Canadian military to spend a billion on armed drones

The Canadian military intends to spend about one billion dollars on armed drones. The military claims that the drones will enable Canadian Forces to fill critical deficiencies and are needed in the Arctic.

Even during Canadian participation in the war in Libya senior Canadian defence officials were itching to use the occasion to spend up to 600 million on armed drones to use in the conflict according to documents obtained by the Ottawa Citizen newspaper. The war ended but not the desire to obtain armed drones. Now the military-industrial complex is at it again.
Even though the Conservative Harper government is all for reducing our budget deficit as quickly as possible that can be done by cutting social programs. What is crucial is to have armed drones that can be used to defend the Canadian Arctic. No doubt they can also help out in U.S. or NATO adventures around the globe. The Chief of Staff of the Canadian Forces General Walter Natyncyk is closely linked to the U.S. military and was a high official in the Iraq war even though Canada was supposedly not involved. Canada even awarded him a medal for service in a war in which we refused to take part. According to Wikipedia:

""Natynczyk attended the U.S. Army War College, and was subsequently appointed Deputy Commanding General, III Corps and Fort Hood.  In January 2004, he deployed with III Corps to Baghdad, Iraq, serving first as the Deputy Director of Strategy, Policy and Plans, and subsequently as the Deputy Commanding General of the Multi-National Corps (Iraq) during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Natynczyk led the Corps' 35,000 soldiers, consisting of 10 separate brigades, stationed throughout the Iraq Theatre of Operations... He was later awarded the Meritorious Service Cross specifically for his combat efforts in Operation Iraqi Freedom January 2004 to January 2005.""

The Harper Conservative government already approved last month that a request be sent out to various aerospace firms to ascertain what is available. Companies must provide relevant information by Sept. 28.
The Canadian Forces had already been using unarmed surveillance drones in Afghanistan but have long been wanting to move on to the purchase of armed drones. Back in 2007 the Ottawa Citizen had reported that the Defence Department requested approval to buy Predator drones for the Afghan mission. The purchase was never made however as there were concerns that there would be no competitive bidding. No doubt there might have been some concern for the political fallout as well.
   Instead the Canadians leased Israeli-built unarmed Heron drones from MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates of B.C. U.S. firms are already aware that the Canadian military is anxious to purchase drones, no doubt with government support. Northrop Grumman made a pitch to the Conservative government at a trade show in May this year to sell the military a fleet of Global Hawk drones. These drones could patrol the Arctic. However the Hawks are not armed and are useful only for surveillance. The military wants drones that can pack a punch or as they put it should be able to carry precision-guided munitions: The military claims::"This capability will allow the CF (Canadian Forces) to fill critical deficiencies”.Apparently lack of armed drones are critical deficiencies in our defense budget and no doubt this is a much higher funding priority than critical deficiencies in our health care system such as long waiting times
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Canada: Feeding the military industrial complex through the JSF

   Back in 1996 the JSF Joint Strike Fighter program was begun. The program aims to replace aging existing planes with new advanced planes both in the U.S. and some allies. The program was supposed to make affordable planes by using 80 per cent of the parts of the three different models in common. But critics complain that not only is the plane not turning out to be cheap but is not even very functional. For example Winslow Wheeler an analyst for the Center for Defense Information in the U.S. says: "The history of multi-role fighters, even for single services, is terrible. They do nothing well. ... The F-35 never will be able to fulfil its mission, because it is too heavy to fight other aircraft in the air, but too fast, thin-skinned and lightly armed to support troops on the ground."
      Nevertheless nine countries signed on to the program. Canada is one of the participants. Others include the UK, Australia, Israel, and even Singapore. The U.S. will pay the bulk of development costs but Canada has invested 168 million. In all the nine partners are slated to buy about 3,100 planes over a total of 25 years.
   Canada is to buy 65 F 35A planes. The first delivery is not until 2016.  However the program has been beset by problems especially concerning costs for the planes and servicing. The cost estimates continually rise. In June 2010 the estimates were for 156 million per plane. This is already double the original estimates and likely to rise even further. In may of this year the U.S. General Accounting Office said: "After more than 9 years in development and 4 in production, the JSF program has not fully demonstrated that the aircraft design is stable, manufacturing processes are mature, and the system is reliable,"
   In Canada also cost estimates vary widely. The Canadian Dept. of National Defence estimated the total cost of its 65 planes at 17.6 billion. The Parliamentary Budget Officer however estimated the cost at 29.3 billion. The Budget Office reckons the cost of each plane at 148 million almost twice the cost estimate of the DND of 75 million.
   Many critics wonder whether Canada really needs these fighters costing billions of dollars when the government is strapped for cash and anxious to reduce the deficit. However the care and feeding of the global military industrial complex takes priority over such needs as repairing the social safety net and other social spending needs. For more see this article.