AURORA
A NATIONAL ASSET TO PRESERVE

Colonel Ernest S.C. Cable OMM, CD (Ret'd)

The CP-140, Aurora, is Canada's only strategic surveillance aircraft capable of safeguarding our nation's maritime sovereignty and economic security well into the next millennium. Canada's Auroras are also valued by our NATO allies for their ability to conduct surveillance in the maritime dimension of peacekeeping. For the past 18 years the Aurora has provided yeoman service conducting reconnaissance of our coasts and adjacent Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic waters. However, these aircraft are quickly obsolescing and are on the verge of becoming ineffective as a result of the lack of political will to adequately fund essential defence programs. The lack of awareness of the extent that our maritime surveillance aircraft contribute to our national well being has resulted in unfocused, piecemeal action to modernize the outdated Aurora and its newer but sparsely-equipped stable mate, the CP-140A Arcturus. Canadians should understand the role our nation's maritime surveillance aircraft play in today's changing political and economic climate and be aware that Auroras provide one of the most cost-effective means of achieving a variety of national objectives. On a daily basis Auroras monitor the three maritime approaches to our nation, ready to respond to challenges to Canadian sovereignty. Concurrently, Auroras also project legitimate Canadian interests abroad by playing a significant peacekeeping role during periods of mounting tension such as in the Adriatic Sea off the coast of the former Yugoslavia.

The capabilities of our Aurora aircraft are atrophying because many of the systems are no longer supportable by the original equipment manufacturers and the sensors are neither capable against modern targets nor suitable for many regional conflict peacekeeping scenarios. Clearly, if Canadians are to continue to reap the benefits of an effective Aurora fleet, these aircraft must be modernized.

Many of Canada's allies, such as the United States, United Kingdom, France, Australia, New Zealand and Norway, believe that maritime patrol aircraft are essential to protecting their national interests and have embarked on a program to modernize their obsolescing patrol aircraft despite dwindling budgets. The cost to develop a new maritime patrol aircraft is prohibitive in the current economic climate and there are no potential candidates on the drawing boards.

The Auroras, like the P-3C Orions operated by most of our allies, are experiencing corrosion and fatigue problems. Over the last 18 years, operational deficiencies and equipment obsolescence have also developed because original equipment manufacturers are no longer prepared to provide spares, repair and overhaul services for avionics and sensors that are over 20 years old and no longer used by other air forces. Notwithstanding, the Canadian government has yet to fund a long term, fleet wide Aurora modernization project to ensure Auroras remain effective to the end of their estimated life expectancy.

The Canadian air force has identified the avionics and sensors that require replacement to overcome the reliability and maintainability concerns and to rectify many of the operational deficiencies that have arisen because of tasks and operational scenarios that were not envisioned when the Aurora was designed. The most efficient and cost effective means to install the new avionics and sensors would have been under an omnibus Aurora modernization project, which could have implemented concurrently with the Auroras' present depot level overhaul program for structural refurbishment. However, the government has chosen to update the Aurora's avionics and sensors in a piecemeal, unfocused manner with no long-term objective under a so-called "Aurora Incremental Modernization Program". This approach reduces aircraft availability to operational commanders, prohibits effective systems integration thereby limiting operational effectiveness and most certainly increases costs.

Sensors under consideration for Aurora modernization include:

Data Management System. The Aurora's 1970's vintage central computer is not nearly as capable as most of today's desktop computers and is the highest priority candidate for replacement. New multi-function work stations with high resolution, colour displays are required to portray the plethora of information available from updated sensors.

Sonobuoy Receivers. The Aurora is rapidly becoming incompatible with allied maritime aircraft because sonobuoy receivers do not have the number of frequency channels employed by our allies. Most other maritime aircraft sonobuoy receivers can be tuned to 99 channels of which 32 (or more) can be monitored simultaneously. Consequently whenever an Aurora and an allied maritime aircraft are operating cooperatively, the 99 channel equipped aircraft is limited to 30 per cent of its capability. Replacement of the sonobuoy receivers ranks number two priority.

Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR). Canadian research institutes in cooperation with Canadian industry have developed modifications to the Aurora's radar which will give a long range, stand-off surveillance capability, believed to be more effective than any radar used by our allies. The synthetic aperture, image profiling and strip map modes will enable the Aurora to identify land targets and classes of ships from safe distances beyond their missile engagement ranges. In a naval blockade scenario, such as occurred in the Adriatic Sea, the Aurora would be able to remain outside the target nation's territorial limits and still identify individual ships and track their movements in harbour.

