Writing for Vanguard, a Canadian defense magazine and website, Chris Thatcher quotes Smith saying;

“Whether we get to the point of a HALE (High Altitude Long Endurance) machine is really going to be a resources-based decision. It gets prohibitive and starts to defeat the argument that UAVs are cheaper and more expendable. Ownership is not as inexpensive as people make it out to be — where you may diminish the requirements for people to operate the air vehicle, you start to pick up and intensify the requirement for a more robust information management backend to manage the data that comes off the device.”

More than merely monetary concerns, Smith's reservations about the vehicle include the time lag issue, where the situation on the ground can change dramatically between the time images are received and sent to HQ by the UAVs and the time action is sanctioned and executed. As more mistaken attacks occur, and civilian body counts escalate, tasking Canadian UAVs for the kind of assassinations and ground support missile launching increasingly common for U.S. forces is something none in JUSTAS want to see. Smith says,

“We’re not in a position to even consider that now. We’re going to evolve our inventory to eventually get there. We’re not going to put hellfire missiles on our first UAV, notwithstanding the fact that some people may want to see that. We’ve got to crawl a little before we walk, and then walk before we run.”

Reservations aside, the Harper government is determined to get more UAVs into the field and increase the roles of those vehicles. Last December, the Conservatives announced a 750 million dollar investment in the technology. The next decision they will make is where to spend that $750 million. Israel and the U.S. are the two UAV super powers, but it looks like Israel Aeronautic Industries (IAI) and its Canadian partner MacDonald Dettwiler Aeronautics (MDA) are front-runners. They inked a 100 million dollar contract to supply an unrevealed number of UAVs in August of last year.

 

David Hargreaves, a vice-president of integrated information solutions for MDA, pitches for an Israeli contract, saying;

"We did a big evaluation and we believe Israel is better at this than the Americans. They have been flying longer and have learned a lot of lessons. A lot of aspects of their program are very advanced. They have the technology and experience. They build them right."

Just and Right

As the bodies of the latest two Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan are returned to their families for burial, the chance for the government of Canada today and those that will follow to make military commitments to NATO, the UN, and the American military without risking Canadian lives is particularly poignant and tempting.

 

Canadians are often told, it is their willingness to engage in international conflicts militarily that gains the country status amongst our allies. As a secondary nation, the addition of UAVs to Canada's arsenal promises the CF an ability to "punch beyond their weight" on the world stage.

 

The vehicles also hold the promise of a more effective reconnaissance capability at home in the country's vast, rugged, and inaccessible border regions - most notably the far north, (they've already been used domestically to monitor the pacific coastline and security of the G20 meetings held in mountainous Kananaskas, Alberta last year). But, before heading too far down the new, remote-controlled militarist road, Mr. Harper and his aspirant successors must consider the collateral costs to the country's prestige, and to its soul.

While there may be few tears shed for the anonymous "others" that fall through the agency of Canada's military, there is a price to be paid. No longer a "peacekeeping" but war fighting nation, Canada has become, since the 9/11 attacks, barely recognizable to its pre-attack state and hardly discernible from its war obsessed neighbour to the south.