Defence Team News | Clearing the way for safer military operations
Video / January 16, 2026
Transcript
Spokesperson:
Dr. Anthony Faust
Principal Defence Scientist, Counter Explosive Threat, Suffield Research Centre, Defence Research and Development Canada
To successfully execute a minefield breach captures almost all the emerging challenges that we see in the exploitation and adoption of robotic and autonomous systems in the military. So, in this particular case, we foresee replacing the crewed tanks that are used in this role right now with autonomous uncrewed systems.
The experience in Ukraine has really forced ourselves and our allies. We're all reorienting now from 20 years of counter improvised device research, which came out of the Iraq and Afghanistan war, and we're now seeing the very significant threat posed from minefields and landmines.
This miniature minefield that we've built here itself is 200 meters long. It has wire obstacles, cement obstacles, it has land mines, It has anti tank trenches. The solutions we're looking at are mostly focused on detection, but we still have to think about neutralization and eventually how we get a tank and ultimately an infantry brigade through this minefield and fighting on the other side.
We're seeing that Canadian industry can rapidly pull solutions together and start demonstrating capabilities that are going to be leading edge going forward and that our allies are here looking at what Canada is doing.
Related link
Canadian innovation, Ukrainian expertise build minefield breaching capabilities