http://www.isrjournal.com/story.php?F=1579202
Canada Drops Plan To Lease UAV Fleet
To Stick With Sperwer in Afghanistan
By DAVID ********, VICTORIA, British Columbia
March 06, 2006
The Canadian Forces has dropped plans to lease a fleet of tactical unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for operations in Afghanistan and instead will rely on its Sperwer UAVs to do the job.
There were concerns whether the Canadian Forces had enough experience with the Sperwer to use it to support its new mission in Kandahar, which includes leading the multinational brigade responsible for the southern portion of the country. On Feb. 28, Canadian Army Brig. Gen. David Fraser took over as commander of the brigade, which includes 6,000 soldiers from Canada, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Australia, Denmark, the United States, Romania and Estonia.
But a series of successful flight tests, as well as the realization that a UAV leasing plan had major problems, convinced Canadian military officials they could do the job with the French-built Sperwer.
The Canadian Forces’ Sperwer had a controversial deployment in Afghanistan, with several widely publicized crashes in 2003 and 2004. The problems were blamed on a combination of operator inexperience and harsh operating conditions in the field.
Denmark also recently decided to sell off its Sperwer fleet because of what its military officials called unresolvable technical problems.
“We are guardedly optimistic on how Sperwer will perform in theater,” said Air Force Col. Bill Kelly, whose office is responsible for the acquisition and support of UAVs from the tactical end on up. “We saw we were becoming more comfortable with Sperwer. Indeed, our experience with Sperwer was improving.”
Kelly said that for the Kandahar mission, the Canadian Forces examined a one-year lease of tactical UAVs with longer endurance and range than the Sperwer. Under that proposal, a contractor would provide not only the aircraft but the personnel to run the system.
But Kelly said that plan had to be dropped in December after a series of concerns were raised. The main one was that the 17 million Canadian dollars ($15 million) set aside for the lease was not enough.
In addition, there were legal questions about the liability of the contractors operating a UAV in a combat zone, as well as concerns there would not be airfield space from which the UAVs could operate. Air Force officers also questioned whether the UAVs could be in place in time for the Kandahar mission.
Showing Improvement
Another factor was that the Air Force’s experience with the Sperwer continued to improve. Three flying camps were held before the Afghan deployment and no UAVs were lost to crashes, Kelly said.
“Things are looking up,” he said. “Time will tell if our current trend, which is significantly improved in terms of not losing aircraft to crashes, continues or not.”
Sperwer parts and equipment are in Afghanistan and the aircraft is expected to be flying in the coming months. For operational security reasons, military officials declined to give specifics on when the aircraft would be flying.
The Canadian Forces also is spending 15 million Canadian dollars to purchase five additional Sperwer UAVs from Oerlikon-Contraves, St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec. Oerlikon is the Canadian prime contractor for Sagem, Paris, Sperwer’s original manufacturer. Those five new systems are for the Kandahar mission.
For its original 2003 Afghanistan deployment, Canada bought six Sperwer airframes, but two are now beyond repair because of crashes. That program included launchers, ground control stations and simulators.
Meanwhile, Oerlikon-Contraves is in negotiations with the Danish government to acquire its Sperwers. Denmark decided to get rid of the UAV after a series of technical problems and ongoing difficulties in operating the system.
Bill Gelling, an aerospace consultant with Oerlikon-Contraves, said the firm is looking to acquire the Danish Sperwers to use as training aircraft for the Canadian Forces in Canada. He noted that the Canadian military’s fleet of Sperwers is almost entirely committed to Afghanistan, so aircraft are needed to train UAV crews getting ready to deploy.
The negotiations with the Danes are an Oerlikon initiative, Gelling said. He said that Canada’s problems with Sperwer took place in the early days of its mission to Afghanistan, and the UAV’s performance has improved substantially.
Gelling said that since the Sperwers operated by Canada are different than those used by the Danish military, some modifications would be needed to use the systems for domestic training.
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