ITS Electronics Inc. Ncoat.ncf.ca/our_magazine/links/57/Articles/19-21.pdf · DRDC gave ITS Electronics about $198,000. This grant was given under the aegis of DRDC’s Defence Industrial

19October 2005 (Issue # 57) Press for Conversion!

The Theater High Altitude AreaDefense (THAAD) is a termi-

nal phase defense element designedto protect against short- and me-dium-range ballistic missiles andwould provide surveillance supportto the Ballistic Missile Defense Sys-tem for ballistic missiles of allranges. The system is unique com-pared to other terminal phase inter-ceptors in that it works both withinand outside the Earth’s atmosphere.

The system consists of alaunch vehicle, radar, interceptorand battle management, commandand control system. THAAD ismobile and can be deployed by air(C-141 aircraft or larger), sea, rail orroad. The interceptor missile is anon-explosive hit-to-kill vehicle that

is attached to a missile body/booster. The THAAD kill vehicle in-cludes an infrared seeker that de-tects and homes in on the targetmissile to destroy the target by high-speed collision. The interceptors aretransported in a missile round pal-let that is mounted on to a modifiedU.S. Army Heavy Expanded Mobil-ity Tactical Truck, which serves asboth the transporter and launcherfor the THAAD interceptor missile.The THAAD radar is a wide-band,X-band, single-faced, phased arrayradar system that provides wide areasurveillance capability.

Source: Theater High Altitude AreaDefense. Missile Defense Agencywebsite: www.mda.mil

THAADweapons canbe launchedfrom trucks

ITS Electronics Inc.200 Edgeley Blvd., Unit #24-27Concord ON L4K 3Y8Tel: 905-660-0405Fax: 905-660-0406Email: [email protected]: www.itselectronics.com

Theater High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD)

Not only is ITS Electronics of

Concord, Ontario, manufactur-

ing communications products

for use in at least two major weapons

systems of the U.S. “missile defense”

program, the development of these

products has been directly—and

proudly—supported by the Canadian

government.

Over one million dollars in gov-

ernment financing has flowed to ITS

through at least three Canadian gov-

ernment agencies: Defence Research

and Development Canada (DRDC), In-

dustry Canada’s Technology Partner-

ships Canada (TPC) and the National

Research Council (NRC) of Canada.

That’s a sizable influx of money for ITS,

which exports between $500,000 to $1

million worth of products per year.1

Defence Research &Development Canada

Operating under the auspices of theDepartment of National Defence, DRDCis the government’s prime mili-tary R&D institution. Duringfiscal year 1999-2000 alone,DRDC gave ITS Electronicsabout $198,000. This grant wasgiven under the aegis ofDRDC’s Defence IndustrialResearch (DIR) projects.2

DRDC has openly

ITS Electronics Inc.bragged about its role in funding ITSresearch that was specifically designedto aid and abet the U.S. in two separateareas of the U.S. “missile defense”weapons development program. In its1999-2000 annual report, DRDC said:

“Current and previous DIR projectshave resulted in low-noise amplifierproducts for such applications as ...the Rockwell Collins Exo-Atmos-phere Kill Missile [sic], [and] the U.S.THAAD [Theater High Altitude AreaDefense] system.”3

(See below for a Missile DefenseAgency description of THAAD.)

ExoAtmosphericKill Vehicle

What DRDC mistakenly refers to as the“Exo-Atmosphere Kill Missile” is actu-ally called an “ExoAtmospheric Kill ve-hicle” (EKV). The U.S. Arms ControlAssociation defines an EKV as

“a compact array of sensors and pro-pulsion mechanisms that is lifted into

space by a powerful booster. Oncein space, the kill vehicle is supposedto separate from its booster andhome in on an enemy warhead inspace. The kill vehicle is not armedwith an explosive device or warheadbut destroys its target through ahigh-speed collision.”4

DRDC’s annual report (1999-2000) also errs by identifying the EKVas a product of Rockwell Collins. In fact,the prime contractor responsible for de-signing and developing EKV’s for the“missile defense” weapons program isRaytheon. Here’s how Raytheon de-scribes its EKVs:

“The Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle(EKV) is the intercept component ofthe Ground Based Interceptor (GBI),the weapon element of the Ground-based Midcourse Defense System.Its mission in the defense of the na-tion is to engage high-speed ballis-tic missile warheads in the midcoursephase of flight and to destroy them

using only the force of impact,or hit-to-kill.

