Although the Canadian Army is still considering its options for a future family of unmanned aerial systems (it awarded MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates last October a five-year, $5 million contract to provide support for a fleet of small, hand-launched Raven-B UAS) the service is still conducting exercises with its ScanEagle.
The Boeing-Insitu aircraft was acquired for operations in Afghanistan in 2008 and later adopted by the Royal Canadian Navy to introduce the capability on the Halifax-class frigates; since 2011, every frigate deployed on Op Artemis in the Arabian Sea or in operations in the Mediterranean, has included a three-aircraft fleet to assist with ISR and interdictions.
Throughout those army and navy operations, a team from ING Robotic Aviation in Ottawa has been ensuring the aircraft’s availability.
Over the past three weeks, and ING team has been supporting ScanEagle combat training operations for Exercise Maple Resolve at the Canadian Manoeuvre Training Centre in Wainwright under the direction of 4 Air Defence Regiment.
Maple Resolve involves over 4,500 Canadian troops as well as American and British forces operting in realistic scenarios to prepare as a high readiness Task Force for short notice deployment.
“I continue to be very proud of the work our guys are doing in the field,” said ING CEO Ian Glenn, adding that after honing its skills on operations around the globe, ING Robotic Aviation is now “providing mapping, inspection and monitoring services in key sectors such as oil and gas, mining, utilities, forestry and precision agriculture. We are at the forefront of a disruptive technological and operational change, focused on reinventing aviation.”