MILNEWS.ca News Highlights – 27 Jan 11

• Oopsie. ” …. The Canadian military investigated what appears to be the inadvertent leak of a trove of secret documents from a secure work station at Kandahar Airfield in Afghanistan. The electronic records, containing “specifics of Canadian capabilities and Canadian objectives or targets” in the war, were forwarded to an undisclosed number of “unauthorized recipients,” say military police records obtained by The Canadian Press. The work station was located at the sensitive All Source Intelligence Centre, a critical hub at the Canadian headquarters that supplies intelligence to troops in the field as well as Ottawa. Military police were alerted on May 14 last year by a soldier working at the centre. The incident took place months before whistleblowing website WikiLeaks began releasing hundreds of thousands of classified — often embarrassing — U.S. military and diplomatic cables. None of the Canadian documents in the Kandahar leak are reported to have made their way into the public domain or to Julian Assange’s WikiLeaks group ….”
• North American defence ministers are meeting in Ottawa (but not Mexico’s) this week.  Guess what U.S. Sec-Def Gates’ll be chatting with Peter MacKay about? “US Defense Secretary Robert Gates departed for Canada on Wednesday for talks on the war in Afghanistan as well Ottawa’s plans to purchase F-35 fighter jets, the Pentagon said on Wednesday. Gates initially was due to meet both his Canadian and Mexican counterparts at a first-ever summit of North American defense ministers but Mexico’s secretary of national defense, General Guillermo Galvan Galvan, could not attend due to illness, press secretary Geoff Morrell said. An earlier attempt at a three-way meeting of the defense chiefs in July had to be scrapped because of a spike in violence in Mexico, he told a news conference. Talks on Thursday with Canadian Defence Minister Peter MacKay would cover “ongoing US-Canada defense issues and areas of cooperation, including, of course, our mutual efforts in Afghanistan,” Morrell said ….” More from the American side here.
• Taliban Propaganda Watch:  Taliban worrying about trees, and say teaching women to read, write would only expose them to bad, bad stuff.
• What’s Canada Buying? Fake explosives, and a small UAV for research (via Army.ca)
• Meanwhile, a Canadian General says better vehicles with more protection are on their way.  “…. New vehicles set to make their way to the army over the next few years are not only welcomed but needed, says one of this country’s leading military minds. Brig.-Gen. Jonathan Vance, a former two-time commander of Canada’s troops in Afghanistan, said it’s essential that ground forces have the equipment they need to carry out their tasks. “We know from our experience in Afghanistan, facing an enemy of a certain type, that there’s a premium on protection and firepower and mobility,” Vance said in an interview. “We have every reason to believe that, sometime in the future, Canada will employ its armed forces overseas to face a wide range of threats.” Vance, the director general of land capability development and chief of staff land strategy, made the comments this week while attending the Capability Development Experiment 2010 at the Combat Training Centre ….”
• “Canadian Forces personnel are getting fatter, more sedentary in their work, less physically active and becoming heavier drinkers, according to a new military study. The Health and Lifestyle Information Survey also found that members are still reluctant to seek out mental health services for fear it will hurt their military careers, despite several new Defence initiatives to reduce the stigma of doing so. The document, which surveyed about 3,700 full-time Forces members for the 2008-2009 period, found there was a three per cent increase in the number of obese people since the last survey in 2004, even with a renewed push on fitness promotion. Almost 29 per cent were of normal weight, while 48 per cent were overweight and an alarming 23.5 per cent were deemed obese. “The study results certainly indicate to us that, like the rest of the Canadian population, we’re not immune to this epidemic of obesity,” Col. Colin MacKay, the military’s director of health protection, said Tuesday from Ottawa ….”
• Like the Friendly Giant used to say, “Look up, look WAAAAAY up“.  “An unmanned plane the U.S. government has been using to patrol North Dakota’s northern border since 2009 is now flying along a greater section of America’s northern frontier, stretching from Spokane, Washington, to the Lake of the Woods region in Minnesota. Officials with U.S. Customs and Border Protection say the aircraft can transmit live, streaming video and radar images from above the huge swaths of rugged — and remote — terrain that are a haven for criminals sneaking marijuana and ecstasy into the U.S. and cocaine into Canada. “We’re trying to work the border smarter, not harder,” said John Priddy, director of National Air Security Operations Center-Grand Forks in North Dakota, where the aircraft is based. “There’s new technology being deployed, which will make it more difficult to conduct illicit activities.” …. “
• Speaking of borders, it appears the speech writing team for Canada’s defence minister may need some remedial geography lessons.  “…. The defence minister came out with this in Winnipeg Tuesday evening: “California and British Columbia have a shared border, a strong relationship. And some would say that our countries are probably as close as any two nations on the planet.” MacKay was speaking with California’s “Governator,” former governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, at a Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce dinner at the Fairmont Hotel. The former Mr. Universe and Conan the Barbarian put his acting skills to good use, remaining stoic at the border blunder, with only a small sideways glance indicating he’d heard MacKay’s slip-up ….”

