Arctic Security

With more activities in the Arctic, there is an increasing need to monitor and understand how such activities affect the security of Canada’s marine transportation system.  Situational awareness is key to decision-making, not only for security purposes but also for safety, environmental and economic reasons.

Achieving situational awareness about remote, sparsely populated areas of Canada is hard to do. This is especially true of Canada’s huge maritime areas that include northern waters and the Arctic Archipelago. A harsh climate and lack of access to communication networks are the great challenges Canada must meet to make good decisions related to growing interest in:

• Exploiting resources in northern regions; and
• Using northern maritime trade routes for global shipping.

Transport Canada and Defence and Research Development Canada are conducting a study to explore, evaluate, and report on the technical capabilities of sensors and information sources that can monitor the maritime environment in Canada’s North. The study will:

• Document the current state of new maritime self-reporting systems to determine the most promising technologies for northern situational awareness; and

Identify potential cross linkages between these systems to try and identify new ways to improve northern situational awareness and communications.