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Re: Canadian military developing stealth snowmobile

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Bio1ron is not online. Bio1ron
Joined: 18 Aug 2011
Total Posts: 236
24 Aug 2011 06:07 AM
The Canadian Press

The Department of National Defence plans to develop a new stealth snowmobile for covert military operations in Canada's Arctic, with $550,000 set aside to build a prototype.

Ottawa has posted a public tender for a hybrid-electric snowmobile that would allow Canadian Forces soldiers to swoop silently across the frozen landscape.

The vehicle would perhaps be the most unconventional tool in the arsenal of a Conservative government promising to beef up Canada's military might in the North.

The nature of these future clandestine assignments is unclear from the federal tendering document. But one thing is clear: silence is priority No. 1.

Existing engines apparently aren't up to the job.

"The noise level of an internal combustion engine cannot be reduced to an acceptable level for missions where covertness may be required, especially given the increased propagation of sound in cold, dry, Arctic air," reads the tender, posted last week by National Defence's research and development agency.

"Electric snowmobiles are a potential solution to this problem, eliminating the internal combustion engine and using a much quieter electric motor to drive the track system."

Since coming to power, the Conservatives have gradually increased the Canadian Forces' presence in the resource-rich Arctic. Prime Minister Stephen Harper has made annual trips to the region, where he's appeared in carefully orchestrated photo-ops on ice floes as jets screamed overhead.

A government spokeswoman could not immediately provide information as to why the military would need snowmobiles for clandestine operations.

But one northern security expert said this could be a signal the government is getting serious about Arctic sovereignty.

Whitney Lackenbauer considers the project a departure from the government's usual in-your-face military approach to the Arctic.

"To me, it very clearly suggests that someone within the Canadian Forces perceives the need to actually have substantive capabilities, rather than simply acting symbolically in the region," said Lackenbauer, a historian at the University of Waterloo.

"Up to this point, as I see it, the focus has very much been on showing the flag. So it's not about keeping your activities quiet, it's about broadcasting it to the world as loudly as you can."

Still, he has no clue what kind of scenarios National Defence has foreseen for it to want -- or need -- stealth snowmobiles.

"I'd be interested in knowing what the military envisions as being the threats that it's going to encounter with these," he said, speculating they might be useful to stop smugglers or other criminal activities.

"I'm at a loss to know what that is."

The tender calls for the snowmobile to have a range of at least 15 kilometres when it operates in its quiet, electric mode at an average speed of 20 km/h on level snow.

The vehicle must also be able to hit a top speed of at least 75 km/h.

In its gas-power mode, the snowmobile must be able to maintain a speed of 30 km/h while towing a payload of 250 kilograms on a sled, and it must have a range of 100 kilometres.

"It also must have the ability to switch to 'silent' mode easily and quickly with minimal tools, at which point it can function solely on electrical power," the tender says.

The document says bids cannot exceed $550,000 and a prototype must be completed by March 31, 2013.

Hybrid snowmobiles are not yet available from major manufacturers, but a McGill University engineering professor said the idea is on the cusp of commercial breakthrough.

Peter Radziszewski has helped students build experimental electric and hybrid snowmobiles at the school over the last decade.

He doesn't see any reason why constructing a hybrid snowmobile to the tender's specifications wouldn't be feasible -- as long as the producer can work with the government's tight budget.

Radziszewski said the hefty challenge of maintaining performance in a machine weighed down by two engines and a stack of batteries won't be easy, either.

"It becomes a heavy, heavy snowmobile," he said. "It's very difficult."

Radziszewski highlighted that the electric motor offers environmental benefits of zero emissions -- a feature not even raised in the government tender.

"I really don't know what their interests are, but one can well imagine... that silence is golden in this particular case," Radziszewski added.

Rob Huebert, a University of Calgary political scientist, called the project good military planning for a region that could see increased activity by smugglers, illegal aliens and organized crime in the future.

"We're starting to see individuals that you would probably want to be able to sneak up on," said Huebert, associate director of the school's Centre for Military and Strategic Studies.

"I think what you're going to find is the more you look, the more you find."
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Yobobo10 is not online. Yobobo10
Joined: 14 Oct 2009
Total Posts: 3711
24 Aug 2011 06:13 AM
Sounds like something a Bond villain would have.

I suspect suspicious activities...
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Bio1ron is not online. Bio1ron
Joined: 18 Aug 2011
Total Posts: 236
24 Aug 2011 06:19 AM
This is the main reason I want a conservative government having a majority.

All other parties are too wimpy to beef up a military lacking since the middle of the cold war.

Also, it will be zero emissions, the conservative government should really make this clear and out in the open.

We can tell Enviromentalists that the spin off technologies from this project could allow for more zero emission vehicles.

