Vanguard Magazine

14 OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2018 www.vanguardcanada.com deFenCe innoVAtion patrol and to surveil using some of the mili- tarized innovations for the stabilization op- erations in their scenario. The scenic look- out point of the Belvedere atop the Mont Royal itself, usually the haunt of tourists looking for a panoramic photograph of the city, created the perfect space to test optic and biological detection technologies. The gritty abandoned architecture of the his- toric Silo 5 site in the Old Port replicated a quasi-post-apocalyptic landscape which lent itself to intelligence gathering ground ma- neuvers, and aerial and ground reconnais- sance and surveillance. Using an actual dense city as the experi- ment backdrop created an environment that was productively unpredictable. With civilians and traffic of the city entering in and out of the scenarios, the researchers were able to collect more pertinent data for an increased understanding of the ur- ban context. "The city of Montreal is a great exam- ple of a modern city, with a high-density population living directly within the city center," notes the Canadian national rep- resentative and Experimentation Direc- tor for CUE 18, Patrick Maupin."There is also a diverse population, architecture and building materials, as well quite varied configurations of spatial geometry that af- fect our ability to communicate, navigate, and orient ourselves." Maupin further elaborated that the city provides many of the urban stresses re- quired to assess the performance of the deployed technologies during CUE 18: a high density of population and infrastruc- ture; the important flows of vehicles, pe- destrians and information; the substantial scale of the city itself relative to its 3-D layout such as the exterior and interior surfaces of buildings, subterranean com- ponents and utility infrastructures; the inter-connectedness of the city's elements and the difficulty to grasp second and third order effects of one's actions; and the historical, cultural local, regional and international context elements unique to each urban environment. Finally, Maupin revealed that this type of environment provides opportunities to reflect on typical urban operational risks including threats that may be difficult to differentiate from the city's clutter, the inability to predict the consequences of one's actions because of the complexity of the environment, and the vulnerabilities of urban constructs, including the popula- tion and socio-cultural elements. The intelligence, surveillance and recon- naissance (ISR) component of CUE 18 was paramount. All of the technologies tested during the event played a role in the soft and hard collection of data touching on one or more of the three areas. The experiment was divided into the three main locations in order to harmonize the use of the technologies between all the areas, and also included a local armoury where the experiment operations centre was set up. The soldiers worked within the simple framework of a reds-and-blues sce- nario (two opposing forces) to help keep a fluidity throughout the experiment, and to help understand, quite simply: what did they need to know about a city? An additional component of the CUE 18 was a table-top exercise, or TTX, mod- erated by Dr. David Kilcullen, an authority on urban conflict and counterinsurgency. The TTX mirrored the live scenario be- ing played out in the city and permitted the both civilian and military participants the opportunity to develop an improved and more nuanced understanding of how to run these types of live events. For the duration of the TTX, which paralleled the experiment on the streets of Montreal, participants were able to analyze captured data through a more measured lens, and reflect on future opportunities for the technologies as a result. There were over 50 technologies be- ing tested by more than 150 researchers. Almost half of those technologies tested were used by soldiers deployed on the street, with the remainder being either un- manned aerial or ground vehicles, or soft- ware operated by TTCP researchers. Hav- ing the opportunity to have the soldiers test the technologies in the real world versus the contained and controlled lab provided an authentic atmosphere for the members of B Company as they patrolled the streets and acted out pre-determined scenarios. The researchers gathered feedback from the soldiers throughout CUE 18 which will be used in the coming months to adjust, modify, or improve components, some of which will have iterations to be retested at the next CUE, which will take place in the United States in 2019. An example of the type of feedback gath- ered can be found with CUPSS UGS tech- nology. It's a Canadian-designed and devel- oped unattended ground sensor, bearing a shape not unlike its namesake, meant to be delicately placed on the ground by a soldier Photo: Department of National Defence and Canadian Armed Forces

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