NORAD Next: One of the Most Successful, Evolving Binational Security Agreements Charts Out Its 21st Century Role

By Keith Edmund White, Editor-in-Chief

Last week Canadian and American defense and security experts met and took the first step to chart North American Aerospace Defense Command’s (NORAD) 21st century mission. While NORAD failed to get mention in Beyond the Border’s (BTB) first report card, its proof of the benefits that Canadian and American security cooperation yields.

NORAD, a 1958 agreement crafted to defend Canada and the United States Russian nuclear weaponry, has a long history of adapting itself to new times. (Or, perhaps more well-known to readers, NORAD is the organization that tracks Santa’s Christmas Eve globe-tracking flight.)

From Donna Miles at American Forces Press Service, reporting on the recent meeting of the Permanent Board of Defense:

The discussion was a first step toward a broad analysis to identify what threats and challenges the United States and Canada will face in the 2025-to-2030 timeframe -- and what steps need to be taken now to prepare for them,, [Royal Canadian Air Force Lt. Gen. J.A.J. ‘Alain’] Parent said.

NORAD Next is largely a vision at this point, Parent emphasized, and any changes to the binational NORAD agreement would require both countries’ approval. But vast changes in the security landscape have produced broad agreement that NORAD must continually evolve to meet challenges to North America, he said.
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More than a decade after 9/11, NORAD officials are widening their field of vision yet again as they discuss roles the command could play in addressing threats from a broad array of domains: air, space, sea, land and even cyberspace.  

They also are working to identify what warning systems and processes will be required to address these threats, particularly as the life cycles of many of the current radars expire in the 2020-2025 timeframe.

NORAD has an impressive history of adapting to changing times. From NORAD in 2012 – Ever Evolving, Forever Relevant by Lieutenant-General Tom Lawsonwith Michael Sawler: 

Although there has been little change to NORAD’s fundamental role over the years, there has been a continuous evolution of its mission. As discussed earlier, NORAD’s early mission of deterring, detecting, and intercepting Soviet bombers, soon expanded to missile detection and warning, with the later inclusion of internal air traffic, and, much later, the warning of threats from the seas. The uniqueness of the binational agreement encourages the use of NORAD to address threats of interest to Canada and the United States. One could therefore broaden the discussion to speculate upon what else could fit into the NORAD mission. An area of interest that immediately comes to mind is the Arctic. 

To get a sense of just how much NORAD has adapted over its over 50-year existence, check out this 1976 speech by Lieutenant Colonel Povilus: 

Let us take a brief look at the Soviet missile threat. It’s a fairly dynamic one. In case you have never seen a Soviet Intercontinental Ballistic Missile being fired, here is a short film clip. The whole family of Soviet ICBMs numbers over sixteen hundred targeted for North America. Some of the older ones are being dismantled in favour of submarine launched missiles. The SS-9 in the middle is the largest intercontinental missile in the world. It’s about 110 feet tall, as high as an eleven-storey building, destined for targets such as Cheyenne Mountain, perhaps, or some of our missile fields, or maybe even the Bank of Montreal…
So while we wait for details on what NORAD Next will and will not do, it’s clear that NORAD has and will continue to play a critical role in Canadian-American security cooperation. Furthermore, even if you don’t read NORAD and BTB in the same press release, the two joint endeavors are closely related and—on the security front—will likely build on one another. 

Here are some ongoing NORAD projects and possible new ventures that may be grabbing headlines in 2013: 

• Cybersecurity. A key part of the BTB Action plan, NORAD and U.S. Northern Command launched a joint cybersecurity division last May.
• Adding Mexico? Jessica Zuckerman at The Heritage Foundation calls for adding Mexico to NORAD.
• Arctic Cooperation. Col (Ret.) Alan Stephenson pushes for a robust NORAD Arctic role, and pushes Canadians not to let Arctic sovereignty concerns get in the way. And it seems that NORAD, along with independent U.S. and Canadian military commands, are doing pushing ahead on Arctic Cooperation. Check out December 2012’s Framework for Arctic Cooperation.