Re: NORAD

by Stanleyz Tue 30 Mar 2021, 6:00 pm

Threats from Russia, China underscore need to modernize Norad: expert

Published Tuesday, March 30, 2021

https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/threats-from-russia-china-underscore-need-to-modernize-norad-expert-1.5367907

by Lux4795 Sat 12 Mar 2022, 4:12 pm

Ukraine war sparks fresh calls for urgency on upgrading North America's defences

Published Saturday, March 5, 2022

OTTAWA -- Russian President Vladimir Putin's decision to put his country's nuclear arsenal on high alert last weekend has sparked hope that Ottawa and Washington will finally act with urgency in upgrading North America's defences.

Successive Canadian and American governments have been promising for years to modernize the North American Aerospace Defence Command, or Norad, which was first created during the Cold War to protect against a Soviet attack.

Yet despite increasingly urgent warnings from senior military commanders on both sides of the border about the need to address a growing number of gaps in North America's defences, many are still waiting for Canada to act.

Norad commander U.S. Gen. Glen VanHerck this week highlighted the growing threat that North America faces as Russia and China develop and field long-range weapons that can hit Canada or the United States, and which the current system can't detect.

Those include nuclear and non-nuclear weapons such as hypersonic and cruise missiles, which Putin put on high alert last weekend in retaliation for NATO's support of Ukraine.

Appearing before a Congressional committee on Tuesday, VanHerck said the long-held assumption that Canada and the U.S. could deploy forces at will because of the continent's geographic safety "is eroding -- and has been eroding for more than a decade."

As adversaries continue to field faster and longer-ranged weapons, he added, "we must improve our ability to detect and track potential threats anywhere in the world while delivering data to decision makers as rapidly as possible."

The federal Liberal government insists modernizing Norad is a top priority. To that end, Canada and the U.S. have issued several joint statements over the years affirming the need to upgrade the system. Ottawa also set aside an initial $163 million for the effort last year.

Yet while the U.S. has been pressing ahead on a number of fronts, including the deployment of new missile interceptors and artificial intelligence to merge data from a variety of different sources to detect an attack, Canada has been largely silent.

"Where do we stand?" said University of Manitoba professor James Fergusson, one of Canada's leading experts on Norad. "No one seems to know. Or if they know, they're not saying where we stand."

During a trip to Ottawa in December, VanHerck told reporters he was awaiting political direction on upgrading Canada's key contribution to Norad, a string of radars built in the Canadian Arctic in the 1980s called the North Warning System.

Military officials have been cautioning for years that the North Warning System, which was built to detect Russian bombers approaching North America from over the Arctic, is obsolete because of the development of missiles with increasingly longer ranges.

"It's kind of like having a big house and leaving your back two bedrooms unlocked," said retired general Tom Lawson, who was Norad deputy commander before serving as Canada's chief of the defence staff from 2012-2015.

"We can't even see the Canadian Arctic archipelago. You could be doing anything you want flying over there."

Asked last week whether VanHerck has been given the needed political direction, Defence Minister Anita Anand said she has had several discussions with U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin about Norad modernization and the North Warning System.

But she did not provide any other specifics, and instead noted that the federal government awarded a $592-million contract in January to an Inuit-owned company, Nasittuq Corp., to operate and maintain the system's long- and short-range radars.

One of the reasons progress has been slow is the rapid pace of technological change, which makes it difficult to predict what threats the system needs to protect against. That includes the role that cyber defence and space will play in the future.

"There's been a lot of background work being done, which of course is not sexy," said Andrea Charron, another leading Norad expert at the University of Manitoba.

"It's looking at over-the-horizon radar systems for North Warning System and in some cases anticipating technology that hasn't actually come into its own yet."

But there has also been a sense that while Ottawa says Norad modernization is a priority, it's not a top priority. This has been evidenced by a virtual lack of dedicated funding for the effort. Its costs were omitted from the Liberal government's defence policy in 2017.

Canada's controversial decision not to join the U.S. ballistic missile defence system also continues to cloud talk about the degree to which Canada is willing to help intercept and destroy threats to North America, not just detect them as they approach the continent.

Charron said Russia's invasion of Ukraine is an example of the type of event that Norad commanders and others have long worried about when calling for an upgrade to the system.

"Because if Russia felt boxed in, where are they going to hit?" she said. "They're going to hit somewhere that is not very populated, and that speaks to the Arctic. "This is 'escalate to de-escalate."'