Navigation. The Aurora's two primary inertial navigation systems are difficult to maintain and no longer provide sufficient accuracy to conform to projected civilian and military international navigation standards. The Aurora needs to replace the old systems with twin, ring laser gyro systems (common to most airliners) that are integrated with an embedded Global Positioning System (GPS). The ring laser gyro quality is required to stabilize the radar antenna to obtain the maximum performance of the radar. The accuracy of an embedded GPS is required to data link precise own aircraft and target position information to cooperating ships and aircraft.

Communication. The Aurora has an unique analogue communication system and lacks sufficient radios to operate in a multi-force environment typical of most peacekeeping scenarios. The communications management system is incapable of handling additional radios, which should operate in a digital format to be interoperable with our allies. The new communications system will require additional modern radios and a miniaturized Demand Assigned Multiple Access satellite communication capability for effective command and control.

Electronic Support Measures (ESM). The current ESM system is also experiencing maintainability problems and requires replacement with a more sophisticated sensor. In today's conflicts, particularly when operating in the littoral regions of hostile nations such as in the Persian Gulf, maritime aircraft must have a self-protection capability as well as the ability to locate hostile radar sites. The current system was designed specifically to detect submarine radars and therefore searches only a relatively narrow band of the frequency spectrum. However, for self-protection and targeting the Aurora's ESM will be required to search lower frequencies to detect long-range air defence radars as well as higher frequencies to detect missile guidance radars. It is equally important to have a sensitive directional capability to determine precisely from where a radar transmission is emanating. Ideally, the ESM system should also have a collateral capability to gather electronic intelligence while operating in littoral areas.

Electro-Optical System (EOS). The current Forward Looking Infra-Red (FLIR) system is also becoming insupportable and lacks the necessary performance for many of today's missions. Candidate replacements include a multi-sensor suite comprising an improved FLIR, Low Light Level Television and a laser illuminator for an Active-Gated TV sensor. The new EOS suite should be an integrated system utilizing a retractable ball turret similar to the current FLIR. This state of the art EOS will provide an essential covert capability such as reading the name, beyond visual range at night, of a suspected drug carrying ship approaching our shores.

Acoustic Subsurface Surveillance System. The Aurora's acoustic data processor was optimized to detect nuclear powered submarines in deep ocean waters. While there is still a requirement to deal with nuclear submarines that are quieter and more sophisticated than during the cold war, experience in has demonstrated that nations involved in recent regional conflicts operate diesel powered submarines in shallow littoral waters. These diesel submarines are just as quiet and evasive as their nuclear counterparts. However, the Aurora's acoustic processor is not designed to deal effectively with the different acoustic vulnerabilities of the diesel submarine in shallow water. Therefore, if Canada is to be an effective participant in the maritime dimension of future regional conflicts, similar to the Persian Gulf and the Adriatic Sea, the acoustic processor must be replaced. Canadian Defence Research institutes in cooperation with Canadian industry are currently working on an acoustic processor that has demonstrated excellent promise in recent trials.

Magnetic Anomaly Detection (MAD). The existing Canadian CAE produced MAD system is difficult to support. A new system is required with at least equal or greater capability for refining the location of submarines detected by other subsurface sensors.

The Department of National Defence has also proposed to update the three CP-140A Arcturus aircraft to make them more capable as recommended by the Auditor-General in a recent annual report. Under an extension of the Aurora modernization program, the Arcturus would receive many of the same improvements as the Aurora, except for the subsurface surveillance equipment. The Arcturus would receive the new radar, ESM system and electro-optical suite as well as the advanced data management system

To date, the Canadian government has authorized the formation of a small Aurora Incremental Modernization Project office, which is addressing the above Aurora sensor replacement options. Despite being identified, along with the maritime helicopter replacement, as among the Department of Defence's top four priorities, the Aurora incremental modernization project has received only token government funding. Despite the obvious relevance to the extensive array of overseas and domestic roles outlined in the 1994 White Paper on Defence, the Aurora modernization project office has been able to secure government approval for only two separate contracts; one to replace the central computer and the other to procure a 99 channel sonobuoy receiver, to help solve the most urgent problems. However, these piecemeal acquisitions are not the total system approach that is required. A highly complex set of avionics and sensors must be designed and integrated as a single system in order to gain the technical synergism and operational effectiveness required of our maritime patrol aircraft. If pursued as a single project, as advocated, the Aurora modernization will cost the Canadian taxpayer $1.01 billion over several (4-5) years. However, if equipment is acquired piecemeal the project will certainly cost more; it just will not appear as expensive in the government's annual budgets.