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The radar system will be built in southern Canada, according to the briefing. But the system will monitor Arctic airspace to detect threats to major cities in the United States or Canada.
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April 25, 2022 • 1 hour ago • 3 minutes reading Minister of Defense Anita Anand has promised to announce a series of new projects to improve the security of the continent in relation to the United States Photo: BLAIR GABLE / REUTERS
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The Canadian government will spend $ 1 billion on a new radar system to protect large settlements in North America, the newspaper confirmed.
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Defense industry officials were briefed on the project on April 7 in Ottawa by officers from the Royal Canadian Air Force.
The radar system will be built in southern Canada, according to the briefing. But the system will monitor Arctic airspace to detect threats to major cities in the United States or Canada.
The Arctic over-the-horizon radar will “provide long-range surveillance of northern approaches to major settlements in North America by setting up a north-facing high-frequency over-the-horizon radar system in southern Canada,” according to a briefing.
The radar will start operating in 2028. The estimated cost of the system is $ 1 billion, but military officials say it could be higher.
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Secretary of Defense Anita Anand has promised to announce a series of new projects to improve continental security with the United States, including the modernization of the Joint US-Canadian North American Aerospace Command (NORAD) and the Northern Warning System’s radar. The Arctic.
“In the coming months, we will present a strong package of investments to strengthen our continental defense in close cooperation with the United States,” Anand said in a presentation to the Senate Defense Committee on April 5. Although it did not provide any details about these investments, some estimates put the price at up to $ 20 billion.
The most immediate problem for both the United States and Canada is to determine what to do with the Northern Warning System, which has been estimated to be obsolete since about 2025. The Northern Warning System’s radar facilities were built between 1986 and 1992. The radars are designed primarily to track Russian bombers approaching North America.
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Canada is under pressure from the US government to move forward with improvements in continental defense. But the Ministry of National Defense (DND) had questions about whether there would be enough funding for such an endeavor and whether the public would support such a high cost.
But Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February gave liberal government officials reasons to continue with both the purchase of the F-35 stealth fighter and the modernization of NORAD. Anand noted the invasion both in his statements about the new fighter jet and in the improvements to NORAD. “The current climate in defense and security has also highlighted that we need to do more to strengthen our defense in Canada and North America as a whole,” Anand added in a Senate address.
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Asked on April 5 about the threat of a Russian attack, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau explicitly referred to the modernization of NORAD, adding: “The Arctic is an area we will look at carefully” in terms of defense spending.
In addition, DND-related defense analysts have issued warnings about the potential of the Russians to attack Canada’s Arctic or challenge its sovereignty in the north. This includes speculation that the Russians may launch a missile attack on the Arctic to send a warning to Canada and the United States.
DND insiders privately admit that such a scenario is very unlikely; for example, if Russia launches a missile against the Arctic, the United States is likely to respond with its own nuclear-tipped missiles, provoking World War III. But insiders say such discussions have been effective in convincing the Canadian public of the need to spend billions of dollars more on continental defense.
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Research is being conducted on new technologies to improve continental defense. In 2019, DND, through Public Services and Procurement Canada, awarded Raytheon Canada Limited a $ 31 million contract. This was to build equipment for radar detection research over the horizon over long distances. The main goal of this project was to demonstrate the feasibility of radar technology to detect air targets beyond the horizon. This will include the reflection of signals from the ionosphere and back to the receiving station, according to the Ministry of National Defense. Once operational, the system can be used in conjunction with other systems to further understand the effect of Aurora Borealis on target detection beyond the horizon.
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