Today, the Honourable Bill Blair, Minister of National Defence, concluded a successful trip to Europe. During his visit, the Minister participated in the 26th Ukraine Defense Contact Group (UDCG) meeting hosted by the United Kingdom (UK), a meeting of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Defence Ministers at the NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, and the 61st Munich Security Conference (MSC) in Munich, Germany.
While in Brussels, Minister Blair reaffirmed Canada's continued support for Ukraine and announced that Canada will deliver two more F-16 flight simulators to Ukraine from Canadian industry. This is in addition to the donation of two F-16 simulators that have already been announced by Canada, to support the Armed Forces of Ukraine's (AFU) pilot training and skills maintenance. Given the current operational pressures on the AFU's fleet of F-16s, which limits the number aircraft available for training, these simulators will be especially pertinent. The Minister also highlighted the successful delivery of two Instrument Landing Systems for F-16s in December 2024, which enhance the AFU's growing F-16 capabilities.
At the NATO Defence Ministers' meeting (DMM) on February 13, Minister Blair highlighted Canada's ongoing work to strengthen the Alliance's deterrence and defence posture, including through our leadership of NATO's Multinational Brigade Latvia (MNB-L) as part of Operation (Op) REASSURANCE.
In support of Op REASSURANCE and our continued commitment to strengthen NATO's Eastern Flank, the Minister announced that Canada has finalized an agreement to acquire the Switchblade 300 and Switchblade 600 loitering munitions systems from AeroVironment Inc., to be deployed in Latvia. The $67-million investment will provide land-based precision-fires weapon systems able to reliably locate, track, and neutralize adversary targets beyond visual line of sight to a range of 40km. It will also allow the Canadian Army (CA) to develop and refine its tactics, techniques, and procedures for the coordination and employment of precision guided fires, setting the conditions for the successful integration of future long-range precision fires and loitering munition capabilities.
On the margins of the DMM, Minister Blair also held meetings with his counterparts to discuss a range of issues, including support for Ukraine and strengthening strategic alliances. The Minister met with:
- Pete Hegseth, US Secretary of Defense;
- Troels Lund Poulsen, Danish Minister of Defence; and
- Rustem Umerov, Ukrainian Minister of Defence.
While in Brussels, Minister Blair also participated in multilateral meetings of the Air Force Capability Coalition supporting Ukraine, and a meeting of the 3+3 format of Lead and Host nations for NATO's Forward Land Forces in the Baltics States (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, UK, Canada and Germany).
From February 14 to 16 Minister Blair attended the MSC, a leading forum for discussing international security policy, where he reaffirmed Canada's commitment to Euro-Atlantic security. During the conference, Minister Blair held bilateral meetings with counterparts, attended side events, and met with industry leaders.
During his bilateral engagements Minister Blair reiterated Canada's commitment to trans-Atlantic security, NATO Allies, and Partners, and support for Ukraine.
