“So, if you look back in our history, both of us, Canada has been with us, I would say, all the way back to 1775 when they fought on our side a little bit against the Brits. They’ve been with us. They’re the number one partner, number one ally, the oldest ally of the United States has. And they’ve been with us through all the wars alongside us—World War I, World War II. And then, after World War II, we had the USSR become a significant threat to the world and certainly to our continent as they flew the Sputnik in 57. And in 1958, the United States and Canada came together and created NORAD to defend our airspace together, like we’re doing today, together against the number one threat to the world order, which was Soviet bombers and Soviet ICBM force. And back then, we built together that command.
That’s significant because as we look at today, there’s reality that that world order is changing, trying to change again. And we’re coming back to this architecture, Golden Dome architecture, for the North American continent to be able to win that battle.
And that’s the opportunity that we see today. And we as a world championship team here, which we are, when you have a great team, your teammates, you trust all the way through. And to make the team the best, you have to pull out the best talent from your teammate and what they do best. You don’t pull out what they don’t do well, or their average. You have to pull that out to sustain that.
So, it’s going to be a great discussion because we want to find out what Canada does great in this area that can help us win a world championship and help us defend the North American continent, which has to happen. And they’ve done some great stuff since 1958 on doing this, especially in the air defense arena, where they pay for 45% of the budget for NORAD. So I don’t think people understand that and how important that is, and how integrated they are with our C2, with our air defense capabilities today. They’re right in with us. So this is adding into that relationship and building off of it to go much bigger to where we have to go from space all the way down to what we’re seeing over in the Middle East.”
— Riki Ellison, 92nd MDAA Virtual CRT
Executive Summary
I. Introduction
The Virtual CRT “The Missile Defense of the North American Continent — ‘A Golden Opportunity’” convened Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance (MDAA) Chairman Riki Ellison with three senior leaders from the U.S.-Canada homeland defense enterprise: Gen (Ret.) Glen VanHerck (former Commander, NORAD/NORTHCOM), Major General Jeff Smyth (Canada), and Pete Saunders (Canada’s Director General for NORAD continental defense modernization). The discussion framed a moment of urgency—and opportunity—to build a layered, integrated air and missile defense architecture for North America, with Golden Dome as the catalytic initiative and NORAD as the proven binational foundation.
II. Strategic Context: A Changed Threat Reality for the Continent
Speakers argued that real-world missile and drone attacks abroad underscore that layered missile defense is no longer optional—and that North America faces a spectrum of threats ranging from ballistic and hypersonic missiles to cruise missiles and Group 3+ UAS (military-style drones), including launch vectors from maritime and undersea platforms. The shared conclusion: defending the continent requires integrated architecture “from space down,” with warning time, decision time, and coordinated response as the decisive commodities.
III. The Golden Dome Opportunity: Canada as Essential Teammate, Not Adjacent Partner
Ellison and VanHerck emphasized that Canada is already executing major parts of the mission set through NORAD (notably aerospace warning/control and daily cruise missile defense functions), and that deeper Canadian integration into Golden Dome would be most seamless if structured through the binational NORAD construct, rather than splitting responsibilities across separate command authorities. Canada’s geographic advantage in the Arctic—paired with forward sensor placement—was highlighted as strategically valuable for defending both Canadian and U.S. population centers.
IV. Canada’s Modernization Path: Sensors, C2, and Policy Shift
Canadian leaders described an evolving modernization trajectory: long-term investments (including fighter replacement, maritime platforms, and patrol aircraft) increasingly align as constituent pieces of an integrated air and missile defense system. NORAD modernization priorities center on domain awareness and decision advantage—especially through over-the-horizon radar projects and command-and-control modernization. A key inflection point highlighted in the discussion was that Canada’s prior policy prohibitions on ballistic missile defense are no longer in place, enabling more realistic planning and modeling for future roles (while specific mission commitments remain a governmental decision).
V. Data as the Center of Gravity: “Tracks” Are the Currency of Defense
All participants converged on the same operational thesis: modern defense is fundamentally a data problem—collecting sensor outputs, turning them into reliable tracks, fusing them into a common operational picture, and enabling “sensor-best-shooter” decisions at speed. Canadian officials stressed the scale of data generated by new systems and the necessity of AI-enabled processing to convert raw data into timely, actionable information for commanders.
VI. The Real Blockers: Not Technology—Policy, Culture, and Process
VanHerck argued the core obstacle is not technical feasibility—commercial leaders have already solved large-scale cloud and data-sharing problems—but rather government policy barriers, cultural inertia, and slow processes that prevent rapid sharing and operational integration (even among close allies). Multiple speakers emphasized that resilient, credential-based cloud architectures can be more secure than today’s patchwork “systems-of-systems,” but only if institutions remove roadblocks and modernize information-sharing norms.
VII. Requirements and Resourcing: Buying Down Risk Requires Effectors, Not Just Sensors
Smyth described Canada’s emerging options analysis as a balance between risk and cost across a vast geography: sensors and C2 are necessary but insufficient—without effectors (interceptors and defensive systems), investments do not materially reduce risk once a missile is launched. Canada’s stated approach to procurement emphasized a “build, partner, buy” logic (build domestically where possible, partner where advantageous, buy off-the-shelf when necessary), with interoperability designed to allow plug-and-play integration across allied systems.
VIII. Conclusion
The Virtual CRT concluded that North American missile defense is entering a decisive window: threat realities demand a layered architecture, and Golden Dome creates a strategic opening to accelerate integration. The session’s central message was that NORAD’s binational model is a uniquely powerful foundation for scaling continent-wide defense—but success depends on breaking policy/process barriers to data sharing, aligning modernization investments around domain awareness and operational decision advantage, and pairing sensors and C2 with credible effectors to produce real deterrence and defense.
Speakers:
General (Ret.) Glen VanHerck
Former Commander, NORAD/NORTHCOM
Major-General Jeff Smyth, MSM, CD
Chief Air and Space Force Development, Royal Canadian Air Force
Mr. Pete JW Saunders
Director General, NORAD Continental Defence Modernization Office
Mr. Riki Ellison
MDAA Founder & Chairman
Winners Associate with Winners to Win!