National Defence committee  Thank you for the question. Obviously, as General VanHerck often says, the global security environment is more and more challenging, not only for us, but also for our allies. We have watched the threat evolve. What I've been doing here in my consultations this week with my colle

National Defence committee  Right now, as I pointed out earlier, we have an understanding of the origin of the first high-altitude surveillance balloon. Right now, during the intercept time, and going back with the data that was available from the radar, we have been unable to actually ascertain or pinpoint

National Defence committee  Obviously, as I mentioned in my opening remarks, NORAD is an evolving organization. We always attempt to remain relevant, not only to the Canadian government and to the public but also to our allies and, most importantly, to potential adversaries. We're always looking internally

National Defence committee  One of the main concerns, aside from potential surveillance and characterization of the objects and balloons, involves civil aviation, given that the last three objects were transiting through U.S. and Canadian airspace at altitudes at which commercial airlines travel regularly,

National Defence committee  Thanks, Mr. Chair, for the questions. We have assessed that the first balloon was launched from the PRC and is in fact a high-altitude surveillance balloon. That's the balloon we're talking about that was actually shot down on February 4, the balloon that we were able to actuall

National Defence committee  I can tell you that we—NORAD here—monitored the flight path of the balloon for most of its flight path over Canada. As has been discussed in the media, there were some radar gaps throughout some of its flight path. As far as the actual oversight location is concerned, the high-al

National Defence committee  The threat is currently being assessed. Obviously, in the considerations for the first high-altitude surveillance balloon from the PRC, our main concern was around its collection ability based on the quantities of sensors that were assessed to be on board. As for the other ob

National Defence committee  From my access to intelligence here, I'm not tracking those capabilities being tested right now by the PRC. Maybe General Prévost—

National Defence committee  General Prévost, do you have anything to add there?

National Defence committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Good afternoon, committee members. Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today. If I may, I would like to take 15 seconds to pass on our best wishes to Mr. Bezan and his family. Having lived similar circumstances, I can only empathize with what

National Defence committee  No, I am still in the system.

National Defence committee  I'll just add on to General Huddleston's answer that obviously NORAD will continue to do its mission as part of the CAF reconstitution priority. The vice-CDS has acknowledged the requirements for our personnel to be dedicated to the mission, given the no-fail nature of our missio

National Defence committee  I agree that northern communities have a lot to contribute to the defence of our country and to the protection of our sovereignty; however, I believe that the issue of capacity would be best addressed by our chief of military personnel, who keeps statistics and has a very good un

National Defence committee  I'm not going to elaborate on why Canada is not part of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. That's a policy question that I'll leave to our national decision-makers; however, I'll address our capability of detecting, tracking and—

National Defence committee  Mr. Chair, I'll let General Huddleston, who's responsible for force generation in the RCAF, address the question to start off.