MILNEWS.ca News Highlights – 11 Jan 11

• Canada appears to be paying out more compensation for damage caused by fighting in Afghanistan.  “…. Between April 1, 2009, and March 31, 2010, the military issued 272 ex-gratia payments—more than five per week. The cash settlements ranged from as low as $185 to as high as $21,420, for a grand total of $661,045. That is triple the amount handed out during the previous year (102 payments totalling $205,828) and a fourfold increase from the year before that (57 payments; $152,683) ….” While this seems to be good news for a group monitoring civilian casualties, they haven’t always been so happy about NATO’s compensation policies in general (and have said next to nothing about the Taliban’s) – more on that here, here and here.
• “The military will ground Canada’s spy plane program after the Afghan combat mission ends this summer.  The commander of the prop-driven CU-170 Herons, which operate out of Kandahar Airfield, said the Canadian Forces will disband his squadron once troops pull out of Kandahar.  Maj. Dave Bolton, the new and final commander of Task Force Erebus, said his team will then go on to other jobs within the military.  “There’s a lot of very young people that were involved with this program,” he said in an interview.  “There’s probably going to be a hiatus of somewhere between two and five years. But those people will still be in the military, and those people will have this experience, and they’ll be able to move forward with the yardstick when the time comes.” ….”
• Following this Canadian Press piece on the IED blast that killed reporter Michelle Lang, Columnist Lysiane Gagnon had this to say: “…. The Canadian government uses embedded journalists to highlight the “human” side of the Afghan war, as well as the undisputed courage of our soldiers. It also deploys civilians to assist the soldiers in humanitarian missions (for instance, Ms. Saeed was to assist Sgt. Taylor as he reached out to the locals). But what happened on Dec. 30, 2009, on a road south of Kandahar, should open up questions about these policies.” Via Twitter, Toronto Star political reporter Joanna Smith raises an interesting question, indeed:  “Is she not arguing that civilians, especially women, should stay out of #Afghanistan entirely?” That’s how I read it, too.
• A meeting between Canada’s PM and America’s Prez regarding shared perimeter security apparently isn’t ready to happen just yet. “A highly touted meeting between Stephen Harper and Barack Obama on a perimeter security pact has been pushed back as Canada and the United States wrestle with the difficulties of the complex arrangement. Insiders say the signing summit is now expected no earlier than February — and possibly as late as spring. Improving information sharing — a prospect that raises privacy concerns in Canada — is seen as the key to the effort to secure a joint North American outer boundary, the insiders say ….” While Liberals say Canada shouldn’t put all its trade eggs in one basket in expecting some concessions from the U.S., I’m more worried that we won’t get ANY concessions (or none worth the tradeoff of sharing more of my information with the Americans, anyway).
• According to Postmedia News, Canada and its Mounties are expected to catch some heat for cutting the number of armed air marshals to be deployed on commercial planes. “…. Documents obtained by Postmedia News through the Access to Information Act reveal internal memos describing how the cuts will occur, how the Mounties are briefing Public Safety Minister Vic Toews, and how the police and cabinet ministers are receiving some dire warnings about the consequences of the cutbacks.  The Mounties’ briefing note to Toews explains that the air marshals program is seen as a “world leader” of its type and that it has been successful through a “combination of operation, intelligence and analysis activities.”  “International partners were made aware of the funding reduction to the Canadian Air Carrier Protective Program,” Toews was advised. “The RCMP anticipates a negative response from American and international partners.” ….” It sure would be nice to see the documents themselves, though.