In other words, the fear is that Russia could launch a limited attack on North America's Arctic and threaten a much bigger onslaught as a way to sue for peace. Alternatively, it could keep the U.S. and Canada from sending reinforcements to NATO allies in Europe.

"Ukraine has made Norad even more important, because we are the back door to NATO," Charron said.

The hope for some is that Russia's invasion of Ukraine will serve as the catalyst for Ottawa to make Norad modernization a true priority with more dedicated funding in this year's federal budget and moving ahead on some potentially controversial decisions.

"Here's a perfect moment to announce that we're coming on board with all forms of ballistic missile defence ΓÇª and we are going to discuss the positioning of new radar systems and new missile interceptors on Canadian soil," said Lawson.

"And, by the way, we are now announcing that we're buying F-35s, the first of which will be delivered four years from now. Now, all of a sudden, you're looking pretty beefy."

CTV News

by Lux4795 Mon 14 Mar 2022, 4:08 pm

14.03.2022

by **Colter** Fri 18 Mar 2022, 4:06 pm

Russian invasion of Ukraine shows need to protect Canada's North: Norad

Published Friday, March 18, 2022

CTV News

by Covert Tue 21 Jun 2022, 7:49 am

Analysis: Cost to modernize NORAD set at $40 billion, but will final tally be higher?

Considering delays and cost overruns that can regularly plague Canadian military equipment purchases, some defence insiders say there should be real concerns about the final tally

David Pugliese • Ottawa Citizen
Publishing date: Jun 20, 2022

Various news media outlets last year were reporting that Canada’s cost to modernize the sensors and radars that protect North America would be anywhere between $10 billion and $14 billion.

Some outlets, such as this newspaper, cited warnings from defence sources that the price tag for Canadian taxpayers could be even more, running as high as $20 billion.

On Monday, the Liberal government finally unveiled the cost as $40 billion to be spent over two decades.

And there’s no guarantee that figure won’t go even higher.

Considering delays and cost overruns that can regularly plague Canadian military equipment purchases, some defence insiders say there should be real concerns about the final tally.

After all, the cost to build a fleet of 15 new warships has climbed from the original $26 billion to what parliamentarians are now saying is a $100 billion hit for taxpayers.

Defence Minister Anita Anand outlined on Monday that Canada’s contributions to the modernization of the North American Aerospace Defence Command (NORAD) will involve space sensors, new radars and cutting-edge technology. Everything she outlined has the potential for significant cost overruns and delays.

When asked about procurement problems and how that might affect the Liberal plan, Anand pushed back. Her response to the “narrative” that military procurement was broken was to highlight what she suggested were procurement successes. She specifically mentioned the Arctic and Offshore Patrol Ships, the ongoing F-35 fighter jet negotiations, and the 40 or so drone cameras that Canada bought for Ukraine.

Those, however, might not be the best examples to convince the public the $40 billion NORAD modernization scheme won’t go off the rails.

The delivery of the Arctic patrol ships was seven years behind schedule, with the original cost going from $2.6 billion to $4.3 billion.

In 2015, Justin Trudeau promised his government would never purchase the F-35 because the jet didn’t work. Now, Trudeau’s government is spending up to $19 billion on the stealth fighters but they won’t all arrive until 2031.

As for the drone cameras, the deal involved a small number of sensors, some already in production. And there was no competition for the deal so the procurement could be pushed through quickly.

Building spacecraft, new radars and sensor systems – portions of which still have to be developed – will be a little more challenging than just placing an order for drone cameras already in production.

Anand says the NORAD modernization is essential to protect Canadians from cruise missiles and new hypersonic missiles being developed by Russia and China.

For the last two years, Canadian generals and academics closely aligned with National Defence and the military lobby, have been talking up the threat of hypersonic missiles.

In March 2021, Royal Military College professor Christian Leuprecht painted a nightmare scenario for CTV News in which the Russians fire a hypersonic missile at Canada to disable part of this country’s power grid, which in turn, would significantly harm the electrical power system of the U.S.

There are a few things wrong with this scenario. If the Russians did launch a hypersonic missile at Canada to disable the U.S. power grid, then that would be the opening salvo of the Third World War. Upgraded North American Aerospace Defence Command radars might be of little use as the U.S. retaliates with a nuclear salvo and the Russians counter-attack with their own.

