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In this issue: National Strategies for the '90s — Updates: NTV & MIL/LAV



them a gun but no bullets. Where are our laser-guided `smart' weapons for discriminate use against military assets and collateral damage avoidance?

In all, Canada was not relevant to the operational theatre. That was not DND's fault. Within NDHQ archives there are enough proposals, speeches, planning papers and other documents warning of future needs, to sink the USS Missouri.

We must now begin to face as realities the predictions of the 1970s and 1980s. Look at the developing regions of the world. As Canada's population ages, the populations within the Third World conversely shift upwards in size and downwards in average age. Huge, modestly equipped armies are growing and will emerge from developing nations under the control of non-democratic regimes. Because of food and water shortages, economic rivalry, natural resource disparity, climatic changes leading to agricultural failure, environmental disasters such as the one now in its incipient stage in Kuwait and Iraq, and other unpredictable factors including the social impact of urbanization in some regions, those immense armies will be used by their autocratic governments to exert enormous military pressure on neighbouring states for economic and geopolitical objectives. U.N. force will be called upon again to thwart aggression.

In the coming years, if not months, political, economic and ecological disaster refugees will swarm across national borders creating hostility and instability within portions of four continents. The newly invigorated U.N. must keep the peace.

As the spheres of influence and power within the world shift away from the U.S.' and U.S.S.R.'s rival blocs, many new power centres will continue to emerge with military might, economic power, or special interests such as religion forming the central theme of the coalescing nations. Meanwhile, the world watches to see how the two superpowers reshape their foreign policy.

A chill runs up and down one's spine at first view of a NATO base garbed in cold weather warfare camouflage. Sharply contrasting the new desert warfare etchings recently implanted in our minds, NATO Europe's APCs, MBTs, aircraft and person

Volume 5, Number 11 March 13, 1991


Comment:

STRATEGIZING FOR THE 1990s

Welcome to the 1990s. We are now in year twenty since Canada last had a valid defence policy plan and we have just had our first infusion of hard news about what is really happening in the unstable Third World and what it means to us. In this case it was war for which Canada was certainly ill-prepared.

Whether called for or not, Canada was unable to turn out a brigade group to fight in the Gulf. We had neither the flexibility nor transportation to get properly equipped troops to Saudi Arabia and then supply them.

Our naval vessels had to undergo a work of brilliant innovation in Halifax to turn them into relevant warships.

Canada dropped bombs on Iraqi military installations in Kuwait. Iron bombs. Gravity bombs. Dumb bombs. Our multi-billion dollar NFA programme allowed us to drop a few thousand dollars worth of TNT on some Iraqi tanks. We don't know if they hit them, but if they did it is certainly a tribute to the ingenuity of Canadian flyers who have learned to cope with a nation which gives



nel are cloaked in dark green and white ready to disappear into the forested terrain to fight the Soviets in either a conventional or NBC war in the higher lattitudes of the European theatre. How will this scene change in the coming years? The contrast in images alone is sufficient to suggest the need for military flexibility.

Europe is altered dramatically. The two Germanies are now united into one powerful state with its own economic market expanding through inward migration and a wealth of new opportunities, new alliances. Next year the European Community will embark on its voyage through the 1990s as a unified economic team of nations. The Warsaw Pact's military arm has been dissolved. Meanwhile NATO is feeling its way seeking new definitions of its role. The 32-member Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) is gaining new importance. And the eastern European nations are struggling with economic hardship amidst a spring-like political environment brought on by new democratic freedoms.

Around the globe, third world countries are approaching their own version of the so-called "nuclear age" and while the vast majority of some nations' populations live below the world poverty level, their national governments spend available cash developing clandestine weapons of mass destruction. But how will this affect Canada?

A close look at Iraq might be instructional. Perhaps, if the Gulf War were to have been forestalled for two or three years, variants or offsprings of the Condor II programme, built within the Third World, might rain terror on North American cities including Montreal and Toronto instead of the al-Hussein attacks on Israeli and Saudi cities. This was clearly the aspect of the Gulf War to get the unswerving attention of the North American public. George Bush says he will prepare America by using SDI technology to build anti-missile missiles to defend whole cities.

