex and expensive arms system that many countries that many countries had to buy and invest in advance.

Done aircraft do not need giant factories with advanced production lines. Instead, Tom Barton of Defense Jenns said in London, Ukraine has operated the decentralized production in small workshops.

Barton said: “Some of the ways in which men in their grooms simplify 3D printing in reality and put quantities of these drones, have not thought that it could be imagined so far.”

Watch | Done unable to carry an injured soldier: https://www.youtube.com/watch?

He says that the Russians also planted 3D printing and manufactured them for an army of home engineers. Its wide distribution makes it impossible to close production through bombing or missile strikes.

Labbé says that Ukrainian drones are also experimenting with results and exchanging results, which leads to rapid improvements in monitoring and hitting capabilities.

“The speed with which this innovation occurs is completely rude,” he said.

Lab Bay said that to increase the motivation of innovation, Ukraine has developed a bonus system for front -lines units where those who have more success get points that they can use to buy a new group related to online drones.

Throw the challenge

Canadian forces want to get some of this innovative energy, and to achieve this end, a series of “challenges” for Canadian drone manufacturers has released through the Stoltsions Solutions Canada (ISC).

Philip Reese, CEO of Indro Robotics, says the industry has noticed the change.

“They are returning with some well -studied questions, then moves to the test first and then purchases,” he said.

challenge I am currently published By ISC, makers of manufacturers invite the introduction of a “interceptor” drone, capable of attacking enemy drones “from several hundreds of grams to several hundreds of kilograms” that can work from the top of the Earth’s surface to altitudes of more than 3000 meters and reach speeds “exceeding 200 km/hour.”

The language of challenge calls for designers to search for “creative and innovative solutions” to intercept drones, exceeding “contact with their targets with an explosion.”

Sand box

Examples of this new approach have already been tested at a site called Sandbox in Saffield, Alta. , Including a successful test of the directed energy weapon that caused a drone to be rushed to a bright green tongue in the air and disruption on the ground.

It was tested on another lemon plane in the sand box, which hovered above its target and dropped a network, which led to the involvement of the target drone fans.

Another area of angry and developed by Ukraine’s war is to drive drones and control drones in the battlefield where radio signals and even GPS are disturbed.

The Russians were the first to realize that they could defeat the jamming by connecting optical fiber cables to drones. Driving signals travel along the thin hair strands, not through the air where they can be disturbed. Ukraine has recently flew a drone with a 50 -km optical fiber reel.

Reese said that these innovations, in turn, prompted innovation in the world of the anti -train.

“Now they are doing more kinetic response,” he said. “Nearly, it is no longer that Radio and GPS THAMMING have been cut off when you get a drone with fiber optics. So this is certainly progressing very quickly.”

Air, land and sea

Canadian drone development is not limited to the air. The navy has adapted the targets of its maritime guns with a hammer to create a burdened burdened Naval attack drone. It was successfully tested (and exploded) last month.

Lapi says that rockets and anti -Ukrainian ships in the Black Sea are “an incredible achievement that strongly talks about the potential of unpopular regimes.”

Watch | Naval Tests in the maritime attack: https://www.youtube.com/watch?

The current interest is in the mid -sized airplanes area, which weighs hundreds of kilograms, which can take away a victim of a stretch or supply the front forces from the back areas.

Reese said that his company is experimenting with land drones that can move faster than the car and work with drones on the air for survey.

“They can also go foot and prepare network networks, so safe communications that cannot be penetrated forward can be transferred,” he said.

One of the advantages of drones is that it often costs much lower than its targets – it is the equivalent of the battlefield against opponents who have more power in vehicles, aircraft and ships.

Barton said that drones in Ukraine have been used to strike elements of expensive Russian air defense systems, and that the power of drones is well equipped with skilled caffeine operators that will make even the strongest opponent hesitated to launch an armored attack.

He said that for a country like Canada with wide defense limits, “drones are likely to be a great solution.”

Canadian drones for Europe?

Done aircraft can also provide a means of European defense purchases that Canada wants to reach, if Canada can develop a desirable drone industry for the European army.

“Now is the point of reflection between drones, robots and aerobic organization,” said Reese. “Canada knows that we are. You can see through all responses, commercial and governmental, and this is the time to move forward.”

REECE says that Canada is partially strong because Transport Canada has been ahead of most national organizers in realizing industry capabilities and creating conditions easily enough to allow drones to prosper.

“We have the skills here, and we have knowledge and certainly they needed,” he said. “So if we are already in the foreground in drones and robots and we can keep up with artificial intelligence, then collecting them together makes us definitely international power.”