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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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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.
You kinda said it yourself, it’s the US oligarchy that wants minerals, gas, land for DCs, labour, etc. It’s well researched that most voters in the US don’t have a significant effect on oligarch-serving state policy. It follows that even if MAGA loses power, the oligarch class won’t stop getting the state to do its bidding vis-a-vis Canadian resources. If the US system moves in a democratic socialist direction with the Berniecrats taking power and drastically reducing the oligarchy’s power, then I’d expect change. Change in that the will of the majority of Americans who don’t want to exploit us would be reflected in state policy. This is not an endorsement of the current mil spending plans. I do think some mil spending would be required tho to create deterrents. Especially for the times when climate-driven droughts in the US intensify. Deterrents should help sharing our resources peacefully, rather than through force.
See, now you’re presenting your position instead of just calling everyone else delusional, etc.
Who said that? We have, and will continue to respond to a trade war with like-for-like measures.
Developing and manufacturing drones is for defending ourselves in case of a physical attack. I don’t know what makes you think anyone is suggesting Canada would be stupid enough to attack the US physically because of a trade war.
Voters don’t matter. The US government has been overtaken and they aren’t going to give up power just because voters don’t like them.
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.