Canada is rehearsing how to stop a foreign vessel that does not want to be found in waters that are no longer reliably frozen.
This year’s iteration of Operation Nanook, the military’s signature northern exercise, focused on intercept, board and search scenarios in the High Arctic as allies look on and the geopolitical temperature rises.
The drills reflect a shift in planning as melting ice draws more traffic and more attention from rivals.
The country’s 2024 defense policy makes the rationale plain: “a growing number of Chinese vessels and surveillance platforms are mapping and collecting data about the region.”
Beijing’s presence is not theoretical, this summer, a Chinese icebreaker operated north of Alaska while conducting research, a reminder that scientific missions can carry dual uses in an era of undersea sensors and long-range missiles.
Canadian officials say they monitor foreign vessels near their approaches and train to respond if they drift closer to home.
In July, the Department of National Defence selected the first sites for its Arctic Over-the-Horizon Radar, an early-warning system that bounces signals off the ionosphere to see far beyond the line of sight.
The project aims for an initial capability by the end of 2029 and is part of a broader, multibillion-dollar plan to modernize North American defenses with the United States.
That plan, first set out in 2022, commits $38.6 billion over two decades to update surveillance, command-and-control and weapons across the continent.
The new polar and Arctic radar layers are intended to replace and extend coverage well beyond the aging North Warning System, closing gaps that adversaries could exploit with cruise missiles, hypersonic weapons or low-flying aircraft.
The Royal Canadian Navy’s Harry DeWolf-class Arctic and Offshore Patrol Ships are now a regular fixture of northern operations.
This season, HMCS William Hall is transiting the Northwest Passage under Nanook’s maritime serials, a visible assertion of presence along a route that could see more shipping as the ice thins.
Separate deployments in the western Arctic are designed to sharpen interoperability with the U.S. while improving domain awareness across choke points from the Beaufort Sea to Baffin Bay.
Canada has ordered up to 16 P-8A Poseidon patrol aircraft to replace its aging Auroras, with deliveries beginning as soon as 2026.
The jets bring modern anti-submarine and long-range surveillance capabilities, including sensors tailored to track ships and submarines in the harsh northern environment.
Together with new radar and satellite assets, they are meant to give commanders a clearer picture of who is operating near Canadian shores and when to act.
As climate change accelerates, the Arctic is warming roughly four times faster than the global average, loosening sea ice, reshaping coastlines and opening lanes that shorten voyages between East Asia and Europe.
That raises the stakes for security and sovereignty, Canadian planners argue that defending the North now means deterring at range, integrating Indigenous Rangers more deeply into surveillance networks and ensuring ships, aircraft and troops can move and sustain themselves across a region with little infrastructure.
The emphasis on joint drills, from boarding rehearsals to live-fire events, is about proving those ideas work when the weather turns and the signals fade.
Radar sites, hardened communications, aircraft, ship maintenance and northern facilities imply years of procurement and construction.
The supply chains stretch from southern Ontario, where radar components and aerospace work will land, to coastal yards that service patrol ships and ice-capable Coast Guard vessels.
The payoff, if Ottawa follows through, is a North that is harder to probe and easier to police when curiosity gives way to confrontation.
