The ACTivist magazine - RADARSAT-2: Canada Reaches New Heights in Hypocrisy and the Militarization of Space

When Canada's RADARSAT-2 satellite is blasted into orbit on 14 December 2007, Canada will have reached dizzying new heights in the militarization of space.

What this public relations puff piece from the CSA neglects to mention is that RADARSAT is also a billion dollar Christmas present from Canadian taxpayers to the U.S. military. In fact, RADARSAT is likely the Canadian government's single-most important technological contribution to U.S. institutions dedicated to gathering intelligence and waging war. However, the importance of RADARSAT-2 in future U.S. wars will likely be glossed over, if not completely ignored, when news agencies launch their glowing reports in the following weeks.

Not only has RADARSAT-2 already helped put Canada on the map as a major global player in space militarization, its predecessor — RADARSAT-1 — generously mapped the entire world for U.S. military and intelligence agencies. These U.S. government departments are in fact among the biggest and most appreciative beneficiaries of this publicly-funded, but now privately-controlled Canadian space technology.

When describing RADARSAT, the CSA, Canadian politicians and the corporations involved have always loudly extolled the benefits this satellite program to humanity and the planet as a whole. They proudly explain that since its launch in 1995, RADARSAT-1's Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) sensors have been using microwaves to produce images of the earth, even when the planet is obscured by the cover of darkness, by clouds, dust storms or the most adverse weather conditions.

And, when RADARSAT-2 is launched this Christmas season, we will no doubt be subjected to many of the same kinds of stories about how useful this device will be for monitoring environmental disasters caused by global warming. We can only hope that journalists will do a better job of uncovering the truth about RADARSAT-2's equally important role in helping the U.S. to fight wars th an they did about RADARSAT-1's military applications. Although the U.S. Navy, Air Force, Army and various American spy agencies have been among the top users of RADARSAT-1 data, the government and its friends in the mainstream corporate media have always downplayed this side of Canada's premiere satellite. (See: "U.S. Warfighters get their Hands on RADARSAT Data." Read more here.)

The article below is a modified version of an article from April 2006. It summarizes a 30,000-word document, containing more than 350 references, which was published as issue #58 of Press for Conversion!, the magazine of the Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade (COAT). Its full text is available online. (Access it here.)

Canada: A World Leader in the Militarisation of Space
By Richard Sanders, Editor, Press for Conversion!

Although RADARSAT-1 is widely recognized as the world's most advanced "synthetic aperture radar" (SAR) satellite system, most Canadians know very little, if anything, about it. (See "RADARSAT: From Spin to Secrecy" and "Meet 'the RADARSAT Family of Satellites.'" Read more here.)

Perhaps journalists will have by now learned that they should not necessarily believe government denials about the military applications of Canada's space program. When the Conservative government of Prime Minister Brian Mulroney announced the RADARSAT-1 project two decades ago, then-Science Minister Frank Oberle said "This technology is of no particular use to the military." Then, in 1995, when the satellite was launched under the tutelage of Liberal Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, CSA officials repeated the same refrain, saying that RADARSAT would not be used for military purposes. One CSA spokesperson, Mac Evans, tried to have it both ways saying: "We are fostering the use of space for peaceful purposes... That does not exclude military use." (See "Secret Military Eye in the Sky." Read more here.)

However, for 12 years now, in exchange for NASA's launch of RADARSAT-1, the U.S. government has controlled of 15% of this Canadian satellite's observation time. U.S. government agencies also have free access to all RADARSAT data over 6 months old. Despite their considerable control of, and access to RADARSAT and its data, U.S. military and intelligence agencies have also purchased many millions of dollars worth of additional RADARSAT time.

Most significantly, the U.S. military a "family" of at least five portable ground stations, called "Eagle Vision," was specifically designed to control the operations of RADARSAT-1 and -2. Eagle Vision is "a cornerstone of the [U.S.] military's commercial imagery exploitation" (SIGNAL Magazine, March 2001). It allows the U.S. military to directly control these Canadian satellites and directly downlink their data to deployed soldiers that are engaged in battle. ( See: "Meet Eagle Vision: U.S. Military Bridgehead to RADARSAT." Read more here.)

