US, Canada begin joint week-long Arctic Air Defense Drills

US and Canadian air forces are starting a week-long Arctic exercise, Amalgam Dart, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) has announced on Saturday (local time).

"#AirPower on the move! Members of the @148FW, Minnesota National Guard, are officially on their way to #AmalgamDart. The #NORAD arctic air defense exercise starts today and goes until March 26th," NORAD said on Twitter on Saturday.

"Support teams have arrived at Thule Air Base, Greenland, ready to kick off #AmalgamDart. During the exercise, we will enhance our readiness and demonstrate our capability to defend our northern approaches," NORAD tweeted on Friday.

Last month, the US and Canada planned to modernize a network of defense satellites and radar in the Arctic.

Michael Dawson, who served as Canadian political adviser to NORAD command in Colorado from 2010 to 2014 told the NORAD system had become outdated as new Russian and Chinese missiles are capable of traveling at more than five times the speed of sound as reported by Sputnik.

(ANI)

Also Read: Rajnath Singh: Looking forward to make India-US relations one of defining partnerships of 21st century