Lurking below the sea in all the oceans of the world, Soviet and American SSNs and their menacing SSBN and SSGN strategic submarines are prepared to survive a holocaust. More than a dozen more are manufactured and slip into the water each year. Certainly the world is not the pretty place we would all like it to be. Welcome to the 1990s.

In dealing with a rapidly changing world which is extremely competitive and increasingly unstable, Canada must emerge from its state of collective emotional depression and introspection to grapple with some harsh realities. Looking at the brighter side, if it is true that in the solution of problems there is an abundance of new opportunities, then Canada, in a relative sense, has the chance to reach the proverbial `pot of gold' at the end of the rainbow.

On the dark side, Canada's national institutions are dismally inadequate to face the demands of the 1990s. No national policies or infrastructure exist to establish and maintain programmes to overcome productivity problems which are now screaming for attention. Instead, our politicians appear to be overwhelmed by that one true cliché about the information age: "Perception is everything." Perception management is a lot easier than actually formulating public policy which achieves long term goals but sees no immediate political gain. For example, Canadians, because we have not been properly educated and trained to meet future needs, loathe the labour saving technologies which have become the drivers of Japanese, western European and American economies. We are told that "the best social programme is a job", but unfortunately that too often means a job at any cost. The public has become blind to the realities of a vastly more automated world within which Canadians must ever increasingly compete.

No national strategies or infrastructure exist to adequately deal with the need for alternative power sources, new materials and new technologies. Research and development in Canada are obsequious to the electoral demands of governments who must put social welfare spending far ahead of a national technology and productivity policy in order to retain power. The lack of an innovative national strategy for technology development leaves us dependent to an expanding extent on our natural resource base which will in increasing proportions become unmarketable due to our growing lack of efficiency and competitiveness. Some developing nations, and at least three of our `Economic Group of Seven' confreres are proving methods which are both qualitatively and quantitatively superior to ours for extracting and processing our own raw materials. Others will develop the alternative fuels of the future, perhaps leaving Canada's standard of living to fall behind tragically as international competition carves away at a 30 percent chunk of our GDP, our exports.

Exporting nearly all of their output, Canada's aerospace and defence industries have been


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heavily impacted by the changing nature of global competition and the nominal steps Canada as a whole has taken to address opportunities and meet various threats. That is the environment within which the aerospace and defence community must survive and continue to serve the national interest as Canada's principal asset in the category of advanced technology.

Regrettably there are already some signs of outward migration of Canada's technology base. Also, on the defence side, Canada's industrial base appears to be shuddering under what could be a final, killing blow: the failure to form national defence and industrial strategies.

The defence community consists of the Department of National Defence and its allied network inside universities, industry, government and to a small extent, within society at large. That community is dwindling in its size and its interest level. The community's commercial entities are in some cases perishing, but for the most part are seeking livelihood outside of the country or in domestic commercial sectors where defence technology can be applied to commercial products.

Flexibility and mobility are the bywords for defence planners who can now point to some of the lessons learned in the Gulf War and either modify or prove theories they have already developed. Maybe now they will get the ear of the politicians. They may then have to throw away a lot of the thinking developed during the Cold War which in turn may have a sizable impact on some of DND's contemporary capital programmes and significantly alter the CF's perceived key roles.

Canadians may have been awakened by the Gulf War to the fact that Canada's armed forces are technically inferior even in the new equipment they have been recently supplied. Programme obsolescence must be given new focus as fresh ideas are minted into Crown projects. Perhaps the time has come for Canada to admit to itself that there are some areas where an offshore procurement has greater cost benefits and strategic advantages than trying to do it all ourselves and finally having to turn the lights out on a programme that ran out of money and ran out of time.

Not just to equip our own forces, but for export markets and for offspring technology benefits, Canada's defence industry supported by the federal government must learn from the Gulf crisis and focus on research and development in the fields of advanced sensor technology, low observable signature technology, space technology, advanced materials, photonics, artificial intelligence, and robotics.

The greatest crime of the 1990s could turn out to be that Canada had the capacity for greatness in specialized areas, but had neither the collective consciousness nor the national strategy to achieve its goals.

