Vanguard Magazine

deFenCe innoVAtion www.vanguardcanada.com OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2018 13 T o be most effective, techno- logical advances for the mili- tary need to be sound board- ed out of real-life situations encountered in the field, both in conflict and in peacetime operations. Contrastingly, defence research and devel- opment needs the constraints and control of a laboratory environment to create per- tinent, applicable and effective solutions to protect the military. So – despite working towards the same end goal of developing and integrating technologies into military operations, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief – the "how" it is achieved is worlds apart. So how can soldiers and defence scientists marry these two requirements to provide the desired outcomes? Through the Tech- nical Cooperation Program (TTCP) and Contested Urban Environment (CUE) ex- periment. The TTCP is a Five Eyes coop- eration program that provides the defence science communities of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States the potential to extend their research and development capabilities at minimal cost, to avoid duplication and to improve interoperability. Combined with the CUE experiment, which aims to inves- tigate new and emerging technologies to improve the effectiveness of military person- nel operating in complex cities while reduc- ing risk to both military forces and civilians, Canada is working closely with its partners to advance both its own unique Canadian defence research needs as well as to liaise and to innovate with the partnering nations. This past September in Montreal, Que- bec, Defence and Research Development Canada (DRDC), as the representing Ca- nadian TTCP organization, led the second of a series of four CUE experiments, the first being in 2017 in Adelaide, Australia. The experiment ran between September 10 and 21, and included more than 150 defence scientists from all five participating nations, as well as more than 80 Canadian soldiers from B Company, 3rd Battalion, of the Royal 22nd Regiment. This year's CUE experiment, CUE 18, focused on providing the landscape for sol- diers to test technologies in an actual urban environment that would best mimic the type of urban landscape seen in so many current events requiring a military pres- ence. As recent history has demonstrated, places such as the conflicted streets of Ka- bul, Afghanistan, the earthquake-damaged streets of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, or do- mestic humanitarian efforts on the streets of Canadian towns and cities have shown how the varied nuances of a modern urban landscape create a number of challenges for soldiers to efficiently collect, interpret and analyze real-time information to best un- derstand and interpret a city. When support from soldiers is needed either domestically or in a foreign coun- try, it is often due to external, temporary encumbrances placed on the local popu- lation through natural or artificial means. Soldiers become deployed in an ever- changing environment, and must quickly to learn to navigate the habitual, daily stressors of the local environment and cul- ture, in addition to adapting to whatever additional pressures have required their presence. To ensure maximum success, there is a critical need to adapt technolo- gies to best support soldiers in their efforts to support the local populations. The military technologies used during CUE 18 looked at how to cope with ur- ban complexities and stressors. Montreal is an ideal example of a dense, modern and diverse urban environment, perfect for testing some of the military technologies developed by the TTCP nations. It was easy to see that the city would there- fore be a perfect setting for the experiment: the mixture of high and low rises along the rue de la Montagne created a long urban canyon for the soldiers of B Company to The military technologies used during CUE 18 looked at how to cope with urban complexities and stressors. Montreal is an ideal example of a dense, modern and diverse urban environment, perfect for testing some of the military technologies developed by the TTCP nations.

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