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Department of National Defence

2003–2004 Report on Plans and Priorities

Department of National Defence: 2003–2004 Report on Plans and Priorities

Minister’s Message The tragic events of September 11, 2001, vividly demonstrated how much the international security environment has changed since the end of the . Almost 15 years ago, the dominant threat to international peace and security was the potential for “mutually assured destruction” in a major war between the NATO democracies and the Soviet Bloc. Today, the most serious threat to our security is the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction to rogue regimes, failed states, and terrorist networks such as al-Qaida that have global reach. Despite differences of opinion on how best to grapple with this threat, western democracies continue to share a mutual and united interest on the need to transform their armed forces and national security establishments to deal with it. September 11, 2001, was a deliberate, conscious and organized attack on western values and interests. Under the principles of collective defence and collective security—the founding principles of NATO and the United Nations respectively—the al-Qaeda attack on the of America was an attack on all of us. That is why Canada has given its unequivocal support to the international campaign against terrorism. We were the first nation to provide immediate assistance to the United States on that tragic day. NORAD (which then had a Canadian Lieutenant-General as Deputy Commander-in-Chief) was responsible for the immediate continental aerospace response. Canadian airports and communities across the country gave safe haven to diverted aircraft. Between September 11, 2001, and March 1, 2003, Canada’s CF-18 Hornet fighter aircraft flew about 3,600 hours in support of NORAD and to safeguard the skies of North America against air piracy and air terrorism. Through Operation APOLLO, Canada put forward the fourth-largest international military contribution to the campaign against terrorism by the end of 2002, and we subsequently deployed a Battalion Group to to serve in combat operations alongside U.S. forces. In total, more than 4,500 Canadian sailors, soldiers and Air Force members have deployed on Operation APOLLO over the past 18 months. Canada recently committed, for a one-year period, a Battalion Group,