While attention to the escalating tensions between the West and Russia is currently focused on Ukraine, there is another new battlefield that deserves our attention: Northern Europe and the Arctic. The modernization and redeployment of Russia's strategic military forces in the region, including the development of nuclear submarines and hypersonic missile systems, has drawn a backlash from the United States and most of its northern allies.
Earlier this month, for example, Finland announced it would buy 64 F-35 fighter jets from US defense contractor Lockheed Martin. In the next few years, Norway, Denmark and the UK will assemble 52, 27 and 135 F-35s respectively. For such Nordic countries, the F-35's advanced stealth and interoperability provide greater responsiveness to Russian weapons delivery systems, which is itself much faster.
As for Norway, it recently entered into an agreement with the US allowing them to deploy American bombers such as the B-1 from Norwegian bases. Norway will also allow US nuclear submarines to operate from their northern bases. Meanwhile, Danish media have reported that the US is working with Greenland to expand airport facilities at the American base in Tula, Greenland, to allow the Americans to operate a much larger fighter and bomber air component. And let's not forget that in 2016, America reversed a 2006 decision not to deploy fighter jets in Iceland.
Overall, it is clear that our northern European allies and partners see a real and growing threat in Russia and are responding no matter how costly such a solution might be, both economically and politically.
So where is Canada in this volatile Arctic security environment? In order to respect its relationship with the US and defend its North American homeland to its advantage, Canada must take action as much - if not more - than the Nordic countries. But Canada is slow on this issue.
In 2017, the federal government, led by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, unveiled a "Strong, Secure, Active" defense policy that articulates a "fully funded plan" and acknowledges the new geopolitical importance of the Arctic. The policy suggests that some measures may take longer than the government to implement.
But this is Mr. Trudeau's third term, and Canada still lacks the development of our security capabilities in the Arctic compared to our allies in Northern Europe. Despite the fact that they used the F-35, we still have not decided on a replacement for the CF-18 fighter, which is already 40 years old. We are also postponing the NORAD upgrade needed to develop surveillance systems capable of detecting Russian nuclear and non-nuclear weapon delivery vehicles.
The government, to its credit, went ahead with building an Arctic offshore patrol ship and even announced that two more would be built for the Canadian Coast Guard. He has also worked to improve Canada's search and rescue capabilities in the Arctic and other homeland security issues. But on an issue so vital to the defense of our northern region in this context of increasing militarization that requires the purchase of F-35s and the modernization of NORAD, Canada has done nothing but make a promise.
Our continued refusal to make difficult but necessary decisions to join the efforts of our allies in the North will send the wrong signal to Russia and America. If we are the only country that does not take serious steps to modernize its defense capabilities, we will show ourselves as a weak link in the alliance, and it can be expected that the enemy will take advantage of this. In the meantime, the US may well lose faith in its defense partnership with a country that makes it vulnerable, an outcome that Canada has tried to avoid since the end of World War II. their allies and play their part in defending the North.
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