C C4ISR
Ian Coutts is a freelance writer,
author of four books, and a frequent
contributor to Vanguard. His writing
has appeared in Canadian Business,
the Globe and Mail and elsewhere.
ARCTIC
PictUre:
S
RCAF test beyond
line-of-sight transmission
eptember 2010. Heavy rains and high winds, the remnants of Hurricane Igor, buffet Newfoundland. Early
reports tell of roads and bridges washed away, and communities isolated by rising water – but facts are hard to come by.
When a similar flood had hit Manitoba's Red River Valley a
few years before, the Royal Canadian Air Force sent a CP-140
Aurora west from Greenwood, Nova Scotia to survey the extent
of the flood and assess the damage. Now, in 2010, as storms lash
Newfoundland from Gambo to the Burin Peninsula, the air force
dispatches one of the patrol planes north on a similar mission.
Potentially, lives are at stake. Time is of the essence.
Well, that was the theory. Unfortunately, while the Aurora
could survey – and record – the devastating flooding, it had no
way of sharing this material quickly. Seven anxious hours passed
until the Aurora was back on the ground in Nova Scotia, and the
images recorded by the aircraft's sensors were readily available.
20 JUNE/JULY 2013
www.vanguardcanada.com