• Latest in a multi-part series of papers from Canada’s military research arm:   “The Justifications for War and Peace in World Religions Part III: Comparison of Scriptures from Seven World Religions” (PDF)  Part 1 (“Extracts, Summaries and Comparisons of Scriptures in the Abrahamic Religions (Christianity, Islam and Judaism)”) here and Part 2 (“Extracts, Summaries and Comparisons of Scriptures in Indic Religions (Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism and Sikhism)”) here (all links PDF).
• Um, I think someone is fighting a bit of a rear guard action here. “…. Abandoning (don’t ask don’t tell) reeks of a political decision more than a military one. While general officers may feel forced to accede to political decisions, rank-and-file soldiers are likely to be uncomfortable with the new policy. There is a 60-day period of grace to ensure the military will adjust to the new policy with no harmful effects. The die is cast, but disagreements remain. Already the marines and elite combat units and Special Forces reject the new policy, with close to 60% believing the policy will adversely affect fighting qualities. Advocates — or at least defenders — of gays openly serving in the military point to ancient Sparta where military service was revered. Sparta remains to this day as a symbol of military defiance, courage, loyalty and stoicism. Remember Thermopylae. In Sparta, boys were taken from their mothers at age seven and began an initiation that would make them soldiers. Each youth had a trained soldier as a “mentor,” and this relationship could have sexual overtones or straight friendship. The mentor’s job was to ensure the soldierly development of his ward ….” Notwithstanding the fact that homosexuality was widespread even among the Spartans (since they reflected Greek society), this next bit urks me: “…. Among NATO countries, some 20 of 26 members allow gays to serve in the military with no apparent ill-effects — though this is somewhat uncertain, given NATO’s reluctance to share in the fighting in Afghanistan ….” Maybe I’m the only one seeing some link between accepting homosexuals in the ranks and poor fighting spirit, but since Canada is one such NATO country, does he mean we’ve been “reluctant to share in the fighting”?  Here’s more than 150 pieces of evidence that this is most certainly NOT the case.
• This columnist has some advice for Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff on promising to scrap the F-35 if the Liberals get power in a future election.  “…. Some think all major government contracts should go to tender. They should remember the Winnipeg embarrassment. Brian Mulroney’s government wanted to put some money into a Quebec aviation company. They thought they’d be tricky and put a contract out for tender. But a Winnipeg company, Bristol, came in with the winning bid. Oops. The government looked sleazy as it tried to extricate itself from the situation. And a lot of people in western Canada have never forgotten the buffoonish incident. That brings us to this rule: Never send out for tender any projects unless you are willing to accept the winning bid. That’s what we told ministers when I worked in the government’s procurement department, then known as Supply and Services. It is a message Ignatieff has apparently not received because he’s busily relying on Mulroney ….”
• Taliban Propaganda Watch:  Bad guys claim 22 killed in Spin Boldak suicide bombing attack, while others say 3 – who you gonna believe?

WHAT’S CANADA BUYING? Miniature UAVs for AFG ASAP

This, from MERX:

The Department of National Defence has a requirement for five (5) Miniature Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (MUAV) systems. The MUAV systems will be deployed in Afghanistan and in Canada. Each MUAV shall be operated by teams of two (2) DND Personnel. The complete Systems must be field proven, very robust, reliable and able to withstand the harshest of field conditions. Delivery of all 5 MUAV systems is required on or before 75 days from date of Contract Award.

Along with the acquisition of the five (5) MUAV Systems and associated spares, the contractor will be required to provide Integrated logistical support at Kandahar Air Field (KAF), Afghanistan (until withdrawl of Canadian Forces personnel estimated 31 July 2011) and training and supervision to Canadian Forces (CF) personnel in Canada ….

Deadline for bids:  6 Jun 2010.

