Russia Has Nukes; Should Canada?

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by Lanny_McDonald

Wouldn't it make more sense for Canada to invest in a low-cost drone program for patroling its coasts and arctic region?

Sure from a sheer intelligence and trip wire concept, absolutely. They should have been thinking about this years ago. Canada is still going to need a proper airforce in terms of interception, intervention and providing air power to NATO and in theory UN missions.



We almost need to look at a layered air strategy. drones in combination with manned fighters. The nice thing about the F-35 is that one of the upgrade paths is it will be able to command a fleet of drones of its own to extend its visualization of the battlefield.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by Monahammer

You still need command ships/ centres to run the drones. Submarines are an excellent idea for this in some cases IMO. A nuclear sub full of high power drones would be a fearsome combatant, like an underwater aircraft carrier.

The American's and Chinese and even the Russian's already have this capability of Sub controlled drones to extend their sensor range and in some cases be able to attack enemy submarines and even surface ships.



The worry with drones is the ability to compromise the links between control and drones.

[Fuzz]

How well do drones work at -40?

[Monahammer]

^^ these are all things we can no doubt design for. I am not saying it all exists today, but we should be building up the industry and technology to work for us. This would provide far more benefits than just buying off the shelf #### from some other country, including economic benefits for the country.

[Monahammer]

And Russia, ostensibly the 3rd most powerful global force, is having problems interupting drone signals seemingly... so I am not super worried about that.

[Lanny_McDonald]

already addressed

[karl262]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

How well do drones work at -40?

The Global Hawk has a ceiling of 60,000 feet, so pretty good. Not sure about prop driven UAVs though.

[Lubicon]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

How well do drones work at -40?

Originally Posted by karl262

The Global Hawk has a ceiling of 60,000 feet, so pretty good. Not sure about prop driven UAVs though.

Air temperature at altitude is well below zero so should not be an issue.

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by Lubicon

Air temperature at altitude is well below zero so should not be an issue.

I was more thinking the smaller ones, but ya, I guess they probably wouldn't be a lot of use in the arctic, either.