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For months, senior officials have been discussing exporting Australia’s world-leading radar technology JORN to the United States, but after Donald Trump’s return to the White House, Canada saw an opportunity and leapt.
Overnight, new Canadian leader Mark Carney spoke to his counterpart, Anthony Albanese, then flew to his country’s Arctic territory of Nunavut to announce a $6.5 billion high-tech Australian military purchase.
“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,” he said.
Following President Trump’s repeated threats to annex Canada and Greenland, Ottawa is purchasing the Australian-developed technology known as the Jindalee Over-the-Horizon Radar (JORN) to build its new Arctic Over-the-Horizon Radar system.
News HomeShareAustralia’s ‘biggest defence export’ was meant to go to the US first, but Canada snuck past Donald Trump exclusive by defence correspondent Andrew.
Recently Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney confirmed the $6.5 billion JORN purchase overnight.In short Canada was always meant to follow the United States in acquiring world-leading Australian radar technology but “things moved quickly” after Donald Trump won the US presidency.
Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney confirmed the $6.5 billion JORN purchase overnight, after a conversation with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.What’s next?
Defence Minister Richard Marles says there are still some hurdles to clear, but the sale of the technology would be the biggest defence export in Australia’s history.Link copiedShareFor months, senior officials have been discussing exporting Australia’s world-leading radar technology JORN to the United States, but after Donald Trump’s return to the White House, Canada saw an opportunity and leapt.Overnight, new Canadian leader Mark Carney spoke to his counterpart, Anthony Albanese, then flew to his country’s Arctic territory of Nunavut to announce a $6.5 billion high-tech Australian military purchase.”
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,” he said.”[It] will enable Canada to detect and respond to both air and maritime threats over our Arctic both faster and from further away.
It will most fundamentally keep all Canadians safe.
Following President Trump’s repeated threats to annex Canada and Greenland, Ottawa is purchasing the Australian-developed technology known as the Jindalee Over-the-Horizon Radar (JORN) to build its new Arctic Over-the-Horizon Radar system.A line of metal tube structures standing in a field.
Ottawa is purchasing Australia’s Jindalee Over-the-Horizon Radar (JORN). (Department of Defence)Ottawa has been under pressure from Washington to step up its defence spending and the new radar system will support “NORAD”, the joint US-Canadian initiative that detects incoming threats.
Now in its fourth decade of service, the high-frequency, sky-wave, over-the-horizon (OTHR) system is considered the most advanced in the world, providing wide-area surveillance of ships and aircraft out to 3,000 kilometres.
Unlike traditional radars that were limited by line of sight, Australian scientists designed JORN to beam a high-frequency radio signal skywards towards the ionosphere above the earth’s surface, which then refracted the signal down to illuminate a sign.
The echo from the target then travels by a similar path back to a separate receiver site and the data received is processed into real-time tracking information — a capability crucial to monitoring Australia’s vast northern maritime approaches.With the United States continuing its campaign of tariffs on foreign nations, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said it was good for Australia to “diversify” its trade relationships.
“[Mark Carney] certainly spoke to me about the over-the-horizon radar technology that Canada is interested in purchasing from Australia, it’s important that we diversify our trade relationships,” Mr Albanese said.”It’s important that we develop that diverse series of relationships and Canada is a very important one, we have so much in common.”