EKV consists of an in-frared seeker in a flight pack-age used to detect and dis-criminate the incoming war-head from other objects. TheEKV also has its own propul-sion, communications link,

20 Press for Conversion! (Issue # 57) October 2005

ExoAtmosphericKill vehicleThe Canadian

government’s militaryresearch agency

(DRDC) is proud of itsrole in funding ITS

research that resultedin their products beingused in these “missile

defense” weapons.

discrimination algorithms, guidanceand control system and computersto support target selection and in-tercept.”5

Rockwell Collins is certainly in-volved in building EKVs. It makes thecommunications systems for EKVs aswell as for other “missile defense” weap-ons. Rockwell is, in fact, a major sub-contractor for Raytheon’s EKVs and forthe Kinetic Energy Interceptor (KEI)which is another “missile defense”weapon. It is being produced by a cor-porate team comprised of the NorthropGrumman Corp. and Raytheon.6

ITS Electronics is so proud ofits status as a valued supplier of hightech, communications-system compo-nents to Rockwell Collins that they haveplaced this information on the frontpage of their website. ITS also tells read-ers that their company has been the “re-cipient of a Top Supplier award” fromRockwell Collins. They do not howevermention that Rockwell is a prime con-tractor for “missile defense” weapons.7

Since DRDC’s grant to ITS in1999-2000, Rockwell Collins has re-ceived a similar “missile defense” sub-contract to “supply both the air andground portions of the communicationsystem” for the

“Kinetic Energy Interceptor (KEI)missile defense system to a NorthropGrumman Corp. and Raytheon Co.team.”8

The US$4 billion KEI program9

is supposed to “destroy enemy ballis-tic missiles during their boost/ascent

phase of flight.”10 Whether it is able toachieve this goal is speculative. How-ever, the contract is expected to be suc-cessful in generating US$100 million11

for Rockwell Collins. Whether or notITS is also supplying communicationshardware to Rockwell Collins for theKEI is, however, unknown.

This was not the first time thatDRDC had given research funds to ITS.In fiscal year 1998-1999, DRDC gave ITSa “Defence Industrial Research” (DIR)program grant of $128,432 to study“Advanced Agile Frequency Sourcesfor Defence Applications.”12

Then, in the following year(1999-2000), ITS received an additional$197,900 from DRDC for its continuingwork on the same DIR project.13 Thisbrought the total up to $326,000.

This research by ITS, has to dowith extremely low-phase noise signaland waveform generation required byradar. Such research has very definiteapplications for the U.S. “missiledefense” program. The Small BusinessInnovation Research Program (SBIRP)of the Missile Defense Agency (MDA)publishes a list of topic areas that areeligible for R&D grants. Companiesdoing research that fits into these cat-egories can submit proposals to receivefunding from the MDA. Two of thetopic areas listed in this MDA publica-tion refer to “low phase noise signalgeneration.” They are listed under thefollowing codes: MDA 03-015 andMDA 04-50.14

OEwaves Inc., a company thateventually did receive a contract fromthe MDA for this work noted in its me-dia release that

“over 1,860 proposals [were] submit-ted to [the MDA’s SBIRP to] developa Radar-Optimized Opto-ElectronicOscillator that will generate referencesignals in the X-band and at higherfrequencies with extremely lowphase noise.”15

Whether Canada’s ITS Elec-tronics submitted one of those unsuc-cessful proposals is not known. How-ever, as we’ve seen, ITS was fortunateenough to have received, from Cana-da’s own DRDC, a generous fundingallocation of $326,000 for this research.

21October 2005 (Issue # 57) Press for Conversion!

Northrop Grumman-Raytheon Team ToSupport Critical Missile Defense Pro-gram,” December 22, 2003.w w w . s h a r e h o l d e r . c o m / c o l /ReleaseDetail.cfm?ReleaseID=125128

9. Media Release, “Northrop Grumman-Led Team Wins Contract for CriticalMissile Defense Program,” Dec. 3, 2003.www.irconnect .com/noc/pages/news_releases.mhtml?d=49163

10. Select Programs: Kinetic Energy Inter-ceptors

www.capitol.northgrum.com/pro-grams/kei.html

11. Media Release, “Rockwell Collins Joins

Northrop Grumman-Raytheon TeamTo Support Critical Missile DefenseProgram,” December 22, 2003w w w. s h a r e h o l d e r . c o m / c o l /ReleaseDetail.cfm?ReleaseID=125128

12. Table 6, “Defence Industrial ResearchProjects in 1998/99,” DRDC Annual

Report, 1998-1999.

dsp-psd.pwgsc.gc.ca/Collection/D1-14-1999E.pdf.

