On May 11th 1964, Canada quietly entered an elite group of countries capable of designing,
building, and operating unmanned aircraft. Montreal-based Canadair created a series of
fast and stealthy surveillance drones called the CL-89 and CL-289. It was a high-tech endeavour
that showed off their ingenuity at the height of the cold war.
The story of the CL-89 and CL-289 started in the early 1950s with the creation of the
Canadair Missiles & Systems Division. The group worked on advanced missile projects
like the CL-20 Velvet Glove and CL-54 Sparrow 2, both of which were cancelled before they
became operational. *For more information about these projects, check out my video about
the evolution of aerial weapon systems*. Canadair wanted to maintain expertise in the field
of unmanned vehicles in the wake of these cancellations. To this end they began working
on a series of projects such as the CL-36 Target Drone, which was a high performance
remote controlled target for missile testing, the CL-85 Robot Dispatch Carriers, which was
designed to carry 4.5kgs of supplies on a short-ranged ballistic trajectory, and the
CL-87 Army Logistic Missile System, which was a larger guided version of the CL-85.
These systems never went into production but their work helped to shape future projects.
In 1959, market research led Canadair to commit itself to creating a fast, mobile, low-flying,
low visibility, short-ranged, unmanned aerial surveillance platform for use by the Canadian
army. The system was designed to provide commanders in forward battle areas with near real time
tactical intelligence.
A typical mission would go something like this:
It was designed to be carried and launched on a truck-mounted rail. Before launch, the
airframe and cameras are prepared and checked. It is fueled, and the expandable wings and
directional control fins are installed. A booster rocket and stabiliser fins are attached.
The sustainer turbojet engine is spun up and checked. Once up to speed, the launch rail
is raised to the optimal angle and, when everything is ready and the crew is clear, the booster
rocket is ignited to propel it up to its flight speed. The booster rocket falls away once
the propellant burns out and the craft begins to automatically navigate through a series
of waypoints. These waypoints can be programmed to avoid air defences and penetrate areas
too dangerous for manned aircraft. Pictures are taken by a pair of high resolution cameras
at predetermined points along the flight plan. After completing the mission, the vehicle
then returns home and is given a landing command from a ground-based transmitter. A parachute
is deployed and airbags are inflated as it descends to the ground. Once recovered, the
camera’s film is taken to an interpretation facility where it is processed. The drone
is then sent to be refurbished for another mission.
Initially the unsolicited project was privately funded by Canadair. Due to its secret nature,
they broke with their traditional naming system and initially called it the XC-1. Design work
and refinements continued for another year and a half. By 1961, Canadair had settled
on the details of their design and proceeded to build a full scale all-metal mock-up to
test and fit the various systems it would carry.
In June of 1963, the governments of Canada and the United Kingdom decided to cooperatively
fund the development and testing of the design, which was renamed the CL-89 in keeping with
Canadair’s project designations.
The 156kg CL-89 was 2.6m long and 33 cms wide, 94cms including the wings. A 113 cm long booster
rocket, produced by Bristol Aerospace of Winnipeg, Manitoba, provides 22.3kN of thrust to bring
it up to it’s flight speed of 740km/h. Once the booster drops away, a Williams Research
WR2-6 turbojet sustainer engine producing 0.56kN of thrust takes over. The small turbojet
could operate on jet fuels like JP-4 and JP-5 or it could use standard diesel if necessary.
It carried surveillance equipment consisting of a tri-lens Carl Zeiss 70mm camera that
could shoot day or night. The film could be easily removed by a technician once the drone
landed for developing and interpretation. The goal was to have target data available
to artillery batteries no more than 30 minutes after the drone was over the target.
In November 1963, the Canadian National Defence Department revealed details of the agreement.
Canada would purchase three Oberon-class conventional diesel-electric submarines from Britain in
exchange for their commitment to invest in the CL-89’s development costs. The US Army
also agreed to provide firing range facilities at the Yuma Proving Grounds in Arizona, and
support for future flight test programmes.
The first flight was attempted at the YPG in March 1964 but failed due to the launcher
not being at the correct angle when the booster was ignited.