Micheal John O'Brien

CANADIAN SHIPS DEPARTED PERSIAN GULF YESTERDAY

HMCS Athabaskan, Terra Nova and Protecteur began their journey back to Canada on March 12 after more than five months of service in the Persian Gulf. HMCS Huron — which left Halifax bound for the Gulf on February 24 — is currently docked in Gibraltar and will remain there until otherwise instructed.

FIRST CONTRACT: RAYTHEON TO HELP RESTORE KUWAITI AIRPORTS

Raytheon Service Co. of Burlington, Massachusetts has won a $5.7 million (U.S.) contract to provide airport navigation aids, control facilities and runway lighting for Kuwait's destroyed airports. The contract was the first to be awarded by the Middle East/Africa Projects Office of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for the Kuwait Emergency Recovery Programme.

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U.K. DEFENCE MINISTER DEBRIEFS GULF OPERATIONS

Seven days after the cessation of hostilities in the Gulf region, U.K. Secretary of State for Defence Tom King provided the first full report on the part played by U.K. forces. Appearing before a specially convened session of the all-party U.K. House of Commons Defence Committee, King prefaced his evidence with some general remarks on the progress of the cease-fire negotiations and gave a concise summary of the operations involving the 45,000 U.K. servicemen deployed to the Gulf. The RAF flew over 4,000 combat sorties and delivered 3,000 tonnes of ordnance including more than 100 JP233 airfield denial weapons, 6,000 bombs, 1,000 laser-guided bombs and 100 ALARM antiradar missiles. Neither the ALARM missile nor the GEC-Ferranti TIALD thermal imaging and laser aiming pod fitted to some Tornado aircraft late in the war had been in service when the RAF first deployed to the Gulf and King told the committee that TIALD and the development of laser designation techniques was "an important enhancement" for medium altitude operations. The reconnaissance version of the Tornado too had made an impressive debut as the only such aircraft with IR/VCR capability for long-range day and night operations. It had, said King, "found a lot", but he wouldn't say whether Scud launchers had been amongst that which it had detected.

The low level sorties which the RAF Tornado pilots flew with JP233 bombs had been requested by the USAF because it had no comparable capability. Although it was still too early to comment on the manner in which aircraft had been lost, King admitted that there were "a lot of lessons to be learned" and it had to be kept in mind that JP233 had been critically developed for the European theatre and for attacks against WARPAC airfields. King gave no hint of the options under consideration for stand-off weapons, but sources believe that Matra's Apache and the Brunswick Defence LOCLAD 30-mile stand-off 24-submunition system might be front runners.

The Royal Navy has an ongoing role in minesweeping operations in Gulf waters. It had, said King, already cleared two minefields that were barring the way into Kuwaiti ports and was inspecting a third. During the war it had been a "critical element" in maintaining the credibility of a possible amphibious landing and had been able to use the cover created by smoke from burning oilfields to get closer inshore than had been thought likely. The Iraqis had laid a "crescent-shaped" minefield along the Kuwaiti coast comprising lines of ground mines and two lines of buoyant mines. There had been two other minefields and these had been augmented by what appeared to have been randomly scattered mines laid during what King described as "high speed dashes" from ports by Iraqi warships. The Sea Skua missile had "attracted a lot of respect" and fired from naval Lynx helicopters had been a crucial element in the destruction of what King said might otherwise have been a threatening Iraqi naval presence.

The British 1st Armoured Division's feat in advancing 350 kilometers in 100 hours to unhinge the Iraqi defences on the Mutla Ridge — knocking out 100 Iraqi MBTs, 100 APCs and 100 artillery pieces — ranked "very high as a military achievement". No less impressive, said King, was the fact that it made its own road as it advanced. When it arrived on the ridge it had its full logistic chain in place and was, he said, the only division capable of going on to Basra. Its artillery had fired 2,500 MLRS projectiles, 2,500 (M110) 8-inch howitzer rounds and around 10,000 155mm projectiles. Equipment availability exceeded expectations by not falling below 95 percent. Inevitably, King's comments that the division's enhanced Challenger 1 MBT "did well once we got it up to standard" attracted speculation that the Mark 2 version of the British-built tank might now have a significant edge over the U.S. M1A2 in the competition to find a successor for the British Chieftain fleet. King confirmed too that Challenger's 120mm rifled gun had been very successful — "the most effective that this country has ever produced". This comes as little surprise to British tankers who believe that the gun "gets better the more that it is used", but are unable to really explain why. London sources believe that although too much should not be read into Challenger 1's outstanding performance in the desert, there could still be an essentially political decision in its favour.

