Government Operations committee  Mr. Chair and members of the committee, good afternoon. My name is Alain Pelletier and I am the deputy commander of the North American Aerospace Defence Command, NORAD, here in Colorado Springs, in the state of Colorado. I've held a broad range of roles across the Canadian Arme

Government Operations committee  I thank the member for his question. Of course, the needs remain. NORAD has indicated the need for domain awareness, not only on the air defence side, but also on the maritime defence side. As you mentioned, funding was provided by the Canadian government last year to maintain t

Government Operations committee  Very well.

Government Operations committee  Of course, we are pleased that the procurement process for the next fighters has reached a certain stage, and the date for the new aircraft to enter operational service has been set for 2025. We need them to ensure our interoperability with the Americans. They have also started d

Government Operations committee  I would categorize the evolution of the threat as incredible. General VanHerck actually always says that the current environment is one of the most complex he has seen since he started his career, and I would echo that. What we have seen is that both Russia and China have looked

Government Operations committee  Canadians' input is important. We have over 1,000 people who contribute daily to the NORAD mission across both Canada and the U.S. That starts in Canada, through members working at the HQ of the region as well as the sector. The region is located in Winnipeg. The sector is locate

Government Operations committee  Mr. Chair, I thank the member for her question. Of course, the territory is huge. NORAD's area of operation is global, not limited to North America. Indeed, our aerospace warning mission actually covers the whole world. We need to know where the missiles are being launched from,

Government Operations committee  Thank you for your question. Of course, as our discussion is public, this limits my ability to respond to you somewhat. However, we can tell you that we currently have a submarine detection system. And the technology in this area has evolved on the Russian and Chinese side. Thes

Government Operations committee  Obviously, ballistic missile defence is not one, but a series of multiple—

Government Operations committee  Okay. I do believe that this is a policy discussion and decision to be made by our government.

Government Operations committee  I have a role in providing information as to how we currently do business as it relates to the—

Government Operations committee  The chief of defence staff provides a recommendation.

Government Operations committee  I'll just add to the comprehensive answer by Jon Quinn. Obviously, the co-operation between Russia and China remains a high interest item here in the command. We are also monitoring the current Ukraine crisis conflict in terms of potential co-operation moving forward between Ru

Government Operations committee  I thank the member for her question, Mr. Chair. Of course, the most important capability to meet our needs is the interoperability of the F‑35 weapon system. It is compatible with the U.S. weaponry and that is an important element. I'll talk quickly about the infrastructure. I

Government Operations committee  We have infrastructure already. What we need is to modernize the infrastructure in order to enable, as I pointed out, the network, the architecture that will enable the transmission of data that is crucial for today's command and control against very fast moving potential competi