U.S. warfighters have understandably been grateful for this use of RADARSAT-1 data during Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) operations in such wars as those waged in Yugoslavia (1999) and Afghanistan (2001-present). And then there's the lraq war. One of the Eagle Vision ground stations—that controls RADARSAT-1 operations and downloads its data—was deployed to the Persian Gulf in early 2003 for use throughout the war against Iraq. A Pentagon source told Space News: "It's doing great things... It's working like gangbusters" ( March 31, 2003).

Many Canadian taxpayers might be surprised if not dismayed to learn that they have, in effect, been subsidising various U.S. wars by providing the American government with this advanced satellite technology. The design and production of RADARSAT-1 and -2 have cost Canadian governments about one BILLION dollars. About 90% of RADARSAT-1's $620-million price tag was publicly funded, while about 83% of RADARSAT-2's $525-million cost was paid for by Canadian taxpayers. ( Read more: "The Growing Costs of RADARSAT-1 and -2.")

From the start, the joint government/corporate idea was to privatise RADARSAT and the Liberal government was quick to begin this process. It handed over control of the data marketing and sales of RADARSAT to MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates (MDA) of Vancouver. MDA was, at that time, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Orbital Sciences, a U.S. company that is one of the world's top manufacturers of military rockets, and a top supplier for "missile-defense" weapons systems. The privatisation of RADARSAT-2 has been even more complete, with MDA taking over the ownership and control of this second, more-advanced Canadian satellite. ( Read more: "Selling Off the Rights to RADARSAT and its Data.")

MDA sold the license to market and sell RADARSAT-1 and -2 data outside Canada, to a U.S. company called Orbimage. During the privatisation process, Orbimage and MDA were both owned by Orbital Sciences. In 1998, when Orbimage began selling RADARSAT data to U.S. government clients, it started hiring a coterie of retired U.S. military and intelligence officers, including several who had spent their high-level Air Force careers championing the cause of "missile defense" weapons development. ( Read more: "Meet the Staff at ORBIMAGE.")

In 2000, when MDA was still controlled by Orbimage's parent company, Orbital Sciences, David Emerson was on the Canadian subsidiary's Board of Directors. Emerson had been a high-ranking Social Credit bureaucrat under BC Premier Bill Vanderzalm. Emerson eventually became Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin's pro-"missile defense" Minister of Industry and then went on to greater scandals by becoming the Conservative government's Minister of International Trade. ( Read more: "Meet David Emerson.")

Despite concerted efforts by the NDP and BQ, the contractual agreements between the government of Canada and MDA—which formalised the privatisation of RADARSAT-1 and -2—have not even been made available for cursory examination by MPs. In fact, Liberal and Conservative MPs voted as a block to prevent Parliamentarians from even asking to look at these privatisation contracts which had served to hand over Canada's publicly-funded satellites to MDA. (Read more: "The Contracts that Privatised RADARSAT are Secret.")

Secrecy also shrouds an annex to a Canada-U.S. treaty that was signed in 2000 by then-Foreign Affairs Minister Lloyd Axworthy and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. Michael Byers, a UBC Professor who teaches Global Politics and International Law testified to Parliament's Foreign Affairs and International Trade Committee that this secret annex "could enable the U.S. to demand RADARSAT-2 be used to take images in preparation for a military intervention to which Canada was opposed....[and] in preparation for a war that was illegal under international law" ( February 22, 2005).

Even so, the Canadian government still refused to make the text of this annex available for viewing by MPs. None-the-less, Canadian lawmakers were asked to pass this legislation, even though they were not permitted to read the obligations contained in the treaty's secret annex. Thanks to a combined Liberal-Conservative effort, Bill C-25 (the so-called "The RADARSAT Bill") was eventually passed into law. ( Read more: "Canada-U.S. Treaties: RADARSAT and Military Exports" and "The RADARSAT Law’s Secret Annex.")

RADARSAT-2: A New Canadian Gift to U.S. Warfighters

U.S. and NATO warfighters, warplanners and weapons technicians are looking forward to taking advantage of RADARSAT-2 data after its long-awaited launch in December of 2007. The most coveted military application of this space-based radar system is known as its Ground Moving Target Indication (GMTI) capability. RADARSAT-2 will be the first satellite ever launched that has this cutting-edge capacity to track and target moving, ground targets.

According to the DRDC's annual report (1988-99), RADARSAT-2 "data exploitation" was developed by Defence Research & Development Canada (DRDC), an agency of Canada's Department of National Defence, "under co-operation with BMDO's Joint National Test Facility." (The BMDO was the U.S. Ballistic Missile Defence Organization. Now called the Missile Defense Agency, the BMDO oversaw America's entire "missile defense" weapons program between 1994 and 2002.)

