President Donald Trump left out a key detail this week when he outlined his plans for a massive missile and air defense shield over the continent: He can’t build it without Canada.
And it’s not clear America’s northern neighbor wants in.
Canada would need to play a pivotal role in Trump’s signature, potentially $500 billion effort to build the so-called Golden Dome, according to U.S. officials and experts, with Ottawa providing radars and airspace needed to track incoming missiles in the Arctic.
Canada has nearly 4 million square miles of territory. That airspace offers a crucial line of sight for U.S. sensors to shoot down missiles that Beijing and Moscow are developing to fly over the North Pole — a huge gap in American air defenses.
“What Canada really brings is terrain,” said Glen VanHerck, a retired Air Force general who led the U.S. Northern Command until last year. “If we can position, or Canada positions, over-the-horizon radars further north in the Arctic, that dramatically increases the United States and Canada’s ability to see over the pole into Russia, into China and other places.”
Ottawa has historically funded about 40 percent of NORAD investments, according to VanHerck, and is putting $38 billion into the command to add new radars in the north over the next two decades. Without those investments — and additional sensors that can peer over the North Pole — officials believe the U.S. will have trouble putting together a credible North American air defense.
“It will be very important where Canada decides to put its over-the-horizon radar,” said a Senate GOP aide, who was granted anonymity to talk about closed-door policy talks. “It would be much more difficult without Canada.”
Bad news for Trump’s Golden Dome: He can’t build it without Canada - POLITICO
