US and Canadian air forces are starting a week-long Arctic exercise, Amalgam Dart, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) has announced.
“#AirPower on the move! Members of the @148FW, Minnesota National Guard, are officially on their way to #AmalgamDart. The #NORAD arctic air defense exercise starts today and goes until March 26th,” NORAD said on Twitter on Saturday.
Last month, The Wall Street Journal reported that the US and Canada planned to modernize a network of defense satellites and radar in the Arctic.
Michael Dawson, who served as Canadian political adviser to NORAD command in Colorado from 2010 to 2014 told the newspaper that the NORAD system had become outdated as new Russian and Chinese missiles are capable of traveling at more than five times the speed of sound.
US President Joe Biden has reportedly asked Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to increase Canada’s spending on defense, including an upgrade of NORAD.
