U.S.-Canada ponder cruise missile warnings



Navy Vice Adm. Bill Gortney, director of the Joint Staff, gives an operational update concerning Libya, at the Pentagon in Washington, Sunday, March 20, 2011. The commander of NORAD says U.S. and Canadian defence planners are taking notice of Russia's use of cruise missiles in Syria, something that could have wide-ranging implications for the West ??? particularly in the Arctic. Gortney tells The Canadian Press that multiple strikes on Raqqa, the de facto capital of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, show Russian aircraft don't have to leave their airspace in order to deliver lethal effects.THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP Photo/Cliff Owen

OTTAWA - The bloody, sun-baked sand of Syria is a long way from the Canadian Arctic, but Russia's use of cruise missiles in the five-year-old civil war has defence planners in both the U.S. and Canada sitting up and taking notice.

U.S. Admiral Bill Gortney, the commander of Norad, said multiple strikes on Raqqa — the de facto capital of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant — show Russian aircraft don't have to leave their airspace in order to deliver lethal effects.

The missiles, launched last November, came from Tu-160 and Tu-95 warplanes and warships in the Caspian Sea and travelled thousands of kilometres to hit their targets. Those attacks were followed in December by submarine-based launches of Kalibr cruise missiles.

In an exclusive interview with The Canadian Press, Gortney said the message intended for the West was crystal clear.

"There was no tactical or operational requirement for any of those shots," he said. "They were telling us they have this capability and can employ it globally."

The Trudeau government is about to embark on a defence policy review, but unlike its Conservative predecessor, which emphasized military preparedness in the Arctic, the issue has barely registered in Liberal policy statements.

One of the pressing issues will be replacing the rapidly aging north warning system of radar stations over the next decade.

But defence planners in both Washington and Ottawa have in recent years been quietly warning about the threat of a surprise cruise missile attack from the Far North. Most of their research, however, has focused on rogue nations or terrorist threats from converted ships operating in the Northwest Passage.

They have warned, however, that the absence in the Arctic of radar protection at low levels below 3,000 metres means there would be very little warning of a cruise missile launch in the region.

Gortney said Norad can track ballistic missiles coming over the North Pole, but coverage for low-flying cruise missiles remains a major challenge. American and Canadian planners are together trying to figure out a solution, he said.

"Against this particular threat, you need the ability to look over the horizon," Gortney said. "Does that mean it needs to be airborne — or land based? Or a combination of both?"

The harsh environment poses a bit of conundrum, he added.

One possible solution would be an aircraft carrier-based E2D-Hawkeye surveillance plane, which has been fully tested electronically. But Canada has neither the plane nor the ship, and American use of both would depend on weather.

Norad planners are also experimenting with the use of static balloons with a load of surveillance gear.

"Because of the nature of the Arctic, a balloon might not be the best option," Gortney said.

The Canadian military has been studying the idea on its own, and has considered the possibility of installing static surveillance balloons at choke points along the Northwest Passage.

The aerospace command is also responsible for monitoring maritime approaches to the continent. A number of defence journals and open-source intelligence reports have noted that Russian submarine activity in the North Atlantic has now surpassed Cold War levels — something Gortney confirmed.

Yves Brodeur, Canada's former ambassador to NATO, recently said Russia has become a more unpredictable actor on the world stage and that the alliance was caught flat-footed by the annexation of Crimea in 2014.

"We never saw it coming," Brodeur told a defence conference last week.

"It says something about the early warning systems. We ended up trying to catch up with something we didn't quite understand."

A lot of Canadian citizens, myself included, have been saying for years that Russia has eyes on Canadian territories in the Arctic. Some politicians have lobbied for a stronger military presence in the north, where we are most vulnerable, but little attention has been paid to the situation. To give Mr Harper credit, he was more aware and concerned about Russian aggression in the north, but even he had no long range plans.

We stand alerted and warned. Russia is taking the world stage as an aggressor and threat to world peace (Once more).  Why is it always about world domination?  While the  global community is focused on ISIS, Russia is taking advantage of the chaotic situation to sneak up on the world with military might, under the guise of assistance.  Putin must sense a certain weakening in the west a certain relaxing of military vigilance unless it pertains to terrorists. We can see the icy fingers of a future 'cold war' gradually gaining a stranglehold on a divided world. The two big guys, Russia and the USA facing off...we've been here before. And why is Russia suddenly so bold and confident ?? Does China have their back? What good will our heightened awareness do us if we don't take some kind of defensive or forestalling action?


Thanx to the Canadian Press for providing materials