The first successful flight was on May 11th 1964. The drone flew the planned 44.3 km course
in four minutes and landed within 1.6 km of its intended landing site via the aid of a
homing beacon. More test flights were carried out at YPG in 1966 and 1967.
In November 1967 the testing was moved to CFB Shilo in Manitoba where it was tested
under simulated combat conditions. It was at this time that the West German government
began to take interest. In December 1967, the Canadian Department of Defence Production
announced that the United Kingdom and the Federal Republic of Germany were partnered
on an advanced order for the drones, NATO designation AN/USD-501, valued at approximately
$40 million dollars.
In 1970 German and British personnel began training with the new platform at CFB Shilo.
The British Army renamed their CL-89s the Midge, and it began operational service in
1971. It entered operational service with the German Army in 1972. In 1974 Italy began
training on the CL-89 in anticipation of Meteor SpA co-producing a number of them for the
Italian Ministry of Defence. The last country to buy the 89 was France. They ordered 6 units
in 1980 and the system was operational a few years later.
NATO became interested in the CL-89 as a target drone to simulate cruise missile attacks on
warships. A few flight tests were carried out off the coast of Sardinia in 1971 but
the plan was dropped when the reusability of airframes was called into question.
By the time production ended in 1983, Canadair had supplied over 500 drones to Britain, West
Germany, France and Italy. The 89 turned out to be more rugged than expected. The airframes
had life expectancy of ten flights but some flew as many as 40 flights before retiring.
The British Army used the CL-89 for the first and only time in combat during the 1991 Gulf
War. It made around 70 flights over enemy lines with outstanding results. It was determined
after the war that the newer systems intended to replace the 89 in the surveillance role,
such as the Phoenix and the Pioneer, were inferior to it in many ways such as reliability
and imagery resolution. The 89 after all had a sensor suite that rivaled some of the manned
platforms.
After a long operational history the drone was retired by the German Army. The airframes
and launch equipment remaining in German service were transferred to the Turkish Army where
they continue to serve.
Although the airframes had been retired, the need for unmanned surveillance had not and
a replacement system was necessary. This had not gone unnoticed by the people at Canadair.
Starting back in 1977, the CL-227 Sentinel Surveillance Drone was designed with a different
set of goals. Unlike the 89, it was meant to be able to operate from the decks of ships
at sea. As such it was a VTOL UAV with minimal visual, radar, or infrared signatures, and
a long endurance. It incorporated many interesting design features including directing the engine
exhaust upward to help hide its infrared signature.
The peanut shaped "phase one" prototype made its first flight on the 25th of August 1978
and was fairly successful. The larger production "phase two" vehicle first flew untethered
on 14 December 1981. Testing continued and following evaluation by NATO in March 1982
it was made available to NATO allied clients. However no sales were forthcoming and the
program was closed.
What would truly replace the CL-89 was laid down in the early 1970s after a meeting between
Canadair and Dornier GmbH of Germany. Originally thought of as the CL-89 mark 2, the program
quickly evolved into a completely new system incorporating greater range, more surveillance
equipment, and fully digital flight computers. While the airframes looked similar they shared
no common parts and required a complete redesign of the launch equipment.
The new design was called the CL-289. It was designed to meet a German Army requirement
for a corps level unmanned intermediate-range reconnaissance drone. The overall mission
plan would be the same as the CL-89 with the addition of a new quasi-terrain following
mode allowing for increased survivability and capability. The 289 would be capable of
approaching the target at low altitude to avoid radar detection and then pop-up to gather
intelligence, before dropping back down to low levels for its escape.
In July of 1976, Canadair was awarded the contract to develop and manufacture a prototype
CL-289. In January of 1977 testing of an all-metal scale model at the National Research Council’s
high-speed wind tunnel in Ottawa had begun. By March they had proceeded into drop testing
of the airbags and recovery system.
France’s Société Anonyme de Télécommunications, joined the program in March 1977, three years
before they would field the older CL-89 system. They contributed an infrared linescan system
with real time data uplink and a ground-based tracking radar used in the testing phase.
In August of 1978, Dornier successfully tested the booster dart tails with full-scale CL-289
mockups to study their separation characteristics.