TALIBAN PROPAGANDA WATCH (RC South) – 252215UTC Apr 10

NOTE: This material is from web pages and forums carrying statements attributed to the Taliban, Taliban spokespersons or supporters of the Taliban, or analysis thereof. Posting of this material neither confirms nor endorses any of its content – it is shared for information only. When material translated into English is not available, Google Translate is used to translate the original  – this is only a machine translation, NOT an official one.

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U.S military tank struck by mine explosion in Helmand

Sunday, 25 April 2010 18:12 Qari Yousuf Ahmadi
HELMAND, Apr. 25 – The blast occurred in Helmand’s Washir district ripping into the the U.S armored tank and leaving it on fire, on Sunday afternoon, Apr. 25, 2010. The report states two of the U.S military tanks were hit by bombings and destroyed in the same are yesterday.

American cowards take deadly losses in Marjah

Sunday, 25 April 2010 18:20 Qari Yousuf Ahmadi
HELMAND, Apr. 25 – As many as 6 American cowardly soldiers were killed or injured the town of Marjah as a landmine which they were trying to neutralize exploded to them in the afternoon hours of the day (Apr. 25). Likewise, Mujahideen of the Islamic Emirate, in an attack on a foot patrol of the U.S soldiers elsewhere in Marjah town, killed or wounded about 5 U.S cowards, while the a Mujahid have sustained injuries in this 30-minute long encounter in the noon hours of Sunday (today). Also Sunday, a British tank while traveling to a nearby British military base got struck and heavily damaged by mine blast in Gerishk district of Helmand province. These fatalities and damages come as the U.S-NATO declared yesterday a reduction in the Muhahideen’s attacks and operations in Helmand province.

Another U.S UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) or drone shot down in Helmand

Sunday, 25 April 2010 18:38 Qari Yousuf
HELMAND, Apr. 25 – Mujahideen of the Islamic Emirate shot down a U.S UAV or pilotless spy plane in Helmand’s Kajaki district, on Sunday morning, Apr. 25, 2010. The report indicates the wreckage of the spy plane is still lying scattered at the site in Suzi Karez village of this district where the people have gotten close enough to see the wreckage and who are reportedly still watching the fallen spy plane.

Blast hits logistical convoy of U.S-NATO in Zabul

Sunday, 25 April 2010 10:04 By Qari Yousuf Ahmadi
ZABUL, Apr. 25 – An early morning blast tore though one of the military traveling in logistical convoy of the enemy on Kabul-Kandahar highway, in the city of Kalat, the capital of Zabul province, on Sunday, Apr. 25, 2010. According to the report, the vehicle got destroyed in the bomb attack killing all the soldiers on board, while the highway was blacked off shortly after the bombing to transport the dead from the area.

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TALIBAN PROPAGANDA WATCH (RC South) – 242205UTC Apr 10

NOTE: This material is from web pages and forums carrying statements attributed to the Taliban, Taliban spokespersons or supporters of the Taliban, or analysis thereof. Posting of this material neither confirms nor endorses any of its content – it is shared for information only. When material translated into English is not available, Google Translate is used to translate the original  – this is only a machine translation, NOT an official one.

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Another agent of NDS sniped Kandahar province

Saturday, 24 April 2010 10:54 By Zabihullah Mujahid
KANDAHAR, Apr. 24 – Abd-ur-Rasheed, an infamous personnel of National Directorate of Security, a local spy agency of the U.S-NATO cowards, got shot by Mujahideen Friday on his was home, in Daman district of Kandahar city. the stated agent who was skilled in torturing civilians and Mujahideen ended up facing the consequence of his actions after a long chase by Mujahideen. The agent is said to bee in critical condition at the moment. Separately, one of the employees of NDS was killed in an attack by Mujahideen prior to this other day in Kandahar city.

Blast in Kandahr province kills three soldiers, wounds two

Saturday, 24 April 2010 10:52 By Qari Yousuf Ahmadi
KANDAHAR, Apr. 24 – About 3 soldiers of Afghan puppet army were killed and 2 were seriously injures in roadside mine bast that targeted their vehicle in Shorawak district of Kandahar province yesterday (April 23).

