National Defence Committee on Sept. 18th, 2025

[Robert Ritchie]

Thank you for your question.

Yes, on September 10, Russia violated Poland's sovereignty with approximately 24 drones, some of which passed through Belarus. NATO responded decisively with fighter jets from the Netherlands and Poland; Italy was also involved. At least three of those drones were shot down by NATO. Poland has discovered at least 14 of those drones on its own territory, and there appear to have been no injuries or murders related to these activities. On September 13, we saw something similar in Romania, where only one drone entered its airspace. In that case, four fighter jets from Romania and Germany were mobilized.

[Eric Laporte]

As General Ritchie said, NATO responded quickly and effectively, not only by mobilizing fighter jets, but also by convening a meeting of the North Atlantic Council the next day under article 4 of the North Atlantic Treaty. That means Poland felt threatened and wanted to tell its allies that it needed help, while signalling to its adversaries that they had gone a bit too far. NATO responded quickly by establishing a military activity called Eastern Sentry, which gives the Supreme Allied Commander Europe, or SACEUR, permission to move forces from elsewhere to the eastern front to protect NATO airspace. So it's a coordinated, rapid and determined response.

[Tim Watchorn, Liberal, Les Pays-d'en-Haut, QC]

Thank you for the answer.

I would like to know more. What would Canada's contribution be if there were an escalation? Let's say it happens again and the Russians violate other NATO partners' airspace.

How could Canada contribute to respond to that?

[Robert Ritchie]

Thank you for your question.

We work with our NATO colleagues, officers in the office of the SACEUR, the Supreme Allied Commander Europe, and their teams. We're looking at options to increase air defence and to create a drone and technology operating capability that would be based in Poland. Within defence, we are currently looking at options for the management of forces. We're in the process of formalizing that analysis, and we'll present it to our chiefs.

[Tim Watchorn, Liberal, Les Pays-d'en-Haut, QC]

That's excellent. Thank you.

I'll continue talking about drones. In the conflicts in Europe, we've seen drones being used much more than expected, with surprising effectiveness.

Does Canada have enough drones to respond to this kind of an attack?

[Robert Ritchie]

I'll start with drone technology before I turn it over to my colleagues.

Russia has significantly increased its own drone production. Over the past six months, we've seen three things change.

First, the drone payload has increased from 50 kilograms to 90 kilograms, a load that is about twice as heavy.

Second, the drone can bring more different projectiles: fragmentation bombs or thermobaric weapons.

Third, drones are increasingly resistant to electronic warfare.

[Ty Curran]

Speaking of learning, drones are clearly an important part of this battle. Investment is needed to have useful drones for the Canadian Armed Forces. That is why we are working with Ukraine. We can take advantage of its learning and technologies to equip the Canadian Armed Forces with drones capable of operating in this type of situation, in spite of electronic countermeasures.

We can take advantage of all the lessons that Ukrainians have learned during this war.

[The Chair, Liberal, Charles Sousa]

Thank you very much.

I'm mindful of the time. We are into round three.

I would like Mr. Bezan and Sherry Romanado to have their say, but given the time that I've taken away from Monsieur Savard-Tremblay, I was wondering if it's okay to give him an additional two and a half minutes. Are the members okay to allow the Bloc to ask an additional question for this last round? Okay.

It's over to you, Mr. Bezan.

[James Bezan, Conservative, Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman, MB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I thank our witnesses for being here.

I want to follow up and go back to the question of the NATO certification of Canadian troops with our allies in Latvia. It was reported by the CBC that a large number of our personnel were unable to participate in that certification exercise because a large number of vehicles.... You said there were 400 vehicles there, but a bunch of them were not in service and were unable to be used in that training exercise.

Can you speak to why that happened?

[Robert Ritchie]

In the department of defence, we have what we call national procurement, and that is the characterization of funds that go to the sustainment of fleets of equipment, including vehicles. I would declare that the recent budget commitment has enabled delivery of major spare parts orders, and we have undertaken that at speed.

That said, the lack of past resourcing eroded a couple of things, the first being the reserve stock that we had on the shelves of spare parts to sustain these fleets. As well, some of our long-standing suppliers pivoted to other contracts, given that we'd had periods of time without a contract. Time is required for industry to ramp up to need.

In the specific case that was mentioned, tanks were at issue. Tanks, importantly, are an aging platform. The current variant that we have is facing obsolescence. This is not unique to Canada. Allies that are also using the Leopard tank have encountered the same shortfalls. The war in Ukraine has intensified global demand against fixed production, and in some cases—

[James Bezan, Conservative, Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman, MB]

How many tanks were not available for that training exercise?

If that is an issue for us in Latvia, does it mean that the tanks that are here for training at Edmonton and elsewhere are unable to be used for training at this moment as well?

[Robert Ritchie]

Of the 400 vehicles that are in Latvia, 17 have a Leopard tank chassis. Fifteen of them are main battle tanks and two of them are armoured recovery vehicles. I don't have the exact number of the 17 that were not up.

That fleet is under duress as we're working with allies in Germany who generate. We always have to balance the global fleet demands, so while we privilege Operation Reassurance for the reasons that are obvious to this table, there are other theatres that may require these capabilities. We need to make sure that we're balancing domestic readiness with international readiness in different theatres.

[James Bezan, Conservative, Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman, MB]

I appreciate that.

Let's get back to the incursion of Russian drones into Polish and Romanian airspaces. The swarm that came into Poland wasn't there by accident and wasn't just testing airspace, as we saw in Romania, which was just a fly-through. You mentioned that Belarus was one of the locations where they were potentially launched from, if not flown over.

What was the target in Poland? What were they going after? Was it materiel and supply lines for Ukraine that originated out of Poland?

