National Defense Minister Anita Anand announced Monday that Canada will invest $4.9 billion over the next six years to modernize North America’s aging defense systems.
Ms. Anand said the funding is the first installment of a total of about $40 billion that will be spent over the next 20 years to upgrade the Canada-US early warning system, known as of NORAD, and purchase other military assets to protect the continent.
Made Monday morning at an Air Force base in Ontario, the announcement comes amid numerous warnings from American and Canadian military officials and experts, who were sounding the alarm about the dilapidation and obsolescence of this North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD).
Minister Anand had already promised major investments to upgrade this system, set up in the 1950s, which is intended to detect air and maritime threats aimed at North America, including missiles and aircraft.
The new funding will include plans to build new radar networks to detect threats from the Arctic, as well as command and control systems and advanced air-to-air missiles, among others.
It was not immediately clear Monday whether Canada would also join the United States in actively defending itself against intercontinental ballistic missiles — the “missile shield” program from which Ottawa withdrew in 2005.
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