US and Canadian forces practise cruise missile defence

NORAD and US Northern Command are running Exercise Amalgam Dart across North America until 1 September, covering cruise missile defence scenarios and coordination with allied forces in the Arctic, the command stated.

The exercise began on 24 August and involves forces across the Alaskan, Canadian and Continental United States NORAD regions. According to the command, it is intended to sharpen the ability to detect, track, identify and respond to modern air domain threats.

American and Canadian personnel are integrating mixed fighter force operations, command and control organisations and air battle management, with aircraft flying as simulated adversaries. Training covers coordinated responses along both the eastern and western approaches to the continent, along with cruise missile defence scenarios using binational assets operating from 3 Wing Bagotville in Quebec.

The command describes the exercise as long-planned, routine and defensive.

That concept reflects a change in how the region is understood. NORAD was built around the shortest route between the Soviet Union and North America, which runs over the pole, and its warning and interception architecture faces north for that reason. The accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO has closed a gap on the European side of the same geography, and Russian long-range aviation operating from the Kola Peninsula presents a problem to both commands simultaneously rather than sequentially.