Despite the generally congratulatory tone of the hearing, King nevertheless had to field some potentially difficult questions. One concerned civilian casualties in the attack on the fleeing column on the Basra road. "Conflict was engaged," he told his questioner. "There was a significant amount of Iraqi armour... a significant number of T-72s on that road... It was a difficult judgment." The committee's view seemed to be that King had given a fair and honest account that will suffice until the fuller report of operations and their implications for future defence policy are published later this year, possibly as part of the annual defence white paper.

John Reed — U.K. Editor


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MENASCO SCORES BIG WITH BOEING 777 SUBCONTRACT

Boeing Commercial Airplane Group has awarded three subcontracts initially worth about $1 billion (U.S.) for the supply of major Boeing 777 structures. Menasco Aerospace headquartered in Oakville, Ontario grabs the largest piece of the Boeing pie with a contract valued at approximately $480 million (U.S.) to supply main and nose landing gear for the first 500 Boeing 777s. This order represents the largest initial landing gear order for a single Boeing airplane programme. Menasco has arranged to subcontract some manufacturing and assembly to Menasco Aerosystems of Fort Worth, Texas and Messier-Bugatti of Velizy, France.

The two remaining subcontracts were awarded to companies in the U.S. Rockwell International's North American aircraft facility in Tulsa, Oklahoma will provide the lightweight composite floor beam assemblies for the entire airplane. This contract extends through the year 2004 and is estimated at $400 million (U.S.). Grumman Aerostructures Division of Milledgeville, Georgia will produce the 777's spoilers in an 11-year effort valued at $120 million (U.S.). Although the Boeing 777 enters service in 1995, 49 of the new twinjets have already been ordered.

NEW NAME FOR CANADAIR'S CL-215 DIVISION

The Canadair Group of Bombardier Inc. of Montreal, Quebec has announced that its CL-215 Division is now called the Amphibious Aircraft Division. Company officials say the new name more accurately reflects Canadair's position in the world amphibious aircraft market and is more suitable as the new generation CL-215T amphibian will be certified this spring. The CL-215T is currently in the final stages of an intensive flight test and certification programme involving two turboprop aircraft. Restricted category certification for firefighting missions is expected later this month, followed shortly thereafter by utility aircraft certification.

FIRST FIRING OF TRIGAT ANTITANK MISSILE IS A SUCCESS

The long range TRIGAT antitank missile recently achieved a successful first firing. The missile demonstrated clearance from the launcher and flew in a ballistic flight path for the full duration of the rocket motor burn. Under the Long Range TRIGAT programme, Euromissile Dynamics Group — formed by British Aerospace, Aerospatiale and Messerschmitt-Boelkow-Blohm (MBB) — is developing a European third generation antitank missile to replace such missiles as Swingfire, HOT and TOW. The programme was launched in 1988 and is scheduled for completion in the late 1990s.

BAe AIR COMBAT TRAINING RANGE NOW OPERATIONAL

The British Aerospace North Sea Air Combat Maneuvering Instrumentation Range (NSAR) is now able to offer a complete line of training services to NATO and other European air forces. The U.K.-based range provides training for up to 36 aircraft with 50 simultaneous weapons simulations. Each aircraft using the range carries transponder pods which pass information to offshore automatic tracking towers. The information is then relayed to the NSAR main computer centre at RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire from where computer-generated pictures of air combat training engagements can be passed to Display and Debriefing Systems (DDS) at RAF Waddington and Bentwaters. This sophisticated system allows extensive and detailed debriefing of missions. The NSAR has already been used to train CF-18, RAF Tornado, Belgian F-16, and Danish Draken crews. U.S. Air Force Europe is currently negotiating with BAe to buy time on the range.

IRISH AIRLINE PLACES $8 MILLION ORDER FOR GE CT7 ENGINES

GE Aircraft Engines' CT7-9B turboprops will power four Saab 340B aircraft ordered by Ireland's national airline, Aer Lingus for its regional carrier, Aer Lingus Commuter. The engine order with spares is valued at approximately $8 million (U.S.). Air Lingus Commuter will take delivery of its first CT7-powered Saab 340 in June for use on internal routes in Ireland and three routes in the United Kingdom.


