The mission of the Canadian NORAD Region (CANR) is to provide aerospace surveillance, identification, control and warning for the defense of Canada and North America.

Headquartered at 1 Canadian Air Division in Winnipeg, Manitoba, CANR executes a variety of tasks to defend Canadian airspace, including identifying and tracking all aircraft entering Canadian airspace, exercising operational command and control of all air defense forces in CANR and operations in support of other government departments and agencies.

CANR is one of three North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) regions. The other two subordinate regional headquarters are located at Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska and Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida. NORAD is the bi-national Canada- U.S. command that continuously provides worldwide detection, validation and warning of a ballistic missile attack on North America and maintains continental detection, validation, warning and aerospace control of air-breathing threats to North America, to include peacetime alert levels and appropriate aerospace defense measures to respond to hostile actions against North America.

Since the terrorist attacks of 2001, CANR has been heavily committed to Operation Noble Eagle (ONE), NORAD’s ongoing internal air defense mission.

1 Canadian Air Division is responsible for providing CANR with combat-ready air forces to meet Canada’s commitment to the defense of North America and maintain the sovereignty of North American airspace.

NORAD assets are positioned strategically throughout Canada and the U.S. and can respond to any air sovereignty threat in a matter of minutes. CANR CF-18 Hornet fighter aircraft are on continuous alert to respond to any potential aerial threat to the safety of Canada and Canadians.

Learn more about NORAD's Canadian Forces