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On Sept. 10, Prime Minister Mark Carney and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced a series of initiatives to expand Canada’s defence capabilities and support Ukraine.
Industry participants say Ukraine, now in its fifth year of war with Russia, has considerable battlefield experience Canada can learn from.
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Six Canadian defence suppliers [aare] receiving federal contracts worth up to $50 million in total to produce drones and uncrewed ground vehicles.
Last week, Carney also announced a partnership between Ottawa-based General Dynamics Mission Systems-Canada and Ukrainian company Green Tech Harvest to produce drones and related technologies.
That partnership is the latest in a series of Canada-Ukraine drone arrangements. In May, Hamilton-based Sentinel Research and Development also announced a drone production agreement with Ukrainian defence company Airlogix.
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The goal is ambitious: to give Canadian industry the capacity to produce “millions of drones over the next two years,” according to the Prime Minister’s Office.
Ottawa says the initial contracts will “increase the number of drones currently deployed by the Canadian Armed Forces tenfold.”
Much of this production will go to Ukraine.
“Thirty per cent of these drones will go to Ukraine immediately to [the] battlefield,” Zelenskyy said during the joint press conference with Carney.
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Sergii Vlashchenko and Igor Kolosiuk, Ukrainian defence-technology experts and co-founders of Vancouver-based Snake Island Lab, say such qualities have enabled Ukraine to hold its own against a larger and wealthier Russia.
“Every large brigade, every army corps … has its own research and development laboratory, manufacturing capabilities, and financing capabilities inside the corps,” Vlashchenko said in a joint interview with Kolosiuk.
“It lets them face a challenge, invent to overcome it, and manufacture the response within weeks.”
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A June study found that Ukrainian producers could move from prototype to deployment in weeks, with some minor fixes implemented within 24 hours.
The cost benefits of this approach are considerable.
Ukraine spends as little as US$200 to $1,000 on a typical FPV drone. Before Ukraine popularized these drones, the U.S. military could have previously spent as much as US$53,000 for the closest equivalent.
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Kolosiuk says Ukraine is looking to Canada for a more secure supply chain. He says the two countries could build a scalable, non-Chinese supply chain serving both the Canadian and Ukrainian militaries.
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This tech could be used to reforest, clean pollution, and do any number of marvels, instead it will be used to kill civilians in the global South and probably the East.
This tech is to be used for defense, in case hostile governments attack a country such as Russia does in Ukraine and China has been threatening against Taiwan …
You are arguing with a tankie
Yeah, they are trolling all the time … :-)
“The NDP says Canada sold just over $329,000 in gear to Russia between 2007 and 2011 —mostly in guns, armoured equipment and electronic technology. The party compiled that figure from annual reports to Parliament on the administration of the Export and Import Controls Permits Act.” ~ https://web.archive.org/web/20140606204012/http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/ndp-calls-on-canada-to-suspend-military-sales-to-russia-over-ukraine-crisis-251483261.html?device=mobile
“It’s not clear how many companies in Canada are currently making and exporting arms and military equipment. The Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries, for example, represents over 1,000 companies, but membership is voluntary. … Numerous companies here make all kinds of military technology like surveillance drones, advanced textiles, sighting systems and chemical agents for crowd control, to name a few.” ~ https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/canada-arms-technology-trade-1.3458608
Hmmm, massive buildup of an obscured arms industry hmmmmm, what could that do?
“Most of these guns, bombs, aircraft and armoured vehicles went to close NATO allies, but Canadian arms also found their way to human rights abusers – including Saudi Arabia, China, Libya and Tunisia.” ~ https://web.archive.org/web/20110714034541/https://vancouversun.com/news/Canada+world+12th+largest+arms+exporter+Data/5077218/story.html
https://globalnews.ca/news/11485001/russian-snipers-canadian-rifles-sanctions/
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-saudi-arms-deal-1.4579772
Just from a few months ago: "Writing for Canadian Dimension in 2023, Kirsten Francescone warned: “When Canadian mining companies are embroiled in a conflict with local communities outside of Peru, they often depend on henchmen or paramilitary forces to repress dissent. In Peru, companies benefit from state-sanctioned police protection and impunity.” ~ https://www.readthemaple.com/mark-carney-wants-to-cash-in-under-perus-new-right-wing-president/
Sure dude, totally. You bloodthirsty fucks.