Defence insiders also point out the main problem with Leuprecht’s fantasy scenario as well as similar warnings about hypersonic missiles: Russian or Chinese hackers could easily disable North America’s power grid using a cyber-attack, which conceivably would be hard to trace back to a particular nation and because of that has a measure of deniability. Hypersonic missiles may sound deadly but the more effective threat to a nation comes from the cyber realm.

Anand said at her Monday news conference that she understands how Canadians might question spending $40 billion on NORAD. But she claimed the massive amount of funding will create tens of thousands of Canadian jobs, although she presented no evidence to back that up.

Anand, however, need not worry about too much pushback for her $40 billion plan.

Canadians are too busy struggling to find a doctor or afford a house or make ends meet as food and gas costs continue to rise. They likely won’t pay attention to billions more spent on defence.

Defence Watch

by Covert Mon 10 Apr 2023, 11:37 am

Ottawa firm develops cutting-edge radar technology to defend North America

D-TA Systems Inc. has already briefed U.S. military officials twice about its over-the-horizon radar technology.

David Pugliese • Ottawa Citizen

Published Apr 10, 2023

An Ottawa firm has developed cutting-edge technology that could hold the key for a billion-dollar modernization of North America’s defences.

Both the U.S. and Canada have announced they will be building what is being called an over-the-horizon radar system to provide long-range surveillance of threats to North America.

The Canadian portion of the over-the-horizon radar project, part of the NORAD modernization effort, is valued at least $1 billion, according to National Defence briefing documents obtained by this newspaper.

There are currently two companies in the world that have actually delivered a system that could potentially fit the bill for the project; BAE Australia and D-TA Systems Inc. of Ottawa.

“The opportunity is massive,” said Dipak Roy, founder and executive chairman of D-TA Systems. “If D-TA is awarded the contract, we are talking about hundreds of new jobs in leading-edge technology.”

D-TA Systems, which has 40 employees, has already briefed U.S. military officials twice about its over-the-horizon radar technology. In addition, it recently delivered a working radar to Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC), the Ottawa-based science agency for National Defence.

Over-the-horizon radar has the ability to conduct surveillance at far greater ranges than regular radar technology as it extends the distance of its capabilities by bouncing signals off the ionosphere. It can conduct surveillance up to 5,000 kilometres, making it potentially effective to monitor aircraft and high-speed missiles coming from Russia and China.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau highlighted Canada’s decision to move ahead with the over-the-horizon radar during the recent visit to Ottawa by U.S. President Joe Biden. The Arctic Over-the-Horizon Radar project will see the systems installed in southern Ontario and ready for operations by 2028. That will provide coverage of the Arctic. Another system, the Polar Over-the-Horizon radar would be installed somewhere in the Arctic and provide additional surveillance coverage.

D-TA Systems Inc. was established in 2007 and has been involved in defence projects in the U.S., Canada and other NATO nations as well as Japan. The firm has been working on over-the-horizon radar since 2011 for various Department of National Defence and U.S. military projects. “DND has already spent $30 million with us to create the capability,” Roy said.

The interest in over-the-horizon radars, which were used during the Cold War, has resurfaced because military officials realized that other surveillance systems, such as satellites, have become increasingly vulnerable to some weapons. “You need another technology in case your satellites are knocked out,” Roy explained.

He said besides D-TA technology, the U.S. military is also looking at the BAE Australia system.

Australia’s military currently has the Jindalee Operational Radar Network, an over-the-horizon system which can monitor air and sea movements up to 3,000 kilometres. In 2018, the Australian government announced it would spend more than $1 billion upgrading the system. BAE Australia is working on that project.

The Pentagon is building its own test system in the Pacific in the Republic of Palau. That radar, expected to be operating by 2026, will be a scaled-down version of an over-the-horizon radar. The proposed U.S. system is smaller than the radar that D-TA recently delivered to DRDC.

Roy said he is pushing to have the Canadian over-the-horizon radar projects announced by Trudeau to have as much Canadian content as possible. “My message is direct Canadian content,” he explained. “If you are building a radar system make sure you have direct Canadian content because that is the only way we can create and develop technical IP (intellectual property).”

There is growing frustration among some domestic aerospace and defence companies that the Liberal government has been passing over Canadian technology, instead opting for foreign systems. Radars and related systems on board Canada’s new surface combatants are largely being sourced from U.S. companies. Defence Minister Anita Anand has pushed for the purchase of a U.S. surveillance aircraft, ignoring made-in-Canada solutions.

Roy said in the area of over-the-horizon radar Canada has leading technology, financed by federal dollars. “DRDC has already funded us to develop this technology,” he explained. “So obviously I would like to see our country buy a Canadian-developed system.”

