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Canada investing $4.9 billion to modernize North American defences

OTTAWA — Defence Minister Anita Anand says Canada will invest $4.9 billion over the next six years to modernize North America’s aging defensive systems.

Anand says the funding is the first of an estimated $40 billion that will be spent over the next 20 years to upgrade the joint U.S.-Canadian early warning system known as Norad and purchase other military assets to protect the continent.

The announcement at an Ontario air force base this morning comes amid numerous warnings from U.S. and Canadian military officials and experts that Norad is badly showing its age.

Anand had been promising a robust package of investments for upgrading the system set up in the 1950s, which is responsible for detecting incoming airborne and maritime threats to North America, including missiles and aircraft.

The new funding will include plans to build new radar networks to detect threats coming over the Arctic, as well as command and control systems, advanced air-to-air missiles and others.

It was not immediately clear whether Canada will also join the U.S. in actively defending against intercontinental ballistic missiles — a program Ottawa opted out of in 2005.

News from © Canadian Press Enterprises Inc., 2021