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NTV ACQUISITION PROGRAMME NEARS IMPLEMENTATION PHASE

Hagglunds Foremost Inc. (HF) of Calgary, Alberta, prime contractor for Mobile Command's Northern Terrain Vehicle (NTV) acquisition programme, is working on the third phase of a variants study while awaiting the go-ahead to move into the programme's implementation phase, says Brian Sokolan, HF's Project Manager. Under the $1.5 million definition phase variants study contract awarded in July 1990, HF is required to produce an NTV primary vehicle prototype in the personnel cargo variant. Other variants being considered and for which HF must produce Level 1 drawings include a flat bed cargo, mortar carrier and antiarmour version. HF has already delivered Phase I and II reports for the variants study to the Military Operational Support Trucks Programme Management Office (MOST PMO). The Phase I report recommended and allocated a baseline and the Phase II report outlined descriptions of proposed options of the variants. The final variants study report is due in August.

Upon completion of two parachute drop tests, DND will provide HF with one BV-206 vehicle from Mobile Command's inventory — built by Hagglunds Vehicle AB of Sweden — for `Canadianization' to final NTV prototype configuration. The NTV will resemble the BV-206, but will include some Canadian components such as brush guards to meet DND requirements. Although parachute drop tests of the BV-206 were delayed because of a shortage of Hercules aircraft needed for Canada's Gulf War transport operations, the first of two drop tests was recently completed and the MOST PMO is currently assessing the results, says Colonel Malcolm Campbell, MOST Programme Manager. The vehicle tested was used last fall in a low-altitude parachute extraction test, but it was repaired and its stress points were strengthened before it was drop-tested. The final drop test is expected to be conducted "within the next month", and the selection of a BV-206 vehicle for this second test is contingent upon first test results.

Despite a delay in the parachute drop tests, Campbell assured The Wednesday Report that the project is "on schedule". HF has met delivery of five definition phase study reports including a General Systems Specification study; a `Canadianization' study; an ILS study; a Special Equipment Vehicle (SEV) kit study; and the first report of the variants study. Campbell and HF officials "are going back and forth discussing points" from the studies in anticipation of approval to move into the implementation phase. Some discussions have taken place regarding terms and conditions of the implementation contract, but "no hard negotiations" are yet under way. According to Campbell, land forces structure and financial reviews must be concluded first to determine the number of NTVs to be ordered — which will be "less than the original 800" — as well as specific tasks for which the vehicles will be used. Production of the NTV at HF's plant in Calgary is expected to begin as planned in 1993.

SPAR REPORTS POSITIVE FINANCIAL RESULTS FOR 1990

Increased activity in Spar's Radarsat and Space Station Freedom programmes, particularly in the fourth quarter of last year, has resulted in record 1990 revenues for the company. Spar Aerospace Limited reports revenues of $96 million for the quarter ended December 31, 1990, an increase of 65 percent over the same period in 1989. Year-end revenues for 1990 are $336 million, representing a 44 percent gain over 1989. A net income of $2.7 million — $1.1 million of which was earned in the fourth quarter — shows a dramatic change from the 1989 net loss of $9.2 million. Spar's board of directors has declared a dividend on the subordinate voting shares of 3 cents per share payable on or after April 2 to shareholders of record on March 19. Future financial successes for Spar are promising as it entered 1991 with the highest level of contracted work to date.

PRIOR TO SUPPLY GKS UNDER $2.8 MILLION SUBCONTRACT

Prior Data Sciences of Kanata, Ontario has been awarded a four year, $2.8 million subcontract by Data General Corporation to implement its Graphical Kernel System (Prior GKS). This advanced graphics development toolkit will be integrated into a nationwide computer network for the Water Resources Division of the U.S. Geological Survey, Department of the Interior. Prior's graphics software systems and products are designed, developed and implemented for the space, defence, air traffic control and industrial markets.


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MIL/LAV PROJECT IS ON TARGET

The Canadian militia's Light Armoured Vehicle (MIL/LAV) Project "is on schedule" says Lieutenant-Colonel Larry Hyttenrauch, MIL/LAV Project Manager.

