Cold War era defense system to get upgrade to Russia, China

Norad was a central part of the U.S. and Canadian military’s deterrence strategy against the former Soviet Union. The surveillance system, which consists of satellites, radar on the ground and air force bases located mostly in Alaska and the Canadian North Pole, is designed to notify military allies of any impending attack from the north.

The system, which was once modern, has since become obsolete. New missiles deployed by Russia and China could move more than five times the speed of sound and fly far beyond their predecessors, which would overwhelm the existing surveillance network, said Michael Dawson, who served as Canadian political adviser to the Norad order in Colorado. has. from 2010 to 2014.

In addition, a melting ice cap leaves the once impassable Arctic Ocean ice-free for a long time, creating new vulnerabilities for the U.S. and Canada, say current and former military officials.

“The Arctic is no longer a fortress wall, and our oceans are no longer protective graves; these are now access roads for advanced conventional weapons, ”said the retired U.S. Gen. Terrence O’Shaugnessy said during the testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee last March.

President Biden referred to Norad in his public comments to Tuesday’s meeting, Mr. Biden’s first bilateral with a foreign leader since his election. He said the countries had agreed to modernize the system, which is jointly controlled by both governments.

Mr. Biden also said he expects NATO members, including Canada, to spend at least 2% of their economic output on defense, as set out in a 2014 pledge by members of the Trans-Atlantic Alliance. According to the latest NATO figures, Canada’s annual defense spending is around 1.5%.

The White House and a Pentagon spokesman did not respond to a request for comment. The US State Department on Friday named the defense system as one of the priorities for the US-Canadian bilateral relationship, ahead of a meeting between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Mr. Trudeau, along with other senior officials.

“We welcome the strengthened commitment of Canada to Norad as we modernize the mandate to address new global security challenges,” the department said in a fact sheet released ahead of Blinken’s Friday meeting via video conference with Canadian officials. .

Norad also came among the leaders during a call on January 22, emphasizing the importance of the US in upgrading a surveillance system first developed in the 1950s.

U.S. military and political leaders such as Senator Jim Inhofe (R., Okla.), The rank-and-file member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, see the Arctic warning system as an important tool for keeping abreast of China and Russia’s growing military presence in the Arctic area. . Russia has developed ports along the Northern Sea Route, a shipping route along the Siberian coast. President Vladimir Putin also began a military build-up in the region, adding new airfields, air defense installations and bases.

China, which considers the Arctic to be a major shipping hub, according to government documents, and has tried to invest in northern mines that give the country access to minerals such as zinc, nickel and gold, has forged partnerships with several countries bordering the Arctic. It has deployed icebreakers in the region, declaring it a ‘near-Arctic state’.

Although Canada pledged to increase defense spending by 70% over a decade in 2017, the Trudeau government has not set aside any money to update the Arctic warning system, a project that could cost the country $ 6 billion. – about 40% of the estimated cost of $ 15 billion, says James Fergusson, deputy director of the University of Manitoba’s Center for Defense and Security Studies.

This money would be a major commitment for Canada, of which the total annual defense budget of US $ 19 billion is less than 3% of the US $ 700 billion defense budget.

Canadian officials have publicly acknowledged the importance of the upgrades.

“This is now the opportunity to really step things up,” Canadian Defense Minister Harjit Sajjan said in a late January interview. Mr. Sajjan also discussed modernization with U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin during a January call.

Sajjan said Canada had begun work, citing new Arctic and foreign patrol ships that began arriving last year, with five more on the way, and the implementation of new satellite technology to improve Arctic and maritime surveillance activities.

Since coming to power, Mr. Trudeau focuses on the threat of climate change for indigenous Arctic communities. A broad Arctic plan, unveiled in late 2019 by the government of Mr. Introduced by Trudeau, it envisioned investments in new infrastructure and health care improvements to serve local indigenous communities.

One of the most important initiatives the Canadian government mentioned was an upgrade of the North Warning System, or NWS, a chain of nearly 50 unmanned radar stations in the North Pole and Alaska. Canadian government documents indicate that the system will come to an end by its end of life by 2025, and that the technology needs to be replaced.

Behind the scenes, officials in both countries have been working on projects aimed at best updating the technology needed to protect the continent’s airspace, said John McKay, a Canadian lawmaker and co-chair of the Permanent Joint Committee. Council for Defense, said – an American and Canadian group that advises the country’s leaders on North American defense. The problem in recent years, Mr. McKay said, was a lack of political direction from Washington.

“The previous government did not have as much interest as it should have on Norad issues, and therefore it was difficult to get the Americans’ attention,” he said. McKay said.

Yet a former Trump administration security official replied that North Pole security was a defense priority for the former president’s team, noting that the Department of Defense published an Arctic Strategy Review in June 2019, and its second fleet for North Atlantic and Arctic operations. , and repeatedly asked for more funding for missile defense.

—Michael R. Gordon contributed to this article.

Write to Vipal Monga at [email protected] and Paul Vieira at [email protected]