If you think Canada can defend Taiwan from China with tech ultimately supplied from China, I have multiple bridges and an Empire State building to sell you.
You are missing the forest for the trees. The US is our single biggest threat and its not outside the realm of possible that Trump will threaten strikes on Canada. These drones are our best deterrent to the US. Just like Ukraine proved against Russia and Iran proved against the US. Its not about projecting overseas. Its about deterring the US.
I can’t decide if this group is full of provocateurs, or if this is just fantasy football with weapons.
You’re saying nothing and trying to sound smart. Respond to the issue at hand instead of making ad hominem attacks.
It’s not an attack, it’s an observation. A lot of these statements lack realism.
So you think it is not in the realm of possible that the US could threaten to strike canada? Honest question since you are claiming to talk observations and realism. Keep in mind the US is already engaging in economic warfare against canada, openly wanting to annex canada, and already engaging in illegal bombing of several all of its neighbours.
The only people talking about wanting to annex Canada are MAGA, that’s only a fraction of the U.S voter base.
Actively talking about using lethal drones against Americans as a result of a stupid trade war is exactly what the Heritage foundation/Federalist society/U.S oligarchs want you to be doing.
Any time that Canada has ever taken part in an economic sanction, could have easily been construed as “economic warfare.”
Imagine the list of nations who would have violently retaliated against Canada if that was a reasonable course of action.
How so? Are you able to be thorough?
With what tech factories? We’re talking about “millions” of complex machines created with precious metals sourced from all over the world, built outside the purview of the 3 of the worlds biggest superpowers. Superpowers that control mining, shipping, espionage and technology.
The US has been threatening against Canada
These will be used to shut down indigenous resistance to their massive extraction upscaling too. This is fucking dark.
Canadians are so spineless dude, look at the people here cheering this on.
Edit: I know you dipshits don’t read past replies you agree with, so here’s something in case you think there’s a reason to not make this conclusion after seeing the response below:
It isn’t even contained to Canada, go figure. Almost like that’s why these sorts of deals happen.
The RCMP and settler groups were totally capable of doing horrible things to Indigenous people and curtailing people’s rights without needing to use drones. We have to catch, stop and outlaw the oppression, not the tech.
Ukrainian drone tech provides us with far more capability in an asymmetric defensive war scenario than the additional utility it might give oppressors, and I don’t think any would-be oppressors are only holding back because of lack of domestic drone production, you can show me otherwise.
Said production lines can be dual-purpose, to make domestic consumer and commercial drones for tree planting, fire spotting and firefighting. This would be helpful for self-managed Indigenous Nations and bands too. Once it’s up and running, production facilities can quickly do a large scale switchover to military types in the unlikely event we are invaded.
In what way does this read as a condemnation of the tech itself and not what it is obviously used for, which is settler-colonialism and extractive capitalism?
Also, “asymmetric” is an interesting term to use here, as it suggest the primary concern is Canada and its competition with more powerful imperialists, not oppressed peoples. There are examples of oppressed peoples using drones for as long as they existed – it was a popular cheap tactic in Iraq in the late 00s and early 10s – but that is not mass production scale infrastructure, that is a group of people purchasing and using these against imperialists like Canada (also, “were,” “would-be,” think you’re slick with that obscuring language?). I don’t give a fuck about Canada defending its ability to colonize, that is the exact shit I warned against in my comment.
Also, I’m sorry, but that is such a fucking lie to suggest that these would be used for tree planting when the federal government has expressed great interest in doing the exact opposite of that (https://natural-resources.canada.ca/forests-forestry/forest-industry-trade/canadian-forest-sector-transformation-task-force; https://thenarwhal.ca/carney-canada-net-zero-committee/; and it’s important to remember that Carney is one of the fucks responsible for formulating environmental marketing for privatized industry as a Brookfield ESG lead shill and a founder of the Taskforce of Scaling Voluntary Carbon Markets). Are there any good examples of that happening with any other military manufacturing system here in Canada?
