The latest update to the treaty governing operations of the NORAD bi-national command went into force May 12—adding the new mission of maritime warning for North America. The two original missions—aerospace warning and aerospace control—remain in place. While NORAD will warn of potential maritime threats, it will “not exercise operational control over maritime assets,” according to a Canadian backgrounder. The agreement states that maritime warning pertains to “processing, assessing, and disseminating intelligence and information” related to internal waterways of and maritime areas and approaches to Canada and the US. This does not necessarily rule out creation of a maritime version of NORAD that conceivable could have maritime operational responsibility.
In a new 2026 appropriations bill released Jan. 20, Congress included an extra $900 million to save the E-7 airborne early warning and control aircraft from cancelation, an additional $500 million for the F-47 Next-Generation Air Dominance fighter to address “emerging” needs, and $401 million to make up for “economic factors” in…
