Vanguard Magazine

www.vanguardcanada.com JUNE/JULY 2022 17 COMMAND AND CONTROL North Warning System Long Range Radar Site Photo: Pierre Leblanc approximately 175 military and civilian personnel once fully matured in the next few years. This is an increase of 85 positions from the current Director General Space organization. The CAF's space-based capa- bilities are used to deliver communications, command and control, navigation, weath- er, and overall situational awareness in sup- port of military operations and activities. These activities can include not only sup- port to NORAD but to search and rescue, along with monitoring Canada's maritime approaches, reinforcing Arctic sovereignty, and providing support to decision-making in overseas operations. Canada's commitment to the Combined Space Operations Initiative (CSOI) will also be a priority for 3 Canadian Space Di- vision. This agreement currently includes the so-called "Five Eyes": Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, the Unit- ed States, and Canada plus France and Germany. (The RCAF is not alone in cre- ating a new dedicated space division. The new United States Space Force stood up in 2019 with more than 8,000 person- nel. In April 2021, Britain stood up its own Space Command to both coordi- nate space operations and procurement of space systems, with approximately 400 staff. And earlier this year, the Australian Defence Force announced that it was creating its own defence space command with, initially, at least 100 personnel.) The heart of the recent NORAD Mod- ernization announcement was that, in coordination with the US, Canada will establish the backbone for a brand-new, Northern Approaches Surveillance system to enhance surveillance and early warning of threats to our continent specifically in- cluding three initiatives: • an Arctic Over-the-Horizon Radar system to provide early warning radar coverage and threat tracking from the Canada-U.S. border to the Arctic Circle [Note - Canada is not alone in pursuing this technology as Australia has already developed its own over-the-horizon sys- tem known as the "Jindalee Operational Radar Network (JORN)" that can mon- itor air and sea movements]; • A Polar Over-the-Horizon Radar system to provide early warning radar coverage over and beyond the northernmost ap- proaches to North America, including the Canadian Arctic Archipelago; and • A new system called "Crossbow" — a network of sensors with classified ca- pabilities, distributed across northern Canada, as another layer of detection. These three systems should significant- ly improve the situational knowledge of what enters Canadian airspace. The NWS, the current central monitoring el- ement of NORAD, will still need to be fully maintained until these new systems are in place. When combined with addi- tional space assets and 3 Space Division oversight, these improvements will sig- nificantly enhance the overall continen- tal defence command capability and the The Commander of NORAD is also dual- hatted as the Commander of United States Northern Command or USNORTHCOM. The Commander's goal in terms of com- mand and control is to use both existing and emerging technologies in order to create the environment necessary for both NORAD and USNORTHCOM to achieve what they call "information dominance." The Commander needs accurate, timely, and pertinent information from a sensor network that includes data from all domains (including space) in order to allow for a fuller understanding of any possible threats from adversaries and to create as much time as possible for decision-making, along with providing all possible choices and options for deterrence and / or defence. In its final state, the RCAF's No. 3 Cana- dian Space Division is projected to employ NORAD's North Warning System (NWS) currently primarily uses a set of "trip wire" radar stations spread across both Alaska and Canada's North in order to provide advanced warning of any threats.

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