CASR

Canadian
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Canadian Defence Policy - Intervention - Disaster Response  -  January 2005 Do  We  Dither?  Or  Do  We  DART?  –  The  Department  of National  Defence Needs a New List:  'Notes  for  Next  Time' Dianne DeMille and Stephen Priestley  –  column in the Winnipeg Free Press * Canada's DART  [Disaster Assistance Response Team]  has finally  arrived in  Ampara,  Sri Lanka. The  Minister  of  National  Defence,  Bill  Graham, has  endured  barbed  criticism  for  not  deploying DART  more  promptly. The world was faced with the most horrific natural disaster in living memory.  Yet  Canadian  officials were  pondering  whether  our  200-strong  DART was  "the right tool"  for  this  particular  calamity. Was Canada dithering in public again?  What were the problems with the deployment this time?  How can we  overcome  these  problems  for  next  time? Background  of  DART DART was formed in 1996 in response to a cholera outbreak which followed the genocidal massacres in Rwanda. When relief agencies could not get safe drinking water to the survivors fast enough to stop water-borne diseases from rapidly spreading throughout the surviving population, Canadian officials recognized the need to respond rapidly with a pared-down military force, equipped with essentials. These essentials included a method of producing safe drinking water on-site, an agile medical response team and field hospital, a security force to protect the operation, and, above all, the power to communicate (under the most difficult circumstances) with political leaders and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) like Oxfam, CARE. On Thursday, four days after the devastating tsunami waves struck 12 countries in Southeast Asia, Ottawa dispatched a 12-person 'reconnaissance team' to the disaster area to determine what the relief priorities were, who needed what, which countries would accept our help  –  and which wouldn't.  Apparently,  this  is  SOP  (standard operating  procedure)  for any  DART deployment. Faster  Ways  to  Collect  Needed  Information? Couldn't  some  of  this  information  be  gathered  over  the  telephone,  or  by  email? After all,  CARE  Canada's  Emergency  Response  Team  was one of  the first  NGOs to establish a presence in  Aceh,  the  Indonesian  province  most  affected  by  the tsunamis. Could this highly-regarded NGO not provide information about what kind of relief was required in that area, and whether a Canadian Forces presence would be welcomed by Indonesian officials? There  are  even  better  sources  of  'intel'  in  the  region.  No  organization  knows more  about  Indonesia  than  the  Australian  Ministry  of  Defence,  since  Australia considers  Indonesia  the  primary  threat  to  its  national  interests.  Minister  Bill Graham  himself  has  the  autonomy  to  contact  his  counterpart,  the  Australian Defence  Minister,  for  relevant  on-site  assessments. Coordinating  Aid  Efforts  in  the  Region Other nations acted with much greater speed than Canada.  President  George  Bush was vacationing in Texas when the tsunamis hit, but, by Wednesday, had organized, through  personal  telephone  calls  and  diplomatic  contacts  in  various  capitals, a coordinated effort by four countries in the area  –  Australia,  India,  Japan  and  the US,  which  has  military  bases and a  significant  naval  presence  in  the  region. Australia took responsibility for Indonesia.  Within days, at  least two  Australian  Hercules transport  aircraft  had already landed at Banda  Aceh, capital of the hardest hit region of that country, with medical and other relief supplies. India has taken responsibility for Tamil Nadu, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, as well as Sri Lanka and the Maldives.  The US and  Japan were sending personnel and medical equipment to the other affected areas in the region. The point is that this coordinated effort was done mainly by phone, fax and email. There was no need for a high-level reconnaissance team to fly to the area.  All the information  that  was  needed  was  available  'on  the  ground'.  It  simply  required someone  to  gather  that  information  quickly,  integrate  the  relevant  facts,  then make a decision,  and  act. So, sending a Canadian reconnaissance team seems to be a debilitating bottleneck in the DART deployment process.  It may be a step  which can be  eliminated  in  future crises.  Just phone ahead.  Contact consular staff.  See if  we're wanted  –  and where. Break  Down  DART  into  Smaller  Operational  Units? Canadian officials were speculating about whether DART needs to be broken down into smaller, more agile units. Here they may be on the right track. The name 'DART' implies a unified team but, in fact, the team consists of distinct operational elements. DART was last deployed after a massive earthquake in Turkey in August of 1999.  For that mission  (Operation Torrent),  all of the elements of DART were needed. In the tsunami disaster, lack of potable water is the most urgent need.  That  seems  tailor-made for  DART,  which has several excellent,  Canadian-made,  diesel- operated  ROWPU  –  reverse osmosis  water  purification  units.  Making water potable is one of the things the CF does best. The ROWPU portion of DART could act as a  'sub-unit',  responding to specific requests where purified water is the top priority. Ideally,  each  DART  sub-unit  (listed above)  should  operate  like  firefighters  in  a firehall. When the bell rings, they answer the alarm.  The firehall's response protocol is  already  well-practised.  No  decision  by  the  fire  chief  is  required.  To arrive late would  be  worse  than  useless.  That's  why  a  certain  number  of  false  alarms  are tolerated  –  just turn around and go back. Miniaturization  of  Water  Purification  Units  (ROWPU)? ROWPU units  are  so large  that  they  were transported  on trailers  hauled by an  HESV (Heavy Engineering Support Vehicle with a towing capacity of 18 tons).  