That, in turn, could help with potential sales to the U.S. military, he added.

“We are trying to position ourselves. We are trying to get team members because it is a very large program.”

Defence Watch

by **Kizzer** Wed 20 Sep 2023, 11:20 am

US, Canadian Forces Hone Skills in Harsh Alaskan Terrain

20 SEP 2023

Mirage News

by Garrison Thu 21 Dec 2023, 11:21 am

Outgoing Norad commander says Canada, U.S. too slow to adapt to threats

Sarah Ritchie . Published Dec. 21, 2023

NORAD - Page 2 Glen-vanherck-1-6696513-1703156361951

CTV News

by Arkangel Yesterday at 11:01 am

New Norad commander calls Canada's defence policy update 'very encouraging'

OTTAWA — American troops will be spending more time training in the Far North, the new commander of Norad says, a strategy that fits "hand-in-glove" with Canada's renewed focus on Arctic defence. U.S. Gen.

Sarah Ritchie, The Canadian Press . April 26, 2024

OTTAWA — American troops will be spending more time training in the Far North, the new commander of Norad says, a strategy that fits "hand-in-glove" with Canada's renewed focus on Arctic defence.

U.S. Gen. Gregory Guillot took over command of the binational North American Aerospace Defense Command in February.

His first order of business: a 90-day assessment of Norad's capabilities, which includes visits to Canada.

During a stop in Ottawa in mid-April, Guillot outlined his plans to ensure Norad is more mobile in the North and better equipped for the harsh climate.

"On the U.S. side, (there are) a lot of capable forces that have never been up there. So my goal is to bring them up for exercises," he said in an interview.

Guillot said his discussion with Vice-Admiral Bob Auchterlonie, the commander of the Canadian Joint Operations Command, was "very enlightening" in getting an understanding of which parts of Canada's vast North are accessible by road, water or air.

"The challenge in the Arctic, from my perspective, is to make sure that we have freedom of movement," he said.

The Arctic is an area of particular concern for Norad, which is tasked with defending North American airspace.

That came into clear focus in January 2023, when a high-altitude surveillance balloon from China was detected entering Alaskan airspace. Over the next several days, Norad tracked the balloon as it passed over Canada and off the coast of South Carolina, where it was shot down by U.S. fighter jets.

The discovery of several more unidentified objects flying over North America in early 2023 led Norad to reconfigure its detection systems as a stopgap measure while new radars are in the works.

Canada and the U.S. have committed to create a network of Arctic over-the-horizon radars. On the Canadian side the system is set to be up and running by 2028, with full capabilities in place by 2032.

That is part of a 20-year, $38.6-billion Norad modernization program the Liberal government announced in 2022. The projects also include airfields and airstrips for a fleet of F-35 fighter jets.

Guillot said he's keen to move those timelines up wherever possible. He also said Norad is looking beyond the continent for help detecting threats over the Arctic.

"We are now reaching out to NATO and others to see if we can build a network to get that awareness earlier," he said. That's made easier, he added, by the increased co-operation that comes with Sweden and Finland joining the NATO alliance.

Guillot made headlines in Canada last July after an exchange he had with a Republican senator during his confirmation hearings.

Dan Sullivan raised the issue of Canada's NATO spending, saying it is "not even close to pulling its weight," and asking if Guillot would commit "to have those tough conversations" with Canadian officials once he assumed command. Guillot said he would.

But asked if he's started with the tough talk, Guillot was quick to point out he was merely answering Sullivan's question.

"I said 'yes' because I think with all of our partners, we're all going to have to have tough conversations about resourcing and capabilities and priorities. And so I didn't view that as singling towards Canada or any other country," he said.

He praised the federal government's planned increase in defence spending — which includes $8.1 billion in the next few years, and an additional $73 billion over 20 years — and said he's "very encouraged" by the recently released defence policy update.

That document, called "Our North, Strong and Free," makes clear that Arctic sovereignty is an urgent priority for the Armed Forces.

Among the promised upgrades: a new satellite ground station in the Arctic, operational support hubs that will allow for a year-round northern military presence, early warning aircraft and all-terrain vehicles that can function on ice and tundra.

As for whether Guillot thinks Canada is showing up with the level of seriousness needed on defence: "Absolutely, no question at all."

Guillot expects to present Canadian and U.S. authorities with the results of his assessment next month.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 27, 2024.

Sarah Ritchie, The Canadian Press

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