A high-tech Canadian-made camera system was used as part of controversial U.S. strikes against alleged Venezuelan drug boats, according to a report by the non-governmental organization Project Ploughshares that was shared exclusively with CBC’s visual investigations team.
CBC analyzed the Project Ploughshares report, compared it to product manuals and previously released videos and spoke with former military and defence industry experts, concluding that it is highly likely Canadian tech was involved in surveillance during the operations.
“There has to be more human rights oversight…. We are seeing Canadian weapons being misused,” said Kelsey Gallagher, a senior researcher with Project Ploughshares.
The report from Project Ploughshares — which describes itself as a “peace research institute with a focus on disarmament efforts and international security” — says the U.S. military used a Canadian-made L3Harris WESCAM MX-Series sensor system to track and surveil boats that were struck as they sailed from Venezuela in the first two strikes publicized in September.
CBC News reached out to L3Harris WESCAM, detailing the findings of the visual analysis.
The company said that “as a matter of practice, we do not comment on military missions.”
The U.S. military launched five strikes in the Caribbean, starting last month, against what President Donald Trump said were ships smuggling drugs and operated by “narcoterrorists.”
The most recent strike occurred Friday. At least 21 people were killed over the series of strikes. The U.S. released videos from four strikes.
Experts quickly questioned the strikes’ legality, arguing they may have violated international human rights and maritime laws.
“International legal experts could make the argument that Canada is complicit in a way in the type of war crimes that the Trump administration has committed in the Caribbean basin,” Alexander Avina, an associate professor of history at Arizona State University, said in an interview.
The White House has defended the strikes by saying they were launched against a terrorist organization, were a matter of self-defence and were “fully consistent” with laws of armed conflict.
The Trump administration said on Thursday it was in “non-international armed conflict” and the suspected drug smugglers were “unlawful combatants.”
Global Affairs Canada monitoring ‘U.S. operation’
CBC News asked Global Affairs Canada about the involvement of Canadian technology, the possibility the strikes may be illegal and whether Canada’s arms export relationship with the United States requires review.
In a statement, a GAC spokesperson said: “Global Affairs Canada is aware of the U.S. operation and is monitoring the situation.”
According to the Project Ploughshares report, released Monday, Canadian-made surveillance technology was used to help carry out the first and second strikes.
The report found the Venezuela strike videos and previously identified videos from MX-Series systems share distinct visual similarities, such as a middle scale bar and overall layout.
“Without a doubt it’s the same icons,” a former Canadian Forces member who has experience using these MX-Series systems told CBC after comparing the visuals with publicly available Turkish military WESCAM MX-Series videos.
CBC is not naming former military members and defence experts consulted for this story because of non-disclosure agreements and their ongoing work within the defence industry and military.
U.S. military major customer for sensors
The MX-Series are what’s known as electro-optical/infra-red (EO/IR) systems that “support intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and target acquisition missions from platforms across the air, land and maritime domain,” according to the L3Harris website.
The systems are used by a variety of operators, including military, police and search-and-rescue.
The MX-Series systems are manufactured in Canada by a company called L3Harris WESCAM in Hamilton. The Canadian manufacturer is a subsidiary of L3Harris Technologies, one of the largest defence contractors in the United States.
Contract records show L3Harris’s Canadian subsidiaries have provided services and hardware to the U.S. military for air, land and sea uses. L3Harris WESCAM specializes in the EO/IR systems and, according to the company, has exported MX-Series systems to almost 90 countries.
“The U.S. Department of Defence is one of, if not the biggest customer of L3Harris WESCAM EO/IR sensors,” said Gallagher.
The visual investigation
Project Ploughshares had previously identified exported WESCAM MX-Series systems used in other conflict zones through a combination of video analysis and export records. Canadian-made WESCAM MX-Series systems have been used in military equipment deployed by forces in Turkey, Ukraine and other conflict zones.
