Bill Blair, Minister of Defense of Canada, speaks to the press after his arrival at NATO headquarters on the first day of the NATO Defense Ministers’ Meeting on June 13, 2024 in Brussels, Belgium. (Omar Havana/Getty Images)
HALIFAX, CANADA — Australia and Canada have inked a new agreement to jointly work on technology to counter the ever-growing threat of missiles, especially hypersonic weapons, Canada’s Minister of National Defence Bill Blair announced today.
“I’m very pleased to announce that Canada and Australia have today signed an agreement to work together on researching emerging missile threats,” Blair told an audience during the kickoff of the Halifax International Security Forum. “We’re going to focus on countering hypersonic weapon systems and under this new agreement… [we will be] very closely tied in all of our efforts collectively together.”
In total, the duo plan to spend up to $474 million over the next five years developing a “range of solutions,” he added. While Blair didn’t drill down into the specific capabilities on the development table, a subsequent press release noted that the Defence Research and Development Canada and the Australian Defence Science and Technology Group will work together researching the emerging missile threats, to develop detection, monitoring, targeting and counter-measure technologies.
Defense and political leaders from around the globe are gathered in Nova Scotia this weekend for the annual Halifax International Security Forum, Canada’s premiere defense event. Among the main themes: Discussing the wars in Ukraine and in the Middle East, along with potential changes to NATO as president-elect Donald Trump prepares for his return to the White House.
During Trump’s first turn in office, he publicly bashed NATO countries not meeting the 2 percent GDP defense spending goal — a mark Canada does not currently hit.
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Blair used his opening speech today to praise Canada’s close relationship with its neighbor to the south and vowed to eventually meet that threshold.
“We have always depended upon that relationship [with the US] with an unparalleled alliance, especially illustrated through NORAD [North American Aerospace Defense Command], which is our binational military command that keeps a vigilant eye on North American airspace,” Blair said.
“NORAD defends our countries against threats in the air domain, that’s why we are working in partnership with the United States to invest quite significantly in order modernization, we’re making a generational investment,” he later added.
Taking the stage just after Blair, two US Senators — James Risch, R-Idaho and Jeanne Shaheen, D-New Hampshire — called on Canada to get to that 2 percent spending target as quickly as possible.
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