Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced a $4.2 billion radar purchase from Australia while visiting the Canadian Arctic in March 2025. CANADIAN PRESS VIA THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on March 25 announced a radar purchase from Australia and an expansion of military operations in the Arctic while visiting Canada’s far north. The prime minister’s office said the $4.2 billion Over-the-Horizon Radar system will provide early warning radar coverage from the Canada-United States border into the Arctic.
Carney announced the purchase at a military base in the capital of the Inuit-governed territory of Nunavut on his last stop after visiting Paris and London for meetings with leaders there. “Arctic sovereignty is a strategic priority of our government,” Carney said. “Canada is, and forever will be, an Arctic nation.”
The Australian radar system will consist of a series of pillars almost 1.6 kilometers in length. “This will be a significant export if this deal is finalized,” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said. Albanese had a phone call with Carney the prior night.
Senior Canadian government officials, who briefed reporters on Carney’s plane before the announcement, said the purchase has been well received by top military officials in the North American Aerospace Defense Command, the joint Canadian-U.S. military command that oversees threats over the two countries.
Carney also announced the government will spend $294 million to expand Canada’s Arctic operations and training exercises and deploy more personnel. He said Canada will have a “greater sustained year-round presence.”
Carney visited Iqaluit, which is by far the largest municipality in Nunavut, a vast territory straddling the Arctic Circle. Nunavut is roughly the size of the U.S. states of Alaska and California combined, with a mostly Inuit population of about 40,000.
For much of the year, the weather in Iqaluit can be severe. In February 2010, Iqaluit hosted a meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors from the Group of Seven nations. Several of the dignitaries, including Carney when he was head of Canada’s central bank, went dogsledding in subfreezing temperatures.
It is a distinctive destination — home to about 7,500 people but not a single traffic light — with no road or rail links to the outside world.