13. Table 8, “Defence Industrial ResearchProjects in 1999/00,” DRDC Annual

Report, 1999-2000.

dsp-psd.pwgsc.gc.ca/Collection/D1-14-2000E.pdf

14. Missile Defense Agency, Small Busi-

1. Industry Canada, Aerospace and De-fence - Company Directoriesstrategis.ic.gc.ca/app/ccc/search/navigate.do?language=eng&portal=1& e s t b l m n t N o = 1 2 3 4 5 6 1 1 4 2 2 4&profile=completeProfile

2. Table 8, “Defence Industrial ResearchProjects in 1999/00,” p.57, DRDC An-

nual Report, 1999-2000.dsp-psd.pwgsc.gc.ca/Collection/D1-14-2000E.pdf

3. DRDC Annual Report, 1999-2000, p.35dsp-psd.pwgsc.gc.ca/Collection/D1-14-2000E.pdf

4. Arms Control Today, March 2004

www.armscontrol.org/act/2004_03/newsbriefs.asp - 28k - 25 Mar 2005

5. Ground-Based Midcourse Defense,

Exoatmospheric Kill Vehiclewww.raytheon.com/products/ekv/

6. Media Release, “Rockwell Collins JoinsNorthrop Grumman-Raytheon Team ToSupport Critical Missile Defense Pro-

gram,” Dec. 22, 2003.w w w. s h a r e h o l d e r . c o m / c o l /ReleaseDetail.cfm?ReleaseID=125128

7. About ITS....www.i tselectronics .com/about/start.htm

8. Media Release, “Rockwell Collins Joins

ness Innovation Research Program,SBIR 04.1 Proposal Submission In-structionswww.dodsbir.net/solicitation/pdf/mda041.pdf

15. Press Release, “OEwaves to Build anInexpensive 9-Volt Battery-Sized Os-cillator with Ultra-Low Phase Noiseand Low Power Consumption,” June24, 2003.w w w. o e w a v e s . c o m / n e w s / p r /062303.html

16. “Investing in Innovation, Year in Re-view 2001-2002.” Technology Partner-ships Canada Annual Report. Indus-

try Canada.tpc-ptc.ic.gc.ca/epic/internet/intpc-ptc.nsf/vwapj/s_f174_ic_tpsannua_2001_02_e.pdf/$FILE/s_f174_ic_tpsannua_2001_02_e.pdf

17. Institute for Microstructural Sciences- Componentsims-ism.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/program/

component_e.html18. Institute for Microstructural Sciences

-Business Fastlaneims-ism.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/business/business_e.html

19. ITS website - Customerswww.itselectronics.com/cust/start.htm

20. Ibid.

References

Industry CanadaThen, in fiscal year 2001-2002, ITS Elec-tronics received a $900,000 grant fromTechnology Partnerships Canada(TPC), a corporate welfare program runby Industry Canada that largely ben-efits Canada’s military industries. (Formore on this, see “Industry Canada’sSupport for War and BMD,” pp. 32-33).

TPC’s grant to ITS was for“upgrading its ISO 9001 accredita-tion to incorporate the AS 9001 qual-ity standards while developing ad-vanced systems for the automatedmanufacture of wireless communica-tions products.”16

Some may argue that this largegovernment handout to ITS Electron-ics was not strctly limited to its “mis-sile defense” research. The grant didhowever subsidise the military commu-nications-related work performed by thecompany, including its contracts forcommunications products destined for“missile defense” weapons systems likeEKVs and THAAD. As such, this $900-thousand grant from the Canadian gov-ernment will likely assist ITS Electron-ics in its future bids for “missiledefense”-related contracts.

National Research CouncilITS has also benefited from yet anotherCanadian government scientific re-search institution that prides itself onserving the needs of domestic militarycorporations, namely the National Re-search Council (NRC) of Canada. ITSappears on a list of “Partners and Col-laborators” in the “Components Pro-gram” of NRC’s Institute for Microstruc-tural Sciences (IMS). The IMS website

The ITS website lists only a few ofits 200 corporate customers. It de-

scribes them as a “‘Who’s Who’ of ma-jor Communications organizations.”19

At the very top of the ITS client list isBoeing. It (coincidentally?) is theworld’s number one prime contractor for“missile defense” weapons systems.Several of the other companies that ITSlists as purchasers of its communica-tions products, are also known to becontractors for the U.S.-led “missiledefense” weapons development pro-

explains that its program “performs re-search into novel device developmentof interest to the high tech sectors.”17

NRC’s IMS also assists busi-nesses by offering

“access to world-class expertise inR&D, technical services and licens-ing of patented technology to meet[business] needs in product inno-vation, technology de-risking andreduction of time-to-market.”18

ITS Electronics has received considerable support,including much public funding from its greatest ally,

the government of Canada. Thanks Canada!

gram. In fact, nine of the top thirteencorporate clients (i.e., 69%) that ITSlists online, are “missile defense” con-tractors:♦ Allied Signal♦ Alcatel♦ Boeing♦ British Aerospace♦ EMS Technologies♦ Harris♦ L-3 Communications♦ Motorola♦ Raytheon20

ITS Corporate Clients: A Who’s Who of “Missile Defense”