National Defence committee  I don't think it's a particular single thing. Building on what Dr. Karako said, we have to understand what it is we're trying to defend, and where and how, and then, in each of those instances, create the right capabilities and the right integration to do that. In some places, you're going to want to defend against small drones; in others, you want to defend against everything.

National Defence committee  I think we've seen the Chancellor of Germany say in the last week that Germany is no longer at peace with Russia. Our adversaries, China and Russia, don't abide by our arbitrary definition of what's peace and what's war, and they're in an escalating competition with us to achieve their objectives.

National Defence committee  Yes. Admiral Gortney, though, was also interested in trying to shoot those archers before they got in the air, or at least disable them. That could perhaps be done with cyber or perhaps it could be done in some logistical clever sense or even the way the Ukrainians managed through the Spiderweb.

National Defence committee  My view would be that as long as Canada demonstrates competency, willingness and leadership and leans forward by being an active participant, the system will ensure that proper collaboration tools are in place. I don't think it matters.

National Defence committee  I think so, yes, for the reasons that Whitney outlined. It's about having a good, solid, Canadian narrative on what it is we intend to do as a nation to defend ourselves. On the one hand, it's necessary to achieve those benefits, but in addition it would be helpful for the practitioners and the “pracademics” who are involved to understand what it is that Canada intends to do.

National Defence committee  There will be air domain threats that could be hybrid, so the use of civilian aircraft, for example, would be a type of hybrid threat. A hybrid threat coming in over the cyber-domain should trigger a NORAD response because it's an indication of an intent by an adversary, who then can elevate and escalate horizontally rather than....

National Defence committee  There were two parts to it: Has the world changed, and has Canada's place in it changed? I would say, like Dr. Fergusson, that there have been indications, but the world is a worse place now than it's been in most of living memory. In terms of Canada's place in it, it's bad and getting worse.

National Defence committee  I think there are a couple of ways to look at that. One would be from the military side. As Dr. Rivard Piché and I mentioned in opening statements, it's to accelerate those aspects of NORAD modernization that are possible to accelerate. I don't think we should, as we approach NORAD modernization, stick to business as usual.

National Defence committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for the opportunity to appear before the committee today to share some of my perspectives on NORAD modernization. I want to start by briefly saying that Canada’s potential adversaries have developed and are continuing to develop increasingly advanced aerospace systems that can attack, from above, targets in Canada.