Lighter DART loads are handled by 1.5 ton LSVWs  (Light Support Vehicles, Wheeled). In all, about 40 CF trucks – large and small – were ferried by leased Antonov An-124 transport aircraft to the airfield tarmac outside Sri Lanka's capital. From Colombo,  all of  DART's equipment and personnel must be trucked to Ampara on the other side of the island nation.  The roads these CF  vehicles must travel were ravaged by the tsunami and now the monsoon season has begun.  Ampara  is  inside the  region  claimed  by  the  Tamil  Tigers  (LTTE)  who have been fighting an armed insurgency  against  the  majority  Buddhist  Sri  Lankans,  in  hopes  of  establishing an  Islamic  homeland  called  'Tamil  Eelam'. The  security  component  of  DART  will  be  needed to protect  the large  ROWPUs. Such an advanced water purification unit would be a valuable prize for any leader of a militant  group  trying  to  win  the  hearts  and  minds  of  local  Sri  Lankans. There is a theoretical efficiency to having a large, centralized source of water with an output that is absolutely pure, and a flow-rate of tens of thousands of litres per day. Such a unit would make most sense if it were to be set up in downtown London, Ont. For the current purposes,  however,  we must take other  factors into consideration. DART's  initial  deployment  required  two of the largest cargo planes on the planet. The ROWPU components must be housed in ISO containers – the 20-foot long steel shipping boxes more commonly seen being hauled by a train, rather than by a truck. [Ed: to be strictly accurate, ROWPU is housed in its own container which is slightly smaller than an ISO shipping container. A ROWPU container can fit onto a CC-130.] Trucks must haul their technologically vulnerable cargo over inadequate roads.  Then, after  each large  ROWPU is set up, it requires three technicians to keep it running. The CF also uses the so-called Mini-ROWPU which can be broken down  into three separate loads  for  shipping. The volume of water processed by Mini-ROWPU is less than a large ROWPU but, once set up, the Mini-ROWPU require only a single water technician to keep it working. In view of the difficulties of deploying 'full sized' ROWPU, the trade-off of a reduced output from Mini-ROWPU seems acceptable. If larger numbers of the Mini-ROWPU made up the DART water purification component, greater flexibility in both shipping and 'in-country' location could be realized. Each smaller unit could be set up and left with one qualified technician and a CF security team to protect the installation. Then the  rest  of  the  convoy could move on to the  next  logical  location,  set up another Mini-ROWPU,  and so on.  Transport  problems  (and scale)  could be reduced  while the requirements  for qualified  water  treatment  technicians would  remain  the same. In the long run, Canadian personnel (either CF or CIDA) could train local technicians to maintain the Mini-ROWPU which could be left in place. Who knows?  It could act as an incentive to order more Mini-ROWPUs  from  Canadian industry  for the future. The whole world needs water. There is a long-term market for ROWPU technologies. DART's  Paralysis:  The Need  for Strategic Airlift There is a final and perhaps most pressing question: How do we get our technology, technicians, medics, field hospitals, and communication systems to a stricken area? DART is made up primarily of CF Land Forces personnel,  but it is largely dependent upon the transport aircraft of Canada's Air Force to deliver the team to the scene of a disaster. Many Canadians may remember images of DART troops unloading CC-130 Hercules aircraft in Honduras in the wake of Hurricane Mitch in October, 1998. But delivering relief supplies to Central America in aging,  propellor-driven Hercules is one thing. Spanning the entire globe in this slow, tactical transport aircraft is quite another. Reaching East Timor in 1999 proved to be a major challenge for the CC-130s. The fleet has since had its electronics upgraded, but the planes themselves have the same worn-out airframes, aged a few more years. To handle large, awkward loads over long distances, the Canadian Forces – like most of Canada's NATO allies – relies on the services of air-cargo charter companies from Russia or Ukraine. Through these firms, large military-style cargo aircraft can be 'wet- leased', complete with their crews. Brokers for these deals are Air Canada or SkyLink. The difficulty in a disaster is aircraft availability.  As soon as news of the tsunamis broke, civilian aid agencies quickly began organizing relief efforts.  Leasing a cargo aircraft would have been one of the first items on everyone's agenda. In other words, whenever DND seeks to lease an Antonov for the deployment of DART, it will be in direct competition with the transport needs of all the world's largest relief agencies. DART requires its own accessible, reliable air transport – both strategic and tactical. Canadian citizens have repeatedly voiced their insistence on a fully internationalist foreign policy. That policy must be reflected in Air Force planning and procurement. For CF tactical airlift, replacing the worn-out Hercules fleet is simple. The Hercules is still in production as the updated C-130J. This is the model of Hercules purchased by Australia, and these new aircraft are now being used to provide relief to Indonesia ... [Update: Five years on, the first C-130J Hercules has yet to enter CF service (though is has now left Lockheed Martin's paint shop in Canadian colours ). In Nov 2005, the then-Liberal government made moves to sole-source new C-130Js from LM. This was halted by the newly-elected Harper Conservatives (who then went for much the same deal). During the 2005-06 election campaign, the Tories had made an election promise of single-sourcing another large transport aircraft. That resulted in an ACAN for C-17 Globemaster IIIs which makes moot any further discussion of  CF strategic airlifters.] * Published 02 Jan 2005 as a 'View from the West' column in the Winnipeg Free Press    This CASR  version has been updated to take account of recent developments.    Dianne DeMille is the editor of CASR. Stephen Priestley is its researcher/illustrator.