OTTAWA - Canada's air force is shopping for new, unarmed pilotless aircraft to help protect troops in Afghanistan.
The head of the air force, Lt.-Gen. Angus Watt, has ordered the program fast-tracked, and his staff plan to give special consideration to companies that can quickly deliver the so-called uninhabited aerial vehicles or UAVs.
The purchase, which industry insiders say could be worth up to $100 million, is seen as a stopgap until the air force becomes more comfortable with the technology.
The plan is a step back from a $500-million proposal that was rejected last spring by the federal cabinet. The original plan was to purchase 12 U.S.-made Predator drones, which can be equipped with Hellfire missiles.
The Predator proposal, part of the Conservative government's draft defence plan, was bounced back to air force planners after concerns were raised by senior ministers about the military sole-sourcing yet another defence contract.
The air chief also says the technology hasn't evolved sufficiently.
"For a while there, we flirted with technology," Watt said in a recent interview.
"We have walked back from that flirtation. That doesn't mean we are not going to pursue UAVs, but I think we have a little more realistic view of the capabilities of the UAVs."
Watt said technology that would deliver a 226-kilogram bomb, or fire a missile at a target, without humans nearby makes him nervous.
"I think it would be a stretch for us," Watt said.
"The reason being is: we in Canada like to have a man in the loop dropping weapons and shooting weapons at people.
"We generally insist on a degree of oversight, legitimacy, adherence to the laws of war that require a man in the loop pretty definitively. So it would be a bit of a stretch for us."
The Americans have been routinely criticized by human rights groups over misdirected air strikes involving Predators since the drones first started firing missiles in the spring of 2002.
In a letter of interest that asks industry for proposals, Canada's air force says it wants a pilotless aircraft that can carry out mostly surveillance, but also use laser pointers to direct precision-guided munitions to targets. Those bombs and missiles would come from manned aircraft or ground-based artillery.
"It's a simpler, somewhat less expensive program, one that we are trying to fast-track in order to deliver capability for our mission as soon as we can obtain it," said Watt.
The original timeline for the program had the air force taking delivering of the new aircraft in mid-2009, just as the Afghan mission possibly winds down.
But Lt.-Col. Wade Williams, who's in charge of the UAV program, says officials hope to get the first aircraft into Afghanistan "within months" of the contract being signed next year.
The debate also comes at a time when there are concerns about the availability and endurance of the Sperwer, a pilotless aircraft Canada has used extensively in Afghanistan but which has been unable to fly in some extreme weather.
Watt, said the air force stands behind the Sperwer, but is anxious to introduce a slightly more sophisticated UAV but not something as complicated and expensive as the Predator.
Pilotless aircraft were also touted in the Tory defence plan as a key to asserting Canada's Arctic sovereignty.
But air force planners have found out that many drones are not suitable for bad weather operations in high latitudes.
Watt said that was also a factor when it came to the decision to shelve the Predator proposal.
"When you talk about climate change opening up new surveillance requirements in the north, you run into problems where UAVs are concerned," he said.
"We're going to need another generation of manned aircraft."
