Guarding the Approaches: Can The Royal Canadian Navy Use Autonomy to Defend Canadian Waters?

ReadyAyeReady – Canada’s coastline is the longest on Earth. Its maritime approaches stretch from ice-choked Arctic channels to busy Atlantic and Pacific littorals, and the Navy cannot put a crewed ship on every square kilometre of that water. That simple geography is now driving one of the most consequential shifts in Royal Canadian Navy planning: the move from occasional presence toward persistent awareness, using uncrewed and increasingly autonomous systems above, on, and below the surface.