RADARSAT-2's GMTI is being groomed for use in gathering target data for first-strike U.S. and NATO attacks during future "Theatre Missile Defense" (TMD) engagements. TMD is the most important aspect of "missile defense." Its stated purpose is to protect troops, warships and their weapons systems during deployment in faraway battle zones in wars of the not-too-distant future. ( Read more: "RADARSAT, Missile Defense and the Holy Grail" and "GMTI and Theater Missile Defense.")

NATO, and particularly U.S., warfighters have been preparing themselves—during various military exercises, war games and computer simulations over the past eight years or more—to use RADARSAT-2, and particularly its GMTI capabilities. Beginning in 1999, Canada joined a NATO-led effort called the Coalition Aerial Surveillance and Reconnaissance (CAESAR) project. CAESAR's focus was to ensure the deep integration of air-based SAR/GMTI assets of three leading military states (the U.S., UK and France), with Canada's space-based SAR/GMTI satellite, RADARSAT-2. Canada was the only country that rendered a space-based SAR/GMTI sensor unto CAESAR, because no other country was putting this revolutionary military technology into space.

Although CAESAR has expired, its successor is an expanded and even more ambitious NATO-led pact called the Multi-sensor Aerospace-Ground Joint ISR Interoperability Coalition (MAJIIC). Its goal is to integrate several new Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) sensor systems, besides SAR and GMTI, into the warfighters' toolkit. Canada's contribution to MAJIIC has grown beyond being the only nation to provide a space-based radar platform (RADARSAT) and now includes the provision of a Tactical Uninhabitated Aerial Vehicle. And, in addition, a NATO technical report said Canada would likely play host to a MAJIIC "live-fly" exercise in Alberta in June 2006. This probably refered to the "Maple Flag" war game that Canada has been hosting annually for 40 years at the Cold Lake Air Force Base. In 2006, this "war game" began on May 14 (Mothers' Day) and continued until June 23. ( Read more: "From CAESAR to MAJIIC: How RADARSAT plugs Canada in to future NATO-led wars.")

One of the main functions of both CAESAR and MAJIIC has been to enhance the ability of the world's best-equipped warfighters to work together as one integrated team, using their nation's respective SAR/GMTI technologies. These preparations have included huge "live-fly" war games with incorporated computer simulations, practised warfighting scenarios with major "theatre missile defense" components. ( Read more: "Clean Hunter 2001: RADARSAT in a TMD War Game" and "TMD: Coming to a Theatre of War Near You?")

RADARSAT-1 and -2 have ensured Canada's leadership in the race to further militarise space. To ensure that Canada will maintain this leading role, a follow-on project is now in the works. RADARSAT-3, to be launched within the next few years, will be even more beneficial to domestic and foreign military/intelligence agencies than were either RADARSAT-1 or -2. It has been touted as "the most advanced space-borne land information and mapping mission ever conceived" by both MDA and the Canadian Space Agency.

Considering the many rapid advances being made in the development of Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaisance (ISR) sensors and weapons technologies, it has become even more crucial for those concerned about war, militarisation, state terrorism and increasing human rights abuses—such as unwarranted government surveillance of their own populations—to ask the age-old question: "Who will watch the watchers?" ( Read more: "Learning from Two Commandments of War: Know the Enemy and Take the High Ground.")

The information and analysis presented here should raise many doubts about the widely-held myth that Canada is a strong force for peace and justice on the global stage. For example, Canadian government departments, agencies and crown corporations have worked hand-in-glove with military-related corporations in the creation, development and deployment of a wide variety of "missile defense" weapons systems. This long-standing complicity did not end when the Canadian government uttered its much-heralded "NO" to joining the "missile defense" weapons program.

Canada's hypocritical "no-means-yes" policy on participation in "missile defense" is also reflected in the Canadian government's supposed non-involvement in the Iraq war. Canada has, in fact, been deeply engaged in that war from the beginning as then-U.S. Ambassador was happy to point out when he said: "Ironically, the Canadians indirectly provide more support for us in Iraq than most of those 46 countries that are fully supporting us." ( Read more: "The War in Iraq: Another Canadian “No-Means-Yes” Policy in Action.")

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