Stop the Hogs!

Canada has done a complete about-face on ballistic missile defence

[ https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion ... XOnptWQSjA ]

MICHAEL BYERS Globe & Mail June 28, 2021

[i]Michael Byers holds the Canada Research Chair in Global Politics and International Law at the University of British Columbia. He is the co-director of the Outer Space Institute.[/i]

The U.S. State Department – not the Canadian government – recently revealed that Canada’s next generation of warships could be equipped for ballistic missile defence when it announced it had approved the export of the AEGIS Combat System to Canada. The decision came in response to a very quiet request last year from the Department of National Defence; there was no presser (TYPO - s/b 'pressure'?) by Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan and no opportunity for Canadian journalists to ask questions.

The announcement was made without a debate in Parliament and after 36 years of successive governments choosing to keep Canada out of U.S. missile defence programs, which began with Ottawa’s rejection of Ronald Reagan’s “Star Wars” program in the 1980s.
Canada’s top soldier says the West faces being outmatched in military defence by China

The AEGIS Combat System includes the world’s most advanced radar (AN/SPY-7) and vertical missile launching (MK 41) systems. Canada is also acquiring the Cooperative Engagement Capability, a remote firing system that allows a commander on one ship to launch missiles from another, without the latter being in the decision loop.

The AN/SPY-7 is designed specifically for ballistic missile defence. Canadian ships will be able to track incoming missiles and instantaneously share that information with U.S. vessels and ground-based missile interceptors. The U.S. Navy’s AEGIS-class vessels are equipped with SM-3 missiles designed for intercepting intermediate-range ballistic missiles and tested against intercontinental ballistic missiles. SM-3 missiles travel at 18,000 kilometres per hour and can reach an altitude of 1,000 kilometres. . . . .

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Could Canada’s new warships be used for U.S. Missile Defence?

[ https://www.peacequest.ca/could-canadas ... WzmIFrmhJ8 ]

- PEACEQUEST - Michael Byers June 28, 2021

There have been a lot of questions surrounding Canada’s proposed new warships, also know as Canadian Surface Combatants. Writing in The Globe and Mail this week, Michael Byers points out that some of the weapons technology being considered for our fleet could drag Canada into the destabilizing, faulty and costly U.S. missile defence system.

The U.S. State Department – not the Canadian government – recently revealed that Canada’s next generation of warships could be equipped for ballistic missile defence when it announced it had approved the export of the AEGIS Combat System to Canada. The decision came in response to a very quiet request last year from the Department of National Defence; there was no presser (TYPO - s/b 'pressure'?) by Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan and no opportunity for Canadian journalists to ask questions.

The announcement was made without a debate in Parliament and after 36 years of successive governments choosing to keep Canada out of U.S. missile defence programs, which began with Ottawa’s rejection of Ronald Reagan’s “Star Wars” program in the 1980s.

The AEGIS Combat System includes the world’s most advanced radar (AN/SPY-7) and vertical missile launching (MK 41) systems. Canada is also acquiring the Cooperative Engagement Capability, a remote firing system that allows a commander on one ship to launch missiles from another, without the latter being in the decision loop.

The AN/SPY-7 is designed specifically for ballistic missile defence. Canadian ships will be able to track incoming missiles and instantaneously share that information with U.S. vessels and ground-based missile interceptors. The U.S. Navy’s AEGIS-class vessels are equipped with SM-3 missiles designed for intercepting intermediate-range ballistic missiles and tested against intercontinental ballistic missiles. SM-3 missiles travel at 18,000 kilometres per hour and can reach an altitude of 1,000 kilometres. . . . .

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