Air force hopes to have drones flying by 2023
Canada’s military hopes to have a fleet of drones fully operating by 2023 — some 17 years after Prime Minister Stephen Harper initially promised such a capability.
But even 2023 is tentative as the government still has to approve the project to buy the unmanned aerial vehicles, also known as UAVs.
In the run-up to the 2006 election, Harper promised that under a Conservative government, Goose Bay, N.L., would become home to a new 650-member military rapid reaction unit, as well as a new squadron operating long-range UAVs.
Once in power, the Tories reit- erated the pledge. Military staff privately acknowledge the plan to buy the pilotless aircraft — meant to conduct surveillance off the country’s coasts, in the Arctic and on overseas missions — is behind schedule because of lack of money and personnel to staff the new squadron.
The RCAF declined an interview on UAVs. Air force spokesman Maj. James Simiana stated in an email that “this project is still pre-definition phase and pre-government announcement.”
In an April 10 presentation in Ottawa, Col. Phil Garbutt told industry representatives that the project is still a priority and one of the “Big 5” the air force wants to push in the future.
He noted the RCAF hopes for the first UAVs to be available for operations in 2021 and that all drones, personnel and infrastructure would be in place by 2023.
Details of Garbutt’s presentation were provided to the Citizen.
But industry representatives privately question whether that timetable will be kept, noting there has been little movement on the project, estimated to cost more than $1 billion.
In his presentation, Garbutt acknowledged that the dates for the project, dubbed the Joint Unmanned Surveillance Targeting and Acquisition System (JUSTAS), were “notional.”
In an email, Johanna Quinney, press secretary for Defence Minister Rob Nicholson, noted that JUSTAS “aims to equip the Canadian Armed Forces with the tools they need to take on challenges of the 21st century.
The JUSTAS program is still in the options analysis phase and therefore no proposal has been submitted for consideration.”
JUSTAS has sputtered along over the years as DND officials have tried to get the Conservative government to follow through on its election promise.
The first of the UAVs were supposed to be operating as early as 2010.
That was then pushed back to early 2012 and again changed to 2017 by military officers as they dealt with ongoing delays.
In 2012, the Citizen reported the RCAF had determined it needed 369 people if it wanted to create a new squadron for unmanned air- craft as promised by Harper.
Finding those individuals was a problem, according to the military.
Canada has operated UAVs previously. During the Afghan war, the government approved the lease of Israeli-built UAVs from MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates in Richmond, B.C.
During the Libyan war in 2011, senior Canadian defence leaders pitched the idea of spending up to $600 million for armed drones to take part in that conflict.
Documents obtained by the Citizen showed that military leaders saw the Libyan war as a possible way to move the stalled JUSTAS program forward.
According to a briefing presented to then-defence minister Peter MacKay, they pointed out the purchase of such aircraft for the Libyan conflict could kick-start their larger drone project.
The war, however, was in its final stages when the briefing was provided and the proposal didn’t get approval from the Conservative government.