There is no time for delay.
With Canadian troops currently stationed in Europe as part of Canada’s NATO commitment, the rapidly changing reality of modern warfare requires a rapid response.
At this very moment, Russia is mass-producing drones for use in their invasion of Ukraine. Even if there is a ceasefire in Ukraine, it is unlikely that Russia’s war economy will shift back to a civilian footing. Instead, mass production is likely to continue.
This means any Russian attack against a country like Estonia, Latvia, or Lithuania – which would lead to NATO taking action to defend those countries – would also entail a high likelihood of Canadian soldiers and our allies being attacked by swarms of drones.
Some NATO countries are responding to this potential threat:
“The Dutch defense department plans to spend between €50 million and €250 million to buy the personal anti-drone kit. Envisioned technologies include electro-optical aiming devices for personal weapons, such as targeting lasers, which would significantly increase targeting accuracy against small drones at a distance of 200 meters.”
Canada has taken some steps in this direction, as noted by the Canadian Defence Review:
“Canada is investing $46 million to acquire new counter-drone equipment. This will provide CAF members deployed on Operation REASSURANCE with improved protection against hostile Class 1 UAS (small drones) by enabling their detection, identification, tracking, and defeat – ensuring freedom of action for land operations. Initial operational capability for this new equipment is expected later this year. The project will deliver counter-UAS systems, command and control hardware and software, sensors, non-kinetic effectors, and in service support and training.”
This acquisition is a step in the right direction but must be significantly expanded. Like many Canadian military procurements, we need to speed up and scale everything up by at least 10X.
Every Canadian soldier must be equipped with state-of-the-art drone protection equipment, and we can’t wait years to do it. It must happen ASAP.
This is entirely possible for Canada to achieve, given that we are a wealthy and technologically advanced nation and that many of our NATO allies have advanced defence industries.
Were a conflict to occur, the failure to immediately procure personal drone-protection equipment could carry a significant cost in the lives of our troops:
“Canadian soldiers will die at an astonishing rate in the next conflict due to inability to rapidly procure off the shelf kit to respond to emerging threats.
The Army needs a $100M/year innovation fund free of red tape, purchased through a procurement partner like Ukraine aid.”
The world is becoming more chaotic and dangerous with each passing day. As Canadians, we no longer have the luxury of naivety or assuming things will magically turn out well. We must take responsibility for our security and ensure that our troops are as well-protected and well-equipped as possible, and that means rapidly procuring significant amounts of personal drone-protection kits for the Canadian Armed Forces.
We should also be pumping more money into Canada’s domestic defence industry and building stronger ties between defence contractors and Canadian tech companies. Even as we prepare for a potential war in the short term, we need to significantly expand our military production capacity in the medium to long term.
Spencer Fernando
