Why the NORAD inventory might be the US and Canada’s Achilles’ heel
Both the US and Canada operate Cold War-era capabilities which cannot defeat today’s and tomorrow’s threats.
2023 Update: Shephard no longer publishes annual handbooks. Legacy handbook PDFs can be accessed via our Handbook Download Portal here.
Both the US and Canada operate Cold War-era capabilities which cannot defeat today’s and tomorrow’s threats.
Air defence systems are continuing to appear top of countries’ shopping lists but broadly across different capabilities it is a sellers’ market, as demonstrated by backlogs and double-digit percentage point growth.
Mike Moran, Director of US Government Business at Amazon Project Kuiper Government Solutions, highlighted the evolution of space as a critical warfighting domain at the Defence in Space Conference (DISC) 2025, held this week in London.
In May this year, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said the government plans to position Germany as “Europe's strongest conventional army”. A new blueprint outlines how this is going to occur through massive investment.
Two of the concrete projects outlined in the readiness report, the European Air Shield and Space Shield, will aim to be launched by Q2 2026.
The country has allocated RM21.70 billion for defence spending next year, with some major procurements set to be initiated across the country’s army, navy and air force.