An aerial view of a Jindalee Operational Radar Network (JORN) transmitter site at Harts Range, Alice Springs. Photo: ADF.
The Prime Minister of Canada has announced his intention to purchase an Australian-developed, long-range, over-the-horizon (OTH) radar system to bolster the defence of Canada’s vast northern approaches.
The announcement came after a call overnight Tuesday (18 March) between Mark Carney – who was sworn in to replace Justin Trudeau last week – and his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese.
After the call Mr Carney flew to Iqaluit in Canada’s remote Arctic Nunavut region where he announced a number of economic, energy and infrastructure aims for the region and his intention to buy the system.
The system will be a development of Australia’s Jindalee Over-the-horizon Radar Network (JORN), an advanced wide-area surveillance system that can see far to the north of the Australian continent. JORN was developed in the 1980s, and is currently undergoing a massive upgrade led by BAE Systems Australia.
The system works by reflecting high-frequency electromagnetic waves off the ionosphere to find airborne and maritime objects more than 3000 kilometres away. These objects would normally not be visible to land-based radars because of the curvature of the Earth.
Australia has three antenna or arrays for its JORN system – at Laverton in WA, near Alice Springs in the NT, and at Longreach in Queensland – and the signals from these arrays are collated by the Royal Australian Air Force at its Battlespace Surveillance Centre at Edinburgh in South Australia.
While the exact range of JORN is classified, and often depends on atmospheric conditions, anecdotal reports indicate aircraft and ships can be seen on the system as far north as the coast of Vietnam and into the South China Sea in optimal conditions.
The system is not capable of producing targeting-quality tracks of these objects, but it is designed as a ‘tripwire’ system capable of cueing aircraft or ships with higher fidelity sensors to objects or areas of interest.
The Jindalee Operational Radar Network (JORN) transmitter site at Laverton, Western Australia. Photo: ADF.
As with Australia’s sparsely inhabited north and vast northern approaches, Canada has similar complex geo-strategic interests in protecting the approaches to its coastline over the North Pole, Greenland and Alaska.
“Today I’m announcing that our government will be working with our long-standing defence and security partner Australia to build a new, long-range, over-the-horizon military radar system,” Prime Minister Carney said at Iqaluit.
“[It] will enable Canada to detect and respond to both air and maritime threat over our arctic both faster and from further away. It will most fundamentally keep all Canadians safe.
“Canada is, and forever will be, an arctic nation, and we can never take our sovereignty and security in the region for granted,” he added.
“Our government will strengthen Canada’s arctic security, bolster partnerships with our closest allies, unleash the north’s economic potential, and reaffirm reconciliation with Indigenous peoples. Canada will remain a strong, secure, and sovereign nation.”
The announcement comes in the face of calls from new US President Donald Trump for NATO nations and other US allies to increase their defence spending, and threats from Trump of his desire to annex Canada as the US’s “51st state”.
If the sale goes ahead, Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles said the $6.5 billion deal would be the largest in Australia’s history.
“What we saw was a really positive statement from the Canadian Prime Minister around Over the Horizon Radar technology which has been developed in Australia,” he told ABC News Breakfast this morning (19 March).
“[This] is exquisite technology which Canada is looking at exploring and working with Australia to see whether they can put this in place in terms of their own needs. And that will actually support the security of the entirety of North America, including the United States.
“There’s a little water to go under the bridge, but what’s in prospect here is potentially the biggest defence industry export that Australia has ever been a part of.”
