Andreas Urbanski’s Op-Ed in the Geopoliticalmonitor.com:
… defence manufacturing plays by different rules and is almost tariff-proof. That means demand does not dry up if prices go up. Allies who apply tariffs to Canadian-built defence imports will simply increase the cost to their own taxpayers. Much of the defence trade runs between governments, through channels where ordinary tariff rules typically do not apply. Canada and the United States have exactly such a channel, the Defence Production Sharing Agreement, in operation since 1956.
One category where Canada has a unique opportunity to use the current crisis to lead the Western alliance is in unmanned systems. This country’s Defence Industrial Strategy has already declared autonomous systems to be one of its 10 sovereign capability priorities. The government has earmarked an investment of C$130 million into a Drone Innovation Hub and has established a National Uncrewed Systems Capability Acceleration Hub this summer. At the same time, every ally, including the United States, has enormous, unmet demand for unmanned systems.
The first is geography: Canada needs drones more than any other NATO ally, with the world’s longest coastline, measuring more than 200,000 km, an Arctic covering roughly 40% of its territory, and a population density too low to enforce sovereignty over its vast, remote, and inhospitable terrain. […]
Next is geology. Canada’s mineral reserves are the Western alliance’s best hope of reducing its heavy reliance on Chinese supply chains, particularly for defence-critical metals. […]
The third advantage has to do with Canada’s idle industrial capacity. The bill of materials of a military robot – components such as actuators, batteries, sensors, power electronics – is quite similar to an electric car. […]
The fourth and final strength concerns AI talent. If tomorrow’s wars are deterred and fought mainly by machines, victory belongs to the power that can fuse robotics with AI. […]