I can see how this response would look legitimate to the average rube on this community, but those were some very selective arguments that employ the exact narratives that imperialists and neoliberals have for decades, wonder why you’d use something so specific.
People ITT are cheering the tech which is what the article is about, and you’re the one who is making it about settler-colonialism and capitalist extraction, and complaining about people’s reactions you are ascribing to as a support for something they never claimed to. So, I’m addressing your whataboutism in good faith while sticking to the topic.
lol, you didn’t expect someone well informed on here.
I’m not “making” it about settler-colonialism, everything about the settler-colonial state of Canada is about settler-colonialism, including it’s fucking military.
You want more? This isn’t about colonialism and imperialism, only about technology and Ukraine is it? Uh oh, Canada facilitated that conflict through its arms industry too.
“The NDP says Canada sold just over $329,000 in gear to Russia between 2007 and 2011 —mostly in guns, armoured equipment and electronic technology. The party compiled that figure from annual reports to Parliament on the administration of the Export and Import Controls Permits Act.” ~ https://web.archive.org/web/20140606204012/http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/ndp-calls-on-canada-to-suspend-military-sales-to-russia-over-ukraine-crisis-251483261.html?device=mobile
“It’s not clear how many companies in Canada are currently making and exporting arms and military equipment. The Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries, for example, represents over 1,000 companies, but membership is voluntary. … Numerous companies here make all kinds of military technology like surveillance drones, advanced textiles, sighting systems and chemical agents for crowd control, to name a few.” ~ https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/canada-arms-technology-trade-1.3458608
Hmmm, massive buildup of an obscured arms industry hmmmmm, what could that do?
“Most of these guns, bombs, aircraft and armoured vehicles went to close NATO allies, but Canadian arms also found their way to human rights abusers – including Saudi Arabia, China, Libya and Tunisia.” ~ https://web.archive.org/web/20110714034541/https://vancouversun.com/news/Canada+world+12th+largest+arms+exporter+Data/5077218/story.html
https://globalnews.ca/news/11485001/russian-snipers-canadian-rifles-sanctions/
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-saudi-arms-deal-1.4579772
Just from a few months ago: "Writing for Canadian Dimension in 2023, Kirsten Francescone warned: “When Canadian mining companies are embroiled in a conflict with local communities outside of Peru, they often depend on henchmen or paramilitary forces to repress dissent [WHICH THEY CAN SELL TO]. In Peru, companies benefit from state-sanctioned police protection and impunity.” ~ https://www.readthemaple.com/mark-carney-wants-to-cash-in-under-perus-new-right-wing-president/
Fucking WHOOPS, maybe it isn’t so simple. What about reading a book, eh bud?
I’m fully aware of what kind of dystopia it can bring about, I’ve read too much about Israel’s use of it against Palestinians and it’s horrifying. But just because they use it that way, doesn’t mean we have to use or will be using it in the same way.
My principal point is that drone-based oppression is available with non-Canadian components already and through other means you’ve rightly identified like paramilitary goons, and plenty of examples over several centuries. Building a domestic supply chain for drones or not doesn’t make a big difference for horrible people to do horrible things, as much as it will make a big difference for us to defend ourselves if needed, and be useful in other ways when we don’t need to. *And to stop the export of the tech for oppressive uses is a legislative/political fix.
Love that you read a bunch of links to articles about how Canada does exactly that and then still lie about it being “possible.” (bet you totally read them all in a few minutes too)
Canada is horrible, this is a horrible thing. Just grow a spine and admit that you don’t care because you benefit from it and shut the fuck up.
(also, to fucking act like you care about Palestinians while cheering on EuroAmerican imperialism is the same, straight up revolting, performative bullshit that I’d expect from Canadians)
I did read one or two of them and the parts you quoted, but you can’t even seem to accept where I’m agreeing with you about the harms Canada has committed. So, I’ll call it there. I hope you have a nice day.