Preserving capacity, General Tom Lawson, Chief of the Defence Staff, Keys to Canadian SAR
Issue link: http://vanguardcanada.uberflip.com/i/653616
'Drones will be the future because of everything they offer' t InnovatIon I 34 FEBRUARY/MARCH 2016 www.vanguardcanada.com increasingly rapid pace as far as no-escape zone, range, speed and accuracy. Missiles are also on the verge of having on-board advanced stealth and jamming systems to make radar warning receivers ineffective as well as launch detection systems. In ad- dition to this, active radar systems grow more and more powerful year after year and as this happen the disparity between stealth aircraft and traditional fighter air- craft will grow. Just as a basic example, say a stealth fighter can be detected and fired upon at 10 km compared to a legacy fighter at 100 km. A new radar system is developed which can now track the stealth fighter at 50 km. That means the range at which the legacy fighter can be tracked would grow to 500 km. Stealth is going to become in- creasingly important as sensor technology improves and the disparity between stealth and non-stealth grows. IRST and passive detection systems in general will also grow in power and effi- ciency which will make thermal signature management vital to surviving in any sort of contested airspace. Not to mention China's rapid advances in anti-jamming technology which point to yet another ob- stacle. Counters to these aspects will be helped extensively by the advancements offered by drone technology past 2030. The cur- rent estimates for fully autonomous drones range between 2040 (optimistic) and 2060 (more likely) but by 2030, this writer feels that there will be an increased demand for drones and by taking the steps mentioned earlier, Canada can ensure its place as a key contributor to what will be the future of aerospace technology. And we can do it a reduced cost compared to the investments made elsewhere already. We're at a crossroad We will also be ahead of the curve as far as equipping ourselves to deal with the grow- ing instability in the Arctic between Russia and Canada as well as the evolving threats from China and its allies. Canada is at crossroads. Dassault and the Eurofighter consortium are both desperate for sales to fund their future expenditures and programs at present so the offsets avail- able are of enormous benefit long-term and will certainly not be there indefinitely.