U.S. Operations in Canadian Arctic Consolidated During Biden's Visit

One aspect of the Trudeau government's agenda since being elected has been to slowly permit the U.S. to expand its operations in the Canadian Arctic, in the name of protecting Canada from imaginary threats from Russia and China. The main method has been to push an expanded role in the Arctic for NORAD, which is under U.S. command, as if it is a joint operation. This agenda was further advanced during U.S. President Joe Biden's visit to Canada.

A joint statement from Biden and Trudeau on March 24 stated, "Our highest priority is to protect our citizens and our sovereign territory. We will invest in the modernization of the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), including specifically:

"As part of a CAD$6.96 billion investment in surveillance system modernization, procuring and fielding two next generation Over-the-Horizon Radar (OTHR) systems covering the Arctic and Polar approaches, the first by 2028 to enhance early warning and domain awareness of North American approaches;

"CAD$7.3 billion in investments in the northern forward operating locations to support fifth generation aircraft and mobility/refueling assets, which capabilities should be in place prior to the arrival of the F-35 aircraft, including airfield improvements to accommodate aircraft personnel, fuel, and munitions, to ensure NORAD's ability to deter and defend against emerging threats to our air and sea space and compete with China and Russia for years to come.

"The Prime Minister confirmed that the funding for these investments would come from Canada's planned investments in defence infrastructure. These Canadian and U.S. efforts will bolster NORAD's ability to detect threats earlier and more precisely and respond effectively. In the face of global threats, the Leaders acknowledged the importance of investment in modern, ready, and capable forces in line with their commitments to NATO under the 2014 Wales Summit Defence Investment Pledge. Such investments enable effective contributions to NATO, United Nations, and other global missions."

Since mid-2022, much has been said about Canada's commitment to modernize NORAD. In June 2022, Minister of National Defence Anita Anand announced this would involve the previously announced outlay of $4.9 billion for the first six years, with new funding coming into play in year seven amounting to $38.6 billion over 20 years, for a total expenditure of almost $49 billion on the project.

The modernization project is mainly about enhancing the surveillance capabilities of NORAD, which means the surveillance capabilities of the U.S. in the Arctic as a whole and the Canadian Arctic in particular. Much of it involves the use of new remote-controlled technologies, some still to be developed, involving networks of sensors, drones and other types of unmanned vehicles both on and under the water in the Canadian Arctic.

A recent report by CBC addressed the modernization of NORAD in the Canadian north and roadblocks it has come up against. The report quoted Vice-Admiral Bob Auchterlonie, in charge of Canadian Joint Operations Command, who spoke about Canada's work "in conjunction with" the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet for the development of undersea surveillance systems, including unmanned ships and underwater vehicles.

"I would say that technology has really moved forward in the last number of years. And we're working with our allies, as well as their own defence scientists, to come up with those capabilities to detect adversaries in our waters [...] both on the surface and subsurface," Auchterlonie said. The U.S. navy has plans for revitalizing its Fifth Fleet by 2045 which calls for a fleet of 373 manned ships and 150 unmanned patrol ships, for a total of 523 ships. The navy has asked the U.S. Congress for more than U.S.$250 million to develop unmanned surface and subsurface ships.

What this shows is that one way in which the Canadian Arctic will be handed over to U.S. control will be through the use of remote controlled and unmanned ships and drones as well as sensor arrays which communicate with each other and with NORAD.

In other words the new technologies being developed are to facilitate the U.S. taking control of the Canadian Arctic and militarizing it without putting obvious "boots on the ground." This is one reason why Prime Minister Trudeau keeps saying he stands for Canadian sovereignty over its Arctic and the Northwest Passage. He can say he doesn't want the U.S. in the Canadian Arctic while he opens it up to remote control by the U.S.

This article was published in

Volume 53 Number 3 - March 2023

Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2023/Articles/M530038.HTM

Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca