Canada is deploying unmanned surveillance aircraft to the High Arctic for the first time, as part of the largest military exercise ever in the Far North.
Catapult-launched Boeing ScanEagle similar to those used by the Canadian army for surveillance in Afghanistan are to assist in a major air disaster scenario in an extremely remote area near Resolute, which is about 3,000 kilometres north of Ottawa. They will also assist in a major maritime disaster exercise being overseen by the Canadian Coast Guard in waters between Canada and Greenland.
“It’s precedent setting. There will be small UAS in the High Arctic,” Defence Minister Peter MacKay said in an interview. “They are a harbinger of things to come.
“This will be eyes-on. We can link satellite capability to UAS to help find people and crash sites. UAS proved invaluable in Afghanistan and have a great value in applications in the North.”
Operation Nanook, which is to last more than three weeks, begins Friday when three Canadian naval vessels led by the frigate, HMCS St. John’s, set out from Newfoundland for Baffin Bay where they will rendezvous with a Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker.
About 1,100 sailors, soldiers and air personnel, including Special Forces and aboriginal forces known as Canadian Rangers, will join about 200 sailors from the coast guard — who have long experience in Arctic waters — for the exercise. The unmanned aircraft will provide data to two companies of infantry from Alberta and Quebec who will be assisting with the air and maritime search-and-rescue operations. Other Canadian military participants include CF-18 Hornet fighter jets and manned surveillance and transport aircraft and helicopters.
Testing responses to air or maritime disasters in the North, as Canada was doing this summer, was a high priority because “there is a very real need and the environment is changing in the Arctic because of the opening of the Arctic ice,” MacKay said.
Several hundred jumbo jets bound for Canada and the U.S. from Asia, Europe and the Middle East transit the Canadian Arctic every day. As Arctic ice recedes more cruise ships have also been going farther north in recent years.
The ScanEagles that will be assisting the military and the coast guard with the air and maritime disaster and rescue scenarios can be equipped with various cameras including infra-red lenses. They have a wing span of three metres, weigh only 20 kilograms, but can stay aloft for 20 hours or more, flying at a cruising speed of about 170 kilometres per hour.
Source: Ottawa Citizen