MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates (MDA)

MDA is a Vancouver-based company that produced RADARSAT 1 and 2. These publicly-funded satellites—which cost Canadian taxpayers about $1 billion—constitute what may well be the single most important contribution that Canada has ever made to the US military's ability to wage war. RADARSAT data has been used extensively in the Yugoslavia, Afghan and Iraq wars.

The Canadian government recently decided not to allow MDA to be sold to a major US war industry. It had formerly been owned by another US war industry but few people had noticed. That former owner of MDA is Orbital Sciences, which among other things making rockets for "missile defense" weapons programs.

 In the struggle to oppose this recent attempt to sell MDA to Alliant Techsystems (ATK), many people used research done by the Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade (COAT). COAT's research into the longtime use of RADARSAT for US warfighting and its future application to "missile defense" operations, is the most thorough and detailed resource on this subject.

COAT did an entire 52-page issue of its magazine, Press for Conversion!, on RADARSAT. This issue is called:

Here is an article summarizing this issue called "Canada's Leading Role in the Militarisation of Space."

If you want all the details, here is the Table of Contents of COAT's magazine issue on RADARSAT. By clicking on the titles below you can access the full text of these articles:

Learning from Two Commandments of War:
Know the Enemy and Take the High Ground

Hiding RADARSAT: The Warfighters' Secret Weapon
RADARSAT: From Spin to Secrecy
Meet "the RADARSAT family of Satellites"
The Contracts that Privatised RADARSAT are Secret
Secret Military Eye in the Sky
Canada-U.S. Treaties: RADARSAT and Military Exports
The RADARSAT Law's Secret Annex

RADARSAT's Role in Missile Defense and NATO
RADARSAT, Missile Defense and the Holy Grail
RADARSAT-2 to be Launched in December 2006
GMTI and Theater Missile Defense
From CAESAR to MAJIIC:
How RADARSAT plugs Canada in to future NATO-led wars
Clean Hunter 2001: RADARSAT in a TMD War Game
TMD; Coming to a Theatre of War Near You?
Strong Resolve 2002: Commando Peacekeepers?
RADARSAT-1 & Strong Resolve 2002

Privatising RADARSAT and Selling off its Data
The Growing Costs of RADARSAT-1 and -2
Meet MDA: RADARSAT given to branch of U.S. "missile defense" firm
Selling Off the Rights to RADARSAT and its Data
UK Military Agency "Top" Distributor in Europe, Africa & Middle East
U.S. Warfighters get their Hands on RADARSAT Data
Meet Eagle Vision: U.S. Military Bridgehead to RADARSAT
Some Canadian Military Uses of RADARSAT
Meet the Staff at ORBIMAGE
Meet David Emerson
Meet Mark Garneau: Expert on Weapons, Space and PR
Meet the EMS Space and Technology Group
The War in Iraq: Another Canadian "No-Means-Yes" Policy in Action
Meet "Defense" Minister Gordon O'Connor