[Robert Ritchie]

Up front, we don't have conclusive confirmation about Russian intent. It is something on the classified level that we're monitoring carefully, including through Canadian sources and in partnership with allies.

We have seen more daring and provocative behaviour from Russia. This is all about escalation management, as Russia looks to uncover what the response is of both NATO and states on the border in terms of time, capability and risk management.

[James Bezan, Conservative, Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman, MB]

Let's talk about escalation of Russia in Ukraine specifically.

You mentioned that they seem to be gaining little ground for a high cost. We're hearing of casualties of over a million people on the Russian side already. I'm hearing that tanks and armoured vehicles are in quite a state of disrepair and that the Russians do not have availability of them anymore, especially main battle tanks.

How is that impacting their rationale in going more to Shahed drones, using more hypersonic glide missiles and rockets, and attacking further inland than what we witnessed, such as more frequent bombings of Kyiv, Lviv and other Ukrainian cities?

[Robert Ritchie]

To be sure, as you've inferred, technology has expanded reach, scope and endurance. Specifically in drone and missile technology, we are seeing iterative adjustments and iterative responses in defence on both sides of that battle space, from which we continue to learn.

You also made reference to Russian mobilization challenges, which are a thing. Russia has three times the population of Ukraine. As you're aware, they have expanded the ranks of the Russian Federation's armed forces three times since 2022, when the war started three and a half years ago. They have a goal of expanding to 1.5 million individuals and they are resorting to things like monetary initiatives, propaganda and coercion to continue to fill the ranks.

They continue to maintain a strategic partnership with North Korea. As this table knows, in November 2024, 12,000 DPRK soldiers were committed to the Kursk region, and we understand that there may still be north of 10,000 in Russian territory along that border.

[The Chair, Liberal, Charles Sousa]

Thank you, General Ritchie.

We'll go over to you, Ms. Romanado. You have five minutes.

[Sherry Romanado, Liberal, Longueuil—Charles-LeMoyne, QC]

Thank you very much Mr. Chair. Through you, I'd like to thank the witnesses for being here today.

There were some comments earlier questioning Canada's participation with Operation Reassurance. As Canada is a proud founding member of NATO, it's imperative that people understand that what is happening in Ukraine is a menace to global security.

We heard a little bit about Operation Reassurance and the fact that we have renewed our commitment for three years. What will be the impact of that renewal of this operation for NATO's eastern flank, as well as in the detection and deterrence activities that NATO is leading in the region?

[Ty Curran]

I think the extension of our mission is incredibly important to assure our allies about our long-term commitment to deterrence on the eastern flank. Operation Reassurance is the Canadian contribution to that, but all of our allies are deploying forces to the eastern flank to ensure that we are ready and able to deter future Russian aggression and, as we look at this escalation management that my colleague referred to, that we have forces that are ready to further escalate if the situation requires it, so as to deter Russian aggression.

That reinforcement that all of our allies are doing is incredibly significant. As I said before, it's the largest upscaling in a generation, and it serves to reassure our allies that the alliance is solid from a unity point of view, that we are in this together and that the territory of all members of the alliance will be defended if there is future aggression.

I'll pass that to either of my colleagues, who may or may not want to jump in.

[Sherry Romanado, Liberal, Longueuil—Charles-LeMoyne, QC]

At the G7 leaders' meeting recently, the Prime Minister and the Minister of National Defence announced an additional $2 billion in military assistance that will go towards critical equipment, drones and electronics, ammunition and military equipment to strengthen air defence support.

Can you tell us how these critical investments and tools will help on the ground?

[Ty Curran]

I can, absolutely. I have the pleasure of managing our military assistance program to Ukraine. I'm very proud of the work that we've done with some of those armoured vehicles that members have referred to that are no longer usable.

It's an incredibly challenging space for the Ukrainians. There are, as we already alluded to, significant upticks in ballistic missile attacks and drone attacks. When we speak to the Ukrainians, they've underlined to us consistently the need for more investments in air defence, the need for more investments in artillery shells and the need for more investment in drones.

Canada has played a proud part in that. We have recently announced a contribution to a U.S.-NATO initiative, the Prioritised Ukraine Requirements List, which provides urgently needed high-end military equipment to the Ukrainians, including things like Patriot missiles. We've also been able to make significant investments from Canadian industry to support the work that Ukraine is doing, not only through components but also things like armoured vehicles, ammunition and other supports.

The work we do is helping Ukraine on the ground every day. We are always keen to do more, but we recognize the need to make sure that the investments we are making are worthwhile and relevant for Canada and for Ukraine.

[Sherry Romanado, Liberal, Longueuil—Charles-LeMoyne, QC]

Major-General, would you agree that Canada's presence and training in the region, as you mentioned in terms of readiness, are important for deterrence of the CRINKs—China, Russia, Iran and North Korea—and to ensure a display of force so that we are not dealing with additional conflict in the region from the CRINKs?

[Robert Ritchie]

Canada is a resolute partner in NATO. We've been leading with strength for the last decade, doing so alongside our 13 allies on the flanks with the multinational brigades. We are seeing the interaction intensifying among adversaries such as China, Russia, Iran and North Korea. They seem to have unique relationships forming, with transactional benefits in each circumstance, but, to be sure, what's happening in Ukraine and what's happening with NATO on the eastern flank is sending a unified message to those adversaries that we are resolute in our deterrence and in the defence of the partner nations.

[Sherry Romanado, Liberal, Longueuil—Charles-LeMoyne, QC]

Thank you.

Do I have a few more moments?

[The Chair, Liberal, Charles Sousa]

Thank you. No, that's it.

Mr. Savard-Tremblay, you have two and a half minutes, and then we'll go to the next panel.