NORAD Needs Modernizing, Experts Say

Canada has relied on the North American Aerospace Defence Command (NORAD), a joint U.S.-Canada effort to defend North America's skies, to detect air threats since the mid-1950s. But NORAD's Arctic security infrastructure is aging, two academics who specialize in Arctic security told CBC Canada.

"There have been pretty strong indications that the North Warning System, as it's currently constructed, is no longer sufficient to have the watch for North America," said Whitney Lackenbauer, a Canada Research Chair who studies Arctic sovereignty and security.

Robert Huebert, an associate professor at the University of Calgary who specializes in Arctic sovereignty and security, said NORAD's infrastructure needs to be expanded, with more ground-based radar, as well as some element of space-based security. 

New threats that weren't around when NORAD was created, such as hypersonic missiles and sophisticated, underwater autonomous vehicles, mean Canada also has to work more closely with the U.S. to shore up its Arctic borders, he said.

This week, NORAD is carrying out an air training operation in Canada's North, intended in part to send a message to Russia that Canada is prepared for any aggression.