Employment of Unmanned Aircraft Systems for Canadian Forces Anti-Submarine Warfare

Fixed-wing Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) technology has experienced exponential growth over the past 10-15 years and is now employed as an intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) asset by virtually every modern military force in the world, as well as by civil law enforcement agencies. Currently, more than 30 nations are developing or manufacturing more than 250 models of UAS. Substantial commercial market growth and competition in fixed wing UAS platforms for military and law enforcement applications resulted in a wide variety of UAS platforms from small, hand-launched aircraft that operate at low altitudes for short-duration, to large, complex turbo-prop and jet powered aircraft capable of long-endurance operations at medium and high altitudes. Employment of Medium-Altitude, Long-Endurance (MALE) and High-Altitude, Long Endurance (HALE) UAS in the anti-submarine warfare (ASW) role is rapidly becoming feasible through emerging technologies and expanded payload capacities, the most significant of which are secure high-bandwidth Beyond Line of Sight (BLOS) satellite datalink communications, miniature light-weight sonobuoys, and real-time shore-based acoustic processing. As a result, UAS may be a technically feasible future Canadian Forces (CF) ASW capability as a complementary or stand-alone alternative to manned fixed-wing and rotary-wing maritime ASW platforms.