Why the NORAD Cold War Pact Between the U.S. and Canada Is News

Why the Cold War Pact Known as NORAD Is Making HeadlinesThe State Department clarified comments made by the U.S. Ambassador to Canada that NORAD would be “altered” if that country did not purchase American F-35 jets.Canada began a review of its agreement to buy F-35 fighter jets from the United States last year. The United States still wants Canada to use those jets for the common defense of North American airspace.Credit...Eva Marie Uzcategui/ReutersJan. 28, 2026, 6:11 p.m. ETNo, the United States is not scrapping NORAD, but the government still wants Canada to buy American jets for the common defense of both countries, the State Department said on Wednesday.The product of a Cold War-era agreement between the United States and Canada, the North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, usually makes headlines when children across North America follow its Santa tracker on Christmas, but President Trump’s administration recently put it on the map for a different reason.As Mr. Trump talked up the need for a stronger Arctic defense as part of a recent push to acquire Greenland, NORAD’s capability to protect airspace came into the administration’s focus this week — at the same time as tariff tensions resurfaced.That’s because the U.S. ambassador to Canada dropped what seemed like a bombshell: There could be a change to the U.S.-Canada pact.In comments to the Canadian public broadcaster CBC News, published on Monday, U.S. Ambassador Pete Hoekstra said that if Canada did not purchase American-made F-35 fighter jets, made by Lockheed Martin, “NORAD would have to be altered” and that the United States may have to fly into Canadian airspace to fill defense gaps.The statement stirred fears about what it could mean for the decades-long pact.But Mr. Hoekstra was talking about logistical hurdles and equipment, not the agreement itself, the State Department clarified in a statement to The New York Times on Wednesday.“Ambassador Hoekstra’s comments were taken out of context to create headlines rather than to objectively portray his comments about the role that NORAD and the F-35 play in protecting the North America,” a State Department spokesperson said.Still, for many people who have checked the NORAD Santa Claus tracker, or who have heard about NORAD jets intercepting and shooting down small balloons, the increased attention will raise some basic questions.ImageAn American soldier during a simulated medical extraction with Canadian forces in the Arctic zone last year.Credit...Gavin John for The New York TimesWhat is NORAD?The North American Aerospace Defense Command is a defense organization operated jointly by the United States and Canada.Most people recognize it for tracing Santa’s fantastical global journey, as it has done for more than six decades. But the organization’s deeper work hums in the background of everyday life, as it tracks air and maritime threats that might be coming toward North America.NORAD functions as both a warning system and an aerospace shield, acting as the frontline of defense for both Canada and the United States, said Andrea Charron, a professor at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg who is also the director of the Center for Defense and Security Studies there.“The fact that NORAD exists is a deterrent to adversaries,” she said.NORAD’s stated purpose is to “prevent air attacks against North America, safeguard the sovereign airspaces of the United States and Canada by responding to unknown, unwanted and unauthorized air activity approaching and operating within these airspaces, and provide aerospace and maritime warning for North America.” The New York Times would like to hear from readers who want to share messages and materials with our journalists.A Cold War creation, NORAD was established in 1958 when the prospect of Soviet missiles and bombers crossing the Arctic was considered the gravest threat to North America.