A Canadian Forces soldier trains Ukrainian troops in the use of drones, a somewhat ironic situation since Ukraine has become a world leader in drone warfare. (DND photo)
By David Pugliese
In November 2024 I started writing an article on first person view (FPV) drones and the Canadian Armed Forces.
I figured the piece would be a good news story for the Ottawa Citizen newspaper about how the CAF was embracing the FPV technology that was revolutionizing warfare.
Afterall, FPV drones are now dominating battlefields. They were being used in fighting in Gaza and Lebanon and had become a critical enabler for both sides of the Ukraine-Russia conflict.
The first person view (FPV) drones allow the pilot to see from the drone’s perspective in real-time, usually through a headset. The low-cost systems, which are in some cases are as cheap as $500, can bring devastating firepower to the battlefield. Social media is full of videos showing explosive-laden FPVs knocking out multi-million dollar weapons, including main battle tanks.
Intelligence analyst Wesley Wark has outlined how such drone technology was “transforming warfare in real time,” adding that Ukraine uses FPV drones to drop munitions down Russian tank hatches and chase individual soldiers and small units on the battlefield.
But I didn’t expect the response I got from the Canadian Forces on FPVs.
“At this time, the Department of National Defence/Canadian Armed Forces does not have any current or planned procurements for First Person View drones for operational use,” department spokesperson Alex Tétreault explained in an email.
End of story. FPVs were not even being considered by the CAF. Nor were there any plans whatsoever to go down the FPV road, even in an experimental way.
One would have thought a FPV purchase would be easy. As explained, they are cheap enough so a major procurement program wouldn’t be needed. They are high-tech, allowing the military and government to send a message they are continuing to keep pace with new designs and weapons.
Canada’s ally Ukraine has been cranking out thousands of the devices a month- it needs hard currency to keep the war effort going so there could have been a direct link to support Ukraine financially with an order of their defence products. (It is somewhat ironic that the CAF recently put on its Combat Camera website a photo of a Canadian Forces soldier training Ukrainian troops in the use of small drones. Ukraine has become a world-leader in such weapons).
The U.S. defence industry is building FPVs as well. In fact, the U.S. Army has been conducting experiments with FPVs with a plan to have a program in place next year and the first units equipped with the systems by 2026.
How do you explain the failure of CAF to embrace FPV technology? Defence sources pointed out the past and current CAF leadership has been dismal in understanding how quickly war- and the technology of war – changes. It is a leadership linked to the past, not future innovation.
That was abundantly clear in the second part of the CAF response on FPVs.
“In Our North Strong and Free (strategy) we committed to exploring options for acquiring a suite of surveillance and strike drones as well as counter-drone capabilities, sometime in the future,” the CAF statement read.
Sometime in the future?
That is in reference to the General Atomics MQ-9B Reapers that Canada plans to purchase. The federal government announced on Dec. 19, 2023, that Canada would buy 11 of those remotely piloted aircraft for $2.5 billion.
The drones were originally expected to be delivered in 2025, but that will be delayed until 2028 as modifications are made to the aircraft to deal with Arctic conditions.
DND posted on the social media site X on Jan. 10 that the first two MQ-9B drones were in production at a U.S. company in California. In its posting, the department called the news “exciting progress.”
But then there was a kicker. DND also confirmed that those unmanned aircraft won’t be fully operational until 2033.
Why?
DND won’t say.
But some military observers were also pointing out the obvious. By the time the MQ-9B fleet is fully operational- almost a decade from now - its technology will be obsolete.
Foreign militaries, will by then, have gone in different directions for such robotic technology. Future drone systems will increasingly rely on artificial intelligence to become truly autonomous weapons and will be used in swarm attacks to overwhelm defences, analysts like Wesley Wark have pointed out.
It is becoming obvious that CAF and DND are also being left behind on the drone swarm development.
On Jan. 15, 2025, Swedish Minister for Defense Pal Jonson announced at a press conference that his country was going to be using swarm aerial drones in support of ground units. As noted by the U.S. publication Defense News, the Swedes released a video showing a formation of 10 quadcopters taking off and relaying footage of their flight trajectory to ground operators. The swarm of 10 can be controlled by a single operator.
Ukraine is also doing more research on drone swarms. It has already acknowledged deploying groups of three to 10 drones at a time but wants to expand that capability.
Russia has focused much of its technology development on deploying decoy drones as part of its strategy to deceive Ukrainian air defence crews. Codenamed Operation False Target, the decoys are launched along with regular drones, making it difficult to determine which of the robotic aircraft are armed and which are not.
In addition, Russia has developed new drones capable of carrying thermobaric weapons. As reported by the Associated Press the thermobaric warheads create a vortex of high pressure and heat that can penetrate thick walls, causing death and significant injuries to those on the ground.
In contrast, the Canadian Forces has not conducted any experiments with small drones or quad-copters dropping munitions. Instead it is focused on its more traditional MQ-9s that are on order from General Atomics, a U.S. firm. Those will be able to carry different weapons, including 250- and 500-pound bombs as well as “low collateral damage” bombs, according to the DND briefing on the Remotely Piloted Aircraft System program.
(It should be noted, however, that the CAF and Defence Research and Development Canada has focused efforts on counter-drone technology. Those have included tests of systems provided by industry which utilize lasers, guns, and ultrasonic waves to deal with drones).
But it isn’t just FPVs and offensive drone swarms that the CAF and DND leadership has ignored. Canadian firms are among those on the cutting edge for over-the-horizon long-range radar but are largely being ignored by the federal government and military.
Both the U.S. and Canada have announced they will be building over-the-horizon radar systems to provide long-range surveillance of threats to North America. The Canadian portion of the over-the-horizon radar project, part of the NORAD modernization effort, is valued at least $1 billion.
There are currently two companies in the world that have actually delivered a system that could potentially fit the bill for the project; BAE Australia and D-TA Systems Inc. of Ottawa.
D-TA Systems, which has 40 employees, has already briefed U.S. military officials several times about its over-the-horizon radar technology. In addition, it recently delivered a working radar to Defence Research and Development Canada.
D-TA Systems Inc. was established in 2007 and has been involved in defence projects in the U.S., Canada and other NATO nations as well as Japan. The firm has been working on over-the-horizon radar since 2011 for various Department of National Defence and U.S. military projects. DND has already spent $30 million on the initiative but hasn’t acted on procuring a full-size system.
The Pentagon is building its own test system in the Pacific in the Republic of Palau. That radar, expected to be operating by 2026, will be a scaled-down version of an over-the-horizon radar. The proposed U.S. system is smaller than the radar that D-TA recently delivered to DRDC.
D-TA is advocating for its technology, financed by Canadian taxpayers, to play a key role in the radar projects but the jury is out on whether the company will be successful.
For further reading and viewing check out this Esprit de Corps article as well as On Target:
https://www.espritdecorps.ca/feature/shotguns-versus-drones-new-methods-to-deal-with-small-uavs
