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June 7, 2022 • 1 day ago • 10-minute reading Canadian special forces were operating the mysterious plane that surrounded central Ottawa during the so-called freedom protests in late January and February, it has been confirmed. diary. The Canadian Army will receive the first of three surveillance aircraft this summer. The aircraft will be used by Canadian special forces for surveillance missions at home and abroad. (Photo provided by DND) Photo by Brochure / DND
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By Dave Scanlon, guest writer on Defense Watch
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Special forces untimely surveillance training flights over the so-called Freedom Convoy protests in Ottawa in January and February exposed ongoing problems with the Canadian Armed Forces’ public communications. But the controversial flights offer more vital lessons for senior officials and their military public advisers.
First observed by Ottawa-based open source researcher Steffan Watkins, the unannounced flights were conducted by Canadian special operations forces on a US-contracted and registered U.S. Air Force surveillance aircraft. Special forces have acquired three of a newer model and the first will be delivered this summer. At a cost of more than $ 80 million each, the planes have high-tech electro-optical suites that can accurately track and guide human activities on the ground. The aircraft may intercept electronic communications, including cell phones.
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Since mid-2015, when then-Chief of Defense Staff, now retired, General Jon Vance ordered the “operationalization” of military public affairs, the armed forces have been besieged with poor military strategic communications. Many of the recent problems stem from multiple allegations of sexual misconduct, including against Vance himself, and other misconduct, but there were many other self-inflicted issues.
In 2020 alone, there were four formal investigations into strategic military communications errors. There was also a review of the wrong plans to target Canadians with propaganda. Led by the Army’s Public Affairs Branch, Vance abruptly closed a five-year project to create a formal military strategic communications group, which included psychological operations personnel. Minister Jody Thomas later described the project as “incompatible” with federal policy and lacked direction, guidance and oversight at the strategic level.
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In the age of the Internet — with its high-speed global communications, interconnected, and increasingly powerful by computers and smartphones — the military and its uniformed public affairs advisers must be decidedly more diligent in anticipating the exposition of military actions, and the like. actions can be perceived or even distorted. They also need to better assess potential risks, such as the loss of public confidence at home or the negative impact on overseas operations.
Some members of the Canadian military believe that information has become a sixth operational domain, along with the sea, land, air, space and cybernetics. The prologue to a draft concept paper on Canadian Armed Forces intelligence operations, attributed to the now retired lieutenant general. Mike Rouleau, a former Chief of Defense Staff, stated that “we project information into the environment whether we like it or not,” so the military needs to be more deliberate in its use. intelligence capabilities to achieve military objectives.
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Despite this view, and despite all the information that is already in the public domain or can be discovered by astute journalists and Internet-enabled open source researchers, the Canadian military has taken the measurable risk of covertly conducting training flights. Special Forces Air Force Surveillance of Volatile Ottawa Protests , in January and February.
The planned acquisition of the King Air surveillance aircraft was well known, as reported several times by Ottawa Citizen Defense Journalist David Pugliese. In October 2018, he wrote that “Canadian companies had wanted to provide the plane, but the Canadian military decided it needed the planes faster than they thought Canadian companies could offer.”
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Pugliese said the three planes would be “equipped with sensors and equipment to intercept cell phones and other electronic transmissions. Canadian special forces and potentially other government departments will use them for overseas and Canadian missions.” He also accurately reported that the purchase was facing a significant overcharge.
In a June 2019 update, Pugliese added that three King Air surveillance aircraft were expected to be delivered in 2022. He also wrote that “Royal Canadian Air Force pilots will fly the aircraft, but members of the Command of the Canadian Special Operations Forces will operate the specialized equipment “. to the planes ”.
In a pertinent story, on November 22, 2019, local CBC reporter Stu Mills reported that a RCMP Pilatus PC-12 spy plane was seen flying over rural Ottawa by the amateur observer of John Clarke planes. “I’ve been tracking planes all my life,” Clarke said. He picked up the plane’s transponder code with a $ 200 receiver and confirmed his six-digit serial number identifier via ADSBexchange, a website that specializes in identifying military and VIP aircraft.
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Mills reported that the plane was a special “Specter” mission aircraft “equipped with an electro-optical turret capable of capturing high-resolution videos and photos, as well as intercepting radio and cellular communications.” The RCMP told the CBC they had no information about the flight.
In September 2020, Globe and Mail senior parliamentary reporter Steve Chase reported that a RCAF CC-144 Challenger passenger plane had been observed to emit a transponder code for a British aircraft, at least 80 flights since 2018. Watkins, he noticed the mistake. same open source researcher who detected King Air flights over the Ottawa protests.
The RCAF initially stated that Watkin’s claim was impossible, but after an internal investigation, the public affairs officer the lieutenant colonel. Adam Thompson acknowledged that an “electronic error” had caused an incorrect transponder code to be issued. Thompson said of Watkin’s efforts: “On behalf of the RCAF management, we sincerely appreciate your educated interest in this and thank you for contacting us so that we can resolve it expeditiously.”
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Thompson also stated, “The RCAF does not hide the identity of its aircraft and always abides by civil transportation procedures and regulations when it comes to operating military aircraft in national civil airspace.” A practice that Watkins later suggested was not followed during special forces training flights. Along with its own electronics, Watkins monitors websites such as ADSBexchange, RadarBox24, FlightAware and Flightradar24.
This was the narrative that already existed in the realm of information. However, when the story of military surveillance flights over the Ottawa protests erupted, National Defense was not fully prepared.
The news item was initially buried in a Globe and Mail article co-written by Chase and Ottawa office manager Bob Fife, published on April 21, 2022. The headline and leadership of the article is focused on the acquisition of the three spy planes, a $ 247 million deal “mediated by the U.S. government.” They wrote that the special forces aircraft “are intended primarily for use on the high seas and would only be used to monitor Canadians nationwide, in support of civilian authorities, with the approval of the federal cabinet.”
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However, in the article, Chase and Fife noted that National Defense “is declining to offer many details about what a U.S.-registered aircraft, a previous model of King Air, was doing on Feb. 10 in the skies over Ottawa while downtown was paralyzed by convoy protests. ” On February 10, 2022, Watkins, the researcher who had previously been thanked by the RCAF for his “polite interest,” had widely tweeted what appeared to be a U.S.-registered “ghost plane” operating over Ottawa.
Despite Watkins’ long history of accurately tracking military aircraft, National Defense did not immediately confirm that several flights over Ottawa in January and February were linked to the armed forces. Only after the Globe contacted several federal security agencies did National Defense Civilian spokesman Dan Le Bouthillier admit that they were pre-planned military training flights that “had nothing to do with surveillance or surveillance. the activities “.
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In a later Twitter thread on May 16, 2022, Watkins tweeted: “They turned off (or darkened) their transponder as they spun over a city under siege for hours. Undoubtedly one of the …