January 11, 2021 | Local, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security
By: Harjit Sajjan
For any military force, maintaining an advantage requires innovation and investment. It is why Canada is modernizing our Army, Navy and Air Force while putting our serving members in the Canadian Armed Forces at its core. To ensure our people have the most advanced capabilities and tools for the future, Canada is putting a greater focus on research and development, supporting innovators in industry and in government, and building a closer relationship between these two worlds.
Since 2017, when we published our fully funded 20-year defense policy “Strong, Secure, Engaged,” we have seen significant changes in the global security environment. These new challenges underscore the need to invest in defense as a matter of national security and economic vitality. “Strong, Secure, Engaged” was released at a time when the dominant forces of the current security environment were just beginning to take shape. Today, Canada faces a world defined by great power conflict, rapid military modernization by states set on upending the international rules-based order, and advances against disruptive technologies in which North American geography no longer affords the protection it once did.
While we have traditionally been able to address threats abroad before they reach our shores, our security requires reinforcement. While this new space has many unknowns, we know that multilateralism and supporting the rules-based international order is critical to our success and our safety. Since 2017, Canada has increased our support to NATO partners through Operation Reassurance — which has seen Royal Canadian Navy ships deployed in the Black Sea region, the Royal Canadian Air Force supporting air policing in Romania, and Canadian Armed Forces members leading the Enhanced Forward Presence Battlegroup in Latvia — as well as through our work leading NATO Mission Iraq and our support for the coalition.
We also know that this changing security landscape means we need to take a thorough look at how we can secure North America against the threats of today and the future. It is why Canada continues to work with our American partners on the modernization of North American Aerospace Defense Command to build continental resiliency. This critical work will ensure that Canada and the United States of America have the ability to detect, deter and respond to threats, and that the only binational command in the world can meet the challenges of the 21st century.
For many years now, the Department of National Defence has worked hard to keep defense industries informed of future investment opportunities that will continue generating jobs and improving Canada's capacity for innovation. It is one reason that we have a forward-looking, 10-year defense investment plan that is updated every three years. This engagement with industry has become an integral part of the procurement process, providing critical insights while showing industry that we are a predicable partner.
Despite the unexpected challenges during 2020, Canada reached important milestones for key defense projects. In July 2020, the first Arctic and offshore patrol ship was delivered to the Royal Canadian Navy, followed in the fall by delivery of the first new fixed-wing search and rescue aircraft to the Royal Canadian Air Force. Construction of armored combat support vehicles for the Canadian Army began in May 2020, with the first vehicle delivered to the Armed Forces in December 2020. We also continue to invest hundreds of millions of dollars into equipping members of our armed forces.
We now see unprecedented innovation in all corners of the world, which militaries can harness to quickly understand and respond to potential threats before they cause harm. It is why new and emerging technologies in cyber and artificial intelligence are becoming an integral part of defense projects. Canada is growing its defense industry by leveraging research and development from both industry and government to achieve the best results. By working together, we can come up with innovative solutions to increase Canada's operational effectiveness while showing that defense is forging a path to the future.
In addition to embracing innovation within defense institutions and industry, more work is needed to support our people. The Canadian Armed Forces is a diverse institution, and our equipment needs to recognize that. It is why the Gender-based Analysis Plus process looks at factors such as gender, race, religion and ethnicity so that our defense projects better meet the needs of armed forces members.
These changes help get the best out of our people, producing meaningful results. For example, changes made to the brake pedal assembly in the new armor-protected cab of the Standard Military Pattern vehicle ensure all soldiers, no matter their size, can safely operate these vehicles.
By building an agile, well-educated, flexible, diverse, combat-ready military, we will be able to deal with threats abroad to protect stability at home. This historic investment through “Strong, Secure, Engaged” allows Canada to modernize our military by putting our people at its core as we continue to step up our contribution to North American and global security. When our partners and allies call upon Canada, we will be there for them.
Harjit Sajjan is Canada's minister of national defense.
July 26, 2023 | Local, Aerospace
Canada awarded Airbus a contract for the purchase of 4 new Airbus-built A330 MRTT aircraft and the conversion of 5 used A330-200s to the MRTT configuration.
