Canada will spend $ 4.9 billion over the next six years to modernize continental defense, Defense Minister Anita Anand said Monday.
Anand made the long-awaited announcement of the modernization of NORAD at the main Canadian air base in Trenton, Ont.
The figure represents Canada’s share of the overhaul costs of decades of joint binational air defense command, which was originally designed to take care of Soviet bombers. The draft was not part of the Liberal government’s 2017 defense policy paper.
The United States covers about 60 percent of the NORAD bill.
Chief of Defense Wayne Eyre watched Defense Secretary Anita Anand speak at a press conference on April 25, 2022 in Ottawa. (Adrian Wilde / Canadian Press)
The nature of NORAD has changed in recent years as it has taken on additional responsibilities for monitoring maritime approaches to North America and protecting against cyber attacks.
The overhaul of NORAD will include the replacement of the Northern Warning System, a chain of radar stations in the Far North. The system will eventually be replaced by two different types of radar systems – one northern, one polar – that have the ability to look over the horizon.
The overhaul will also feature new satellites designed to track moving targets on the ground and a top-secret series of remote sensors.
The new network will monitor not only the Arctic – the traditional area of NORAD – but also the Pacific and Atlantic approaches to the continent.
Military experts have long warned that NORAD’s current surveillance system is not designed to track cruise missiles – weapons fired from submarines or out of North American airspace. In addition, it is not set up to deal with hypersonic missiles that move many times faster than the speed of sound.
Both weapons systems are prominent in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“The threat environment has changed,” Anand said in response to a reporter’s question Monday.
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