Great way to get the non hippie environmental vote.
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Person299 is not online. Person299
Joined: 28 Feb 2008
Total Posts: 7952
24 Aug 2011 09:23 AM
That's simultaneously awesome and stupid...
I mean seriously, a hybrid stealth snowmobile for the millitary... I imagine it'd be cheaper to just filter some carbon dioxide out of the air than it'd cost for R&D for a vehicle that's gonna be used 10 times.
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kadeyn55 is not online. kadeyn55
Joined: 01 Nov 2007
Total Posts: 8335
24 Aug 2011 09:37 AM
Unless it has dual Miniguns, a missle launcher and glider wings, I dont want one
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Bio1ron is not online. Bio1ron
Joined: 18 Aug 2011
Total Posts: 236
24 Aug 2011 12:26 PM
@Person299

No you noob, the electric motor is to minimize sound, gas engines for snowmobiles are really loud, and it's worse in the cold dry air of the artic :P
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Angstrom93 is not online. Angstrom93
Joined: 22 Sep 2010
Total Posts: 2118
24 Aug 2011 12:53 PM
Sounds like the most useless thing in existence.
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Person299 is not online. Person299
Joined: 28 Feb 2008
Total Posts: 7952
24 Aug 2011 01:40 PM
Seems like it'd be more effective to just use a lot of soundproofing materials on a gas engine... Although I'm not much of an expert on soundproofing engines.
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Bio1ron is not online. Bio1ron
Joined: 18 Aug 2011
Total Posts: 236
24 Aug 2011 04:00 PM
@thoare

You can't drive tanks on Ice.


It's motorized cavalry for the artic.
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Angstrom93 is not online. Angstrom93
Joined: 22 Sep 2010
Total Posts: 2118
24 Aug 2011 04:01 PM
You can't drive tanks on Ice.
___
Why would you want to?
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Slayerman410 is not online. Slayerman410
Joined: 26 Jun 2008
Total Posts: 8810
24 Aug 2011 05:03 PM
Only Canada and Russia would ever need this. and Denmark I suppose.

Why would there be wars in the Arctic and the Antarctic? There is nothing to gain but very risky seaways and some fishing rights and territorialization in the Antarctic is illegal. I suppose Canada could only use it if a war broke out over the Northwest Passage, which I doubt will.
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Twigs180 is not online. Twigs180
Joined: 10 Mar 2008
Total Posts: 18664
24 Aug 2011 05:06 PM
You do realize America is more prepared for Artic Warfare than anyone else right? And tanks are very operable in the snow and ice. Sweden and Norway got into that business in the 70s and 80s.
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Slayerman410 is not online. Slayerman410
Joined: 26 Jun 2008
Total Posts: 8810
24 Aug 2011 05:08 PM
Ah well.
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Angstrom93 is not online. Angstrom93
Joined: 22 Sep 2010
Total Posts: 2118
24 Aug 2011 05:12 PM
Antarctica and the Moon should be territorialized. USA could have laid an uncontestable claim to the moon in 1969
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AaronOfMordor is not online. AaronOfMordor
Joined: 14 Mar 2009
Total Posts: 4051
24 Aug 2011 05:14 PM
Antarctica and the Moon should be territorialized. USA could have laid an uncontestable claim to the moon in 1969
---
But aliens are on the moon. Dat y we no w3nt b@ck.
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Angstrom93 is not online. Angstrom93
Joined: 22 Sep 2010
Total Posts: 2118
24 Aug 2011 05:17 PM
Weren't you the guy peddling the Apollo conspiracy?
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Slayerman410 is not online. Slayerman410
Joined: 26 Jun 2008
Total Posts: 8810
24 Aug 2011 05:28 PM
Okay lets make Antarctica New Alaska and the Moon, American Rhodesia named after you Thorae.
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Angstrom93 is not online. Angstrom93
Joined: 22 Sep 2010
Total Posts: 2118
24 Aug 2011 05:29 PM
Who do you think I am Cecil Rhodes 2.0?
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Slayerman410 is not online. Slayerman410
Joined: 26 Jun 2008
Total Posts: 8810
24 Aug 2011 05:30 PM
Yes, minus the hamasaxuality.
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kadeyn55 is not online. kadeyn55
Joined: 01 Nov 2007
Total Posts: 8335
24 Aug 2011 06:31 PM
@Aaron

Exatly, Its in a movie, must be real
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Bio1ron is not online. Bio1ron
Joined: 18 Aug 2011
Total Posts: 236
25 Aug 2011 08:56 AM
@thoare

y u so geographically unknowldgeable?


20% of the earths oil is in the artic

Only antartica and the moon ad prvinces of humanity.
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Slayerman410 is not online. Slayerman410
Joined: 26 Jun 2008
Total Posts: 8810
25 Aug 2011 09:13 AM
^
imperialist
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Bio1ron is not online. Bio1ron
Joined: 18 Aug 2011
Total Posts: 236
25 Aug 2011 11:07 AM
It's our land,even if it was not, we border it.


richard, bush and the rest of USa can't say that about their hunt for oil in iraq
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Epicwinmatt is not online. Epicwinmatt
Joined: 13 Dec 2009
Total Posts: 13632
25 Aug 2011 11:16 AM
WAKE UP CANADA, SNOWMOBILES DONT WORK SO WELL IN THE DESERT.

Thanks for helping in the Middle East.
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Jericho17 is not online. Jericho17
Joined: 24 Jun 2011
Total Posts: 1388
25 Aug 2011 11:31 AM
lol Iraq oil myth has been debunked so many times. Do you want me to do it again?
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