September 24, 2020 | Local, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security, Other Defence
Murray Brewster Intelligence expert says Canadian Forces may be preparing for more missions without American help Canada's elite special forces are looking for some outside intelligence advice — a move that one expert said is likely meant to make the highly-trained special forces section less dependent on allies, notably the Americans. A request for proposals was posted late last week to the federal government's tendering website asking private contractors to submit bids to become a "senior intelligence" adviser to the special forces, which undertake some of the military's most secret and dangerous missions. The individual will be expected to "aid and support in the implementation of current intelligence projects, and the design and implementation of future capabilities." Specifically, the new adviser will be responsible for helping to guide "the establishment of specific [Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance] capabilities," which will include aircraft. The special forces recently bought three new surveillance aircraft from the U.S. The planes, which are expected to arrive in 2022, will be equipped with sensors and tracking gear to intercept cell telephone and other electronic transmissions. The request for proposals also says the new adviser will be expected to have a deep background in working with other allied intelligence services. In its defence policy, released three years ago, the Liberal government committed to bolstering the military's intelligence-gathering capability. The special forces section itself emphasized intelligence-gathering in its recently released strategy, called Beyond the Horizon. Within the defence community, the strategy is seen as an important effort to refocus the special forces after nearly two decades of concentrating on counter-insurgency warfare. A spokesperson for the Canadian Special Operations Forces Command (CANSOFCOM), Maj. Amber Bineau, had little to say about the rationale for hiring a contract adviser beyond what was included in the request for proposals. The branch "periodically hires contractors, on a case-by-case basis" and the adviser will be working with "oversight from senior leadership within CANSOFCOM," she said in an email. The University of Ottawa's Wesley Wark, one of the country's leading experts in intelligence, said the decision to bring in outside expertise and establish surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities for the special forces is a significant move — especially coming at a moment when the United States is seen as pulling back from engagement with its allies, or focusing on different priorities. Wark said Canada traditionally has relied on the Americans for a variety of intelligence-gathering capabilities, including military intelligence. The request for proposals, he said, amounts to a recognition by the Department of National Defence that some future special forces missions may not involve partnerships with U.S. special forces — and that Canada needs its own independent capabilities. "If you're going to work with some different kinds of partners, the expectation grows that you're going to have to have your own sources and you can't just be relying on the United States," he told CBC News. Wark said he could foresee, for example, Canadian special forces being called upon by the United Nations for specific intelligence help during peace support missions — a task that, in the current political climate, Washington would avoid. Just as important, Wark said, is the fact that the request for proposals asked for someone with expertise in social media intelligence, "which is interesting and indicative of the kind of complex operations" the force will be facing in the future. https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/special-forces-intelligence-1.5726861
September 24, 2019 | Local, C4ISR, Security
Three years ago the North American Aerospace Defence Command (Norad) charged the Canadian army with providing an inventory of all military bases and surrounding infrastructure. The Americans were looking to spot vulnerabilities in critical infrastructure that could be used in a potential cyber attack. The several-year-old request was detailed in a letter sent by former Norad Commander and U.S. Admiral William Gourtney to the Canadian Chief of Defence Staff, Jonathan Vance. In the letter Gourtney requested that Canada “identify and mitigate” potential areas of vulnerability on Canadian bases, specifically those “installations that are critical for accomplishing Norad missions.” The letter was delivered on March 24, 2016. Furthermore, it asked Vance to “advocate developing capabilities to respond to cyber incidents on CAF [infrastructure control systems] and defend CAF if required.” The request also expanded to identifying civilian infrastructure through cooperation with Public Safety Canada and “developing processes for reporting cyber incidents on the identified civilian infrastructure.” According to cyber expert, David Masson, vulnerability arises in “operational technology systems” that run tasks in critical infrastructure. Masson claims that these systems are extremely difficult to secure. “There's lots of them. Look at it as 50, 60, 70 different bespoke communications systems. There's no real standardization because they're so old. Many of them were never expected to be connected to the internet,” said Masson. Despite this, Masson claims that the systems can be reinforced and secured. https://www.thepostmillennial.com/norad-asked-canada-to-review-cybersecurity-around-civilian-infrastructure-and-army-bases/