U.S drone(spy plane) shot down in Helmand

Saturday, 24 April 2010 16:13 By Qari Yousuf Ahmadi
HELAMND, Apr. 24 – Mujahideen of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, during an attack on the military convoy of the U.S-NATO forces, shot down a U.S unmanned aerial vehicle or politeless spy plane in Helmand’s Washir district later yesterday afternoon (April 23). According to the details, the plane was flying low over the area where the convoy got attacked when it was shot and fell on the ground moments later. The report adds two of the U.S tanks were destroyed during the attack the wreckage of which along with the struck plane still exist at the site. One of the Mujahids has embraced martyrdom with two others injured during the one-hour long fighting.

Two Americans shot dead in Marjah

Saturday, 24 April 2010 14:36 By Qari Yousuf Ahmadi
HELMAND, Apr. 24 – Two of the soldiers of the U.S cowardly troops were shot dead while walking in the fields in the town of Marjah, Helmand province, on Saturday morning, Apr. 24, 2010. The adjoining areas have been heavily bombed by the U.S aircrafts but none has received any losses of life and injuries in the bombing.

Five Romanian soldiers killed in Zabul province

Saturday, 24 April 2010 10:55 By Qari Yousuf Ahmadi
ZABUL, Apr. 23 – A blast in Zabul’s provincial capital, the city of Kalat killed at leas five Romanian soldiers Saturday (April 24) when it detonated under their tank traveling along Kabul-Kandahar highway, our reporter said from the area. The highway was, shortly after the explosion, blocked off and no one has been allowed to get close enough to see.

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WHAT’S CANADA BUYING? Self-healing UAV systems

Another link in the “swarming robot/UAV” research stream – this “ask”, from MERX

…. Self-Healing Networked Control Systems Study …. The objectives of the work are:  To conduct an extensive study on the synthesis, the analysis and the validation of self-healing networked control systems for heterogeneous teams of small-scale unmanned vehicles. On the one hand, to develop concepts and theory pertaining to the following functionalities in teaming autonomous systems: cooperative health management and decision making, condition monitoring, information fusion, and robust fault-tolerant control. On the other hand, to prove the validity of the proposed concepts and systems in autonomy by means of theoretical proofs, extensive studies of modeling and simulation, and hardware-in-the-loop experiments.

(….)

The maximum funding available for the Contract resulting from the bid solicitation is $275,000.00 (Goods and Services Tax or Harmonized Sales Tax extra, as appropriate) ….

Who got the work?

Numerica Technologies Inc
3420 Lacoste
QUEBEC
Quebec
G2E4P8
Canada

(….)

Amount $288,750.00 CAD

Earlier:

WHAT’S CANADA BUYING? Micro-chopper UAVs and Recce Robots

WHAT’S CANADA BUYING? Canadian Press Catches Up…

WHAT’S CANADA BUYING? Canadian Press Catches Up…

….on some research being done by the CF.

24 Oct 09, MILNEWS.ca:  “DND Looking into Micro-UAVs, UAV Swarming”

10 Nov 09, MILNEWS.ca:  “WHAT’S CANADA BUYING? Micro-chopper UAVs and Recce Robots”

10 Jan 10, the Canadian Press:  “DND experimenting with robotic tanks and helicopters, hoping to make them think”

WHAT’S CANADA BUYING? Micro-chopper UAVs and Recce Robots

Remember this about the CF looking into swarming UAVs and recce robots? Next step:  finding the UAVs and robots to try it with – this, from MERX:

Public Works and Government Services Canada, on behalf of its client Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC) Valcartier, intends to negotiate with Quanser Consulting Inc. for the supply and delivery at Quebec City of a unmanned fleet research environment.

The unmanned fleet research environment shall consist of integrated set of unmanned aerial vehicles and ground vehicles that are linked together with a host mission development environment that is capable of generating and uploading guidance and control algorithms to the platforms and functioning as a master or monitoring node for a  non-homogeneous fleet.

The “fleet” in this contract will consist of four little helicopter UAVs (for use indoors) and three recce robots.

PDF of the bid document available here if link doesn’t work.

Update: Canadian Press catches up on story.