Canada looks to lease UAVs

In urgent need of tactical Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) for its Afghanistan mission, Canada is rushing to lease such aircraft and send them to Kandahar in the next 10 to 14 months.

This is the second time the Canadian Forces has tried to lease a UAV for combat operations; the first time, in the fall of 2005, the project was canceled after aerospace industry officials informed the military the program’s proposed budget of 17 million Canadian dollars ($16.6 million) wouldn’t cover the acquisition of such a capability.

This time around, Canadian military officials are hoping things will be different, although they are not releasing details on the amount of funding they have put in place for the lease.

Krista Hannivan, a spokeswoman for the assistant deputy minister of materiel, said the lease of an interim tactical UAV will meet the increasing demands for operational-level intelligence gathering until a long-term solution can be found.

“As TUAV capabilities have become essential to joint force operations, and are deemed a high priority, delivery is on an aggressive timeline — within the next 10 to 14 months,” she said.

A request for proposals is expected in the next several months, but no specific date is yet available.

The Defence Department did not release further details, such as how many aircraft would be part of the lease package or the length of time the lease would run. The lease program, dubbed Noctua (Latin for “little owl”) is a replacement for the Canadian Forces’ existing Sperwer UAVs. The Sperwers do not have the endurance or range for Afghanistan operations, according to Canadian military officers.

Meanwhile, Hannivan said, the Defence Department is working to define its long-term UAV needs.

So far, the latest lease program has attracted the attention of General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, San Diego, as well as Rheinmetall Canada, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec.

General Atomics teamed with General Dynamics Canada, Ottawa, to sell the Predator B over the last several years, said Kimberly Kasitz, General Atomics spokeswoman.

Nick Papiccio, Rheinmetall Canada’s vice president of business development, said the firm is interested in partnering with a UAV company to provide support on such a project.

Rheinmetall was the prime contractor on the Sperwer program. Papiccio said working with the Canadian Air Force on the Sperwer deployment gave the firm a solid base for work on the Noctua project.

“That knowledge — taking a new bird and integrating it quickly and seamlessly into the correct organization in Kandahar — we know how to do that,” he said.

Papiccio said the company can also offer improvements to the Sperwer to increase its endurance, but he noted that Canada’s Defence Department appears to be interested in a UAV capable of taking off from a runway. Sperwer is sent airborne by a catapult launcher and returns to earth via a parachute after its mission is finished.

MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates, Richmond, British Columbia, which has joined with Israel Aerospace Industries to offer UAVs, is also potentially interested in the Noctua project, company official David Hargreaves said.

Source: D. Pugliese - DefenseNews