NASAMS Air Defense System Donated by Canada Arrives in Ukraine

Source: Soldatnytt/flickr

A National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System (NASAMS) donated by Canada has arrived in Ukraine. The system will help defend military sites and civilian infrastructure against Russian drones, missiles, and aircraft. The system, which was purchased from the United States, was newly manufactured by Raytheon in partnership with Kongsberg. The donation is valued at approximately CAD 406 million ($290.6 million) and was supported by a CAD 500 million ($357.9 million) military aid package announced by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in November 2022.

Since February 2022, Ottawa has also provided Ukraine with more than 300 air defense missiles from its existing inventory. Canada has committed CAD 4.5 billion ($3.2 billion) in security assistance to Kyiv, including another CAD 500 million donation announced at the NATO summit in July 2024.

The donation of a NASAMS system is notable because Canada has lacked its own air defense capability for over a decade. The Canadian Forces used to operate its own air defense system in the form of the Army’s Air Defense Anti-Tank System (ADATS), but that capability was disposed of in 2012 without being replaced. While the need for a new Ground-Based Air Defense (GBAD) system has technically been on the books, the effort did not progress in the years following ADATS’s retirement. However, the stalled program may finally gain momentum, as the Army has outlined an urgent operational requirement for an air defense system.

A new Canadian GBAD system would work in coordination with Iron Dome radars that have already been purchased by the Army to track aircraft and detect the origin of incoming mortars, artillery, and rockets. Rheinmetall Canada was awarded a contract in July 2015 for 10 EL/M-2084 radars supplied by Elta Systems. In other words, the tracking capability exists, but Canada needs an interceptor to defeat the incoming threats.

Earlier this year, Canada partially filled its air defense capability gap with the acquisition of new portable short-range air defense systems. In February 2023, Saab was awarded a CAD 227.5 million ($168.2 million) contract for its RBS 70 NG. The portable systems will be field with Canadian soldiers deployed to Latvia.