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Background
— Canadian Forces Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Trials |
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“... Velut inter ignis Luna minores ...”
Reports that the Bundeswehr EMT Luna X2000 target acquisition drones in Kabul
might be inherited by CF troops proved to be untrue. After filling in for the CF, these German UAVs (which flew 220
operational missions over the Balkans prior to ISAF ) were relieved by the new CU-161 Sperwer tactical UAVs. After a string of CF
Sperwer crashes in Kabul, the Bundeswehr announced that it would keep their Luna UAVs, ground
stations, and transporters in Afghanistan until the Canadians were able to acheive full operational deployment of the
troubled Sperwer.
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MALE Attributes — Medium Altitude, Long Endurance
The Canadian Forces Experimentation Centre continued its ongoing UAV tests with a leased IAI Malat CU-160 Eagle MALE off the west coast of Vancouver
Island on 11 July 2003. Israeli technicians ran the UAV [1] through its paces in front of military
observers from Canada, Britain, France, and the US. The Eagle-1 tested was fitted with search radar in a
large belly radome to suit it for maritime patrol of Canada’s coastlines.
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This emphasis on maritime surveillance is a dramatic shift away from CFEC’s focus on battlefield
reconnaissance at Suffield. The change of roles is also reflected in the vehicle [2] itself which is much
larger. DND testing of potential maritime patrol UAVs is to continue with a possible purchase sometime in 2006.
The leisurely pace is difficult to understand, particularly in light of an unexpected bonus which came from the
Tofino trials when the CU-160 recorded a Chinese freighter trailing a long oil-slick and was
able to identify this alleged polluter.
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CFEC UAV tests continued with maritime surveillance trials in the
Arctic (Baffin Island) and Atlantic Canada in August of 2004. In February 2004, General Atomics had announced that it
had been awarded a DND contract to provide one of its Altairs [3] for ALIX (the “Atlantic
Littoral Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Experiment”). This UAV is being designated CU-163 Altair for its brief CF service.
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[1] The CU-160 is know as the Eagle-1 to its makers. Although, with its
16.5m wing span, the CU-160 Eagle is larger than its predecessors, the Eagle-1 follows the twin-boomed,
pusher-propeller layout of the earlier Israeli UAVs. DND’s interest in a coastal patrol UAV
mirrors that of Australia’s Coastwatch (which leans towards larger Global Hawks) but CF MALE UAV requirements are now being skewed by a demand for
more capable – and likely armed – UAVs that can patrol coasts but also be deployed overseas on combat missions as needed.
[2] The maritime patrol UAV tested at Tofino more closely resembles the Eagle’s predecessor, the
IAI Heron than it does other Eagle-1s intended for general reconnaissance (compare photos, above). The
bulbous nose of the Eagle-1s purchased by France accomodate radar specialized for land reconnaissance while
the Tofino UAV’s underslung radome allows for 360° coverage by a maritime surveillance radar.
[3] Altair is a rather odd choice since this UAV is NASA’s research variant of the USAF Predator B drone. Stranger still, the essentially similar but longer-ranging
Mariner (now entering US Navy service) was not chosen despite being a dedicated maritime surveillance UAV.
Also see: the Canadian Forces mini-UAV, the CU-167 Silver Fox, which was yet
another participant in the Atlantic Littoral ISR experiment.
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