An unobscured MX-series display is visible in this example published by Turkish media and highlighted in a previous report by Project Ploughshares. It matches closely with another example of a mostly unobscured display in footage of Ukrainian strikes on Russian-occupied Snake Island, Ukraine, in 2022.
Project Ploughshares found the same scale bar — the hooked line in the middle of the screen that brackets a number — is visible in the Turkish, Ukrainian and Caribbean examples. The middle scale bar “provides the operator with a visual cue for estimating distances within the scene,” according to an MX-Series user manual uploaded online.
That manual, which is marked as “proprietary information,” also provides images of sample graphics overlays, which it emphasizes are customizable, that closely match the layout and details of the Ukrainian and Turkish videos.
Blurs match, an unobscured ‘T’
Ploughshares also notes in its report that while much of the video of the Venezuelan strikes is blurred, those obscured portions match where data is visible on unblurred videos from Turkey or Ukraine.
Blurred boxes of the same shape and size cover what can be seen in the Turkish videos: indicators for true north, the angle and direction of the actual sensor hardware, information about the time of recording and other key data like the positioning of the aircraft.
CBC’s visual investigations team also conducted a visual analysis of the available WESCAM MX-Series footage, comparing it with previous footage from L3Harris, foreign militaries, the Canadian Armed Forces and police.
The investigation found that the videos of the first two strikes released by Trump closely align with videos of MX-Series systems that are publicly available.
One video, for example, shows a Canadian CC-295 Kingfisher using a similar system in a joint operation with the U.S. Coast Guard. L3Harris WESCAM supplies EO/IR systems for several kinds of RCAF aircraft, including the Kingfisher.
One other graphical clue in the Venezuela videos points toward a WESCAM MX-Series system. In part of the video released by Trump on Sept. 15, a small “T” is visible outside the blurred area in the lower left side of the screen. It aligns with part of the display that shows a “T” as part of “FT” in other, unobscured videos of MX-Series systems.
While the graphical elements match closely, some questions remain.
It’s unclear, for example, which aircraft were used in the Venezuela operations. EO/IR system displays are also customizable and could vary depending on the model, the context in which they are used and operator preference.
MX-series systems have been incorporated into numerous U.S. military aircraft. Some of those aircraft types, like the P-8 Poseidon, are among the military assets the U.S. has deployed to the Caribbean in recent months.
A P-8 Poseidon, according to data from flight tracking company ADS-B Exchange, was spotted heading toward the Caribbean Sea on Sept. 1 overnight until Sept. 2, and on Sept. 14, the approximate dates of the first two strikes. Some P-8A Poseidons have been equipped with L3Harris WESCAM MX-20 systems, according to the company.
The U.S. Department of War and the White House did not answer questions posed by CBC News.
Fix arms loophole, expert says
CBC News spoke with numerous experts with knowledge of EO/IR systems, including former military members, defence industry employees and a professional group of aircraft sensor experts, the Airborne Sensor Operators Group.
The majority opinion among them was that an MX-Series system was likely used for portions of the first two strike videos publicized by Trump.
CBC News also compared the Venezuela videos with graphical displays created by other defence companies, but none matched the first two strikes. No video was released for the third strike. Video of the fourth and fifth strikes appear to differ significantly from the other two — it’s possible they were recorded from a different system.
Legal experts raised concerns last month about whether the strikes violated international human rights law, as well as maritime law.
“There’s no serious argument that what the Trump administration has done here is legal,” said Michael Becker, an assistant professor of international human rights law at Trinity College Dublin’s school of law. “It basically amounts to the president of the United States handing out a licence to kill.”
Gallagher, of Project Ploughshares, said Canada has a responsibility under the UN Arms Trade Treaty to assess whether defence exports could be used to violate human rights overseas.
He said Canada’s bilateral deals with the United States mean much of its arms trade does not require a government permit.
“I think the immediate response should be to fix the loopholes in Canada’s national control regime to get better oversight on Canadian arms exports to the United States, to ensure that they’re not being used in abusive ways.”
Do you have any tips on this story? Please contact Christian Paas-Lang: [email protected]