Unlike the CL-89 and CL-227 which used Williams Research engines, the 289 was to have a German
built turbojet. The Kloeckner-Humboldt-Deutz T117 engine produced 1.07kN of sustained thrust,
twice that of the Williams WR2-6, and was ready for installation and testing by January
of 1979.
The first flight-worthy CL-289 drone was completed on April 17th 1979 and photographs were shown
to the public for the first time.
It was longer and heavier than its predecessor having a length of 3.52m, a width of 0.38m
and a wingspan of 1.32m. Unfortunately a lot of the details surrounding the CL-289 are
still classified and so its launch weight, range, and flight speed, are unknown to the
public. However the flight speed is rumoured to be around 730km/h. It is known to have
carried an infrared linescan system and a Carl Zeiss KRB/824D tri-lens day or night
camera. The infrared linescan data was recorded on board but it could be relayed to field
commanders in real time using a data link. The Zeiss camera had to be recovered and processed
on the ground just as it was with the CL-89.
The flight testing of the new drone was carried out at the vast Yuma Arizona test range. While
Canada did have an instrumented test range at the time, it was too small to cover the
drone’s intermediate range. The tests proved the quasi-terrain following mode worked and
would keep the 289 out of harm’s way. While these tests were largely successful, there
were a number of crashes and accidents. Some were due to the improper handling of the equipment,
others were due to computer software problems, and the rest simply crashed into the desert.
The joint Canadian, German, and French test program showed that the 289 was a potent reconnaissance
platform by mid-1983.
On the 24th of January 1986 Germany, France, and Canada signed a deal for the pre-production
phase of the program. Finally in November of 1987 a contract worth $410 million dollars
was signed for the delivery of 250 289s for the armies of France and Germany. It was the
largest ever defence export order up to that time for Canadair. Although all the airframes
would be built in Canada by Canadair, the Canadian government wasn’t interested in
operating it.
Germany began flying production 289s starting in January of 1990 and the complete system
was up and running by 1992.
France followed with a series of tests starting in November 1991 and concluding in January
1992 when it entered formal service. The French remaned their 289s the Pivers.
Italy joined the club in 2002 when they bought 20 289s and one launcher. This was a significant
upgrade from the CL-89s they used to operate but they were seen as a stop gap measure until
a more advanced drone could be sourced.
Most of the details surrounding the deployment of the CL-289, whose NATO designation is AN/USD-502,
are still secret to the public. What is known is that the German army conducted reconnaissance
overflights of Serbia and Kosovo during the 1999 NATO ‘Operation Allied Force’ campaign.
At least 3 of their 18 289s were shot down in one mid-April week during missions to support
the campaign. They decided to suspend these costly missions after their third loss and
the wreckage of one airframe being displayed on Serbian television.
The French Pivers are known to have operated in the Middle East Gulf region in 1993. They
also flew their Pivers starting in January 1996 during the Bosnian conflict for NATO’s
Implementation force also known as IFOR. One airframe was lost but the cause is unclear.
They served again in Afghanistan from 2002 to 2003 and in Chad in 2008.
Canadair’s newly formed Surveillance Systems Division began looking into possible successors
to the 289 starting in the early 1990s. This improved drone, called the CL-389, would incorporate
new avionics, new data recording systems, new navigation systems, a radar altimeter,
a tactical GPS unit, a video tape recorder, and an Identify Friend or Foe, or IFF unit.
Unfortunately there wasn’t any interest in such a craft and so the 389 was cancelled
during the pen and paper stage.
In 2003 an upgrade program for existing CL-289 airframes was put into effect. It was called
the AOLOS-289 and featured a GPS unit and new software, among other improvements. Germany
upgraded 100 and France upgraded 56 of their 289s to the AOLOS standard. The program was
meant to extend the life of the drones comfortably into the 2010s.
The Canadiar CL-89 and CL-289 were a tremendous achievement for the Canadian aerospace industry.
While the Canadian military never operated the systems, they were well loved and respected
by the British, Germans, French, Italians, and Turks who flew them. They proved that
Canada was capable of designing and building unmanned aerial systems, a feat few other
countries could claim.