To meet the needs of the Reserve Force in a Total Force structure, DND decided almost three years ago to purchase wheeled vehicles from General Motors of Canada (GM) Diesel Division of London, Ontario and a significantly smaller number of tracked vehicles from FMC Corporation of San Jose, California.

On July 28, 1989, GM Diesel Division was awarded a $100 million ('89-'90 budget year dollars) contract to supply the Canadian militia with 199 eight-wheeled LAVs in four amphibious variants: 149 Armoured Personnel Carriers (APCs), 18 command post vehicles, 16 mortar carriers, and 16 maintenance and recovery vehicles. The Canadian LAV known as the "Bison" is based upon the LAV-25 previously purchased from GM Diesel by the U.S. Marine Corps.

Unlike the LAV-25, the Bison does not have a turret and mounts a 7.62mm machine gun compared to the LAV-25's 25mm chain gun. The Bison has a greater capacity for carrying troops and equipment, and its ramp door enables troops to exit the vehicle easier and faster. Deliveries of the Bisons to DND began last summer and will continue until April 1992. According to the MIL/LAV Project Management Office (PMO), DND has accepted 75 vehicles to date. Performance testing of the Bison is not yet complete, and the PMO does not anticipate any delays in future deliveries.

Major Canadian subcontractors to GM Diesel and the commodities they are providing for each wheeled vehicle include: Newtech - instrument panel; Michelin - tires; Gasco, York Tek and Thomas - machined parts; Terminal & Cable - wiring harnesses; Windsor Aerospace - marine drive; Linex - suspension components; Parker Hannifin - hoses and fittings; Heli-Fab - fabricated and machined components; Drive Products - drive shafts; Ebco - fabricated components; and Hastings Brass - propellers. The finished vehicles will be distributed to training bases across Canada.

For the tracked vehicle portion of the MIL/LAV Project, FMC was awarded a contract valued at approximately $9 million ('90-'91 budget year dollars) on July 27, 1990 to supply 22 M113-A2 APCs. Fourteen vehicles will be used to fulfil the field engineer role while the remaining eight will be produced in an antiarmour configuration with the TOW antitank missile system. The MIL/LAV PMO reports that the M113-A2s are currently in the planning production stage, and that the vehicles will be delivered to DND as scheduled between January and March 1992. No subcontractors have been chosen by FMC as subcontractor responsibilities have yet to be totally defined.

CALENDAR

March 19 — The March luncheon meeting of the Canadian Defence Preparedness Association (CDPA) will be held at the Royal Canadian Air Force Officers' Mess, 158 Gloucester Street, Ottawa at noon. "The Need for a Strong Military Base — Even in Peace Time" is the topic of an address to be delivered to attendees by Mr. John Cruickshank, associate editor of The Globe & Mail. A fee of $15.00 is payable at the door. Nonmembers should contact the CDPA office at (613) 235-5337 if they wish to attend.

March 20-23 — The fourth international defence equipment exhibition and conference, "Defence Asia '91" will be held at the Singapore World Trade Centre. Senior military officials from 15 Asia Pacific nations are expected to attend along with some 6,000 other attendees. More than 250 exhibitors from 22 countries are expected to be exhibiting their products. Contact Conference & Exhibition Management Services Pte Ltd. Telephone: (65) 2788666 or fax: (65) 2784077.

March 21 — The Canadian Aeronautics and Space Institute (CASI), Toronto Branch will sponsor its Annual March Tour. This year's outing will be a tour of the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum at Mount Hope Airport near Hamilton. For additional information and possible bus registration contact Bruce Woodcock at (416) 667-7854 or Gerry MacDonald, (416) 564-3802.

March 24-28 — Washington's premier space conference and exposition, Space Expo '91, will take place at the Washington DC Convention Centre. Events include seminars on U.S., Soviet, Pacific Rim and European programmes, business potential and opportunities; Space Education Day; Public Day; and a Gala Congressional Reception. The exposition will explain how to develop a business in space, provide access to space decision makers in Washington, and showcase new ideas, technologies and companies. For more information write to Space Expo '91, 25 South Quaker Lane, Suite 24, Alexandria, Virginia, 22314.


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April 9"Thrive or Survive in the Deregulated '90s" is the theme of a Financial Post Conferences/Air Canada one-day conference in Toronto at the Harbour Castle Westin dealing with, among other issues, the `open skies' concept proposed by transportation minister Doug Lewis. For additional information contact FP Conferences at (416) 350-6200.

April 9-10The Subcontractors IV (SUBCON IV) Exhibition — a special purpose trade show organized by External Affairs and International Trade Canada — will be held at the Montreal Convention Centre. The exhibition offers a unique opportunity for Canadian subcontractors to display their products to carefully chosen U.S. and Canadian primes and first-tier subcontractors in the aerospace, electronics and defence industries. To be considered for an invitation to SUBCON IV, those who wish to participate should contact Rose Bechamp, Project Coordinator, International Defence Programmes, Aerospace and Marine Division (TDA), External Affairs and International Trade Canada, 125 Sussex Drive, Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0G2, (613) 992-0746.

April 14-16The Aerospace Industries Association of Canada (AIAC) will hold its Twenty-Ninth Semi-Annual General Meeting at Ottawa's Westin Hotel.

April 20The Canadian Aeronautics and Space Institute (CASI), Toronto Branch will hold an Annual Dinner Meeting and President's Night at the Carleton Place Hotel on Dixon Road near Pearson International Airport. The guest speaker for the event will be CASI President Claire Eatock of Pratt & Whitney who will speak on the subject "Turbine Engine Technology".

May 6-7The 38th Annual General Meeting of CASI will be held at the Chateau Champlain Hotel in Montreal, Quebec. The meeting will feature a lecture from an outstanding member in the scientific or engineering fields of aeronautics, space or associated technologies; symposiums based on papers; will recognize and reward industry leaders; and discuss the future of CASI. Contact the Conference Coordinator at (613) 234-0191.

May 13-16The fourth European Aerospace Conference will be held at the Maison de la Chimie in Paris. The Association Aeronautique et Astronautique of France, Germany's Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Luft-und Raumfahrt and the Royal Aeronautical Society are organizing the conference which will deal primarily with "Launch Bases" and "Satellite Control Systems". Separate symposia will be organized around each topic. This conference, to be attended by well-known specialists, will provide an opportunity to national and multinational agencies, manufacturers, operators and researchers who design, produce, manage or use these large launch and control infrastructures to exchange information and views.

June 13-23Paris Air Show '91 (PAS'91), the biennial international air and trade show will again feature the world's best aerospace and defence technology at le Bourget, France. Canadian participation will feature more than 25 companies and a Specialized Industrial Supplier (SIS) contingent of smaller firms, all exhibiting as a team. The aerospace industries and the Department of External Affairs and International Trade jointly fund and organize the Canadian exhibitor group. For further information on the Canadian contingent, contact the AIAC.

Aug. 7-11Airshow Canada, the biennial North American aerospace tradeshow, will be held in Abbotsford, B.C. The international aerospace tradeshow exhibit adjacent to the Abbotsford airport will be open from August 7-11, with August 7-9 reserved as professional days. Approximately 12,000 professional visitors are expected to view more than 300 exhibits — housed in 120,000 square feet of air-conditioned space — from over 20 countries. The Airshow Canada Symposium which is expected to attract over 600 delegates is scheduled to take place at the Vancouver Trade and Convention Centre from August 7-9. Speakers and panels will address the Symposium's 1991 theme "Sharing the Skies". A design competition based on designs predating the flight of the Wright Brothers entitled "Seeking Wings That Work" has attracted entries from teams of aeronautical engineering students worldwide. The 30th anniversary of the Abbotsford International Flying Show has been slated for August 9-11 and is likely to attract over 350,000 members of the public. For additional information call (604) 852-4600.

September 25-26"ARMX '91" (originally scheduled for May 21-23), Canada's fifth biennial defence and aerospace equipment exhibition will be held at the West Carleton Airport near Ottawa. The theme of ARMX '91 is "Training for Peace — Defence Technology of the Future". Seminars based on this overall theme will be presented by senior Canadian military officials and industry representatives. Over 460 exhibits representing some seventeen nations will fill exhibit halls. For further information on ARMX '91 contact Wolfgang Schmidt at (416) 968-7252 or William Penfold in Ottawa at (613) 234-6292.


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