Canada Unveils First-Ever Defense Industrial Strategy

(MENAFN) Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on Tuesday became the first leader in the country's history to launch a national defense industrial strategy, signaling a sweeping overhaul of how Canada builds, buys, and controls its military capabilities.

Speaking at a launch event in Montreal, Carney framed the initiative as inseparable from economic sovereignty, declaring: "Defending Canada means more than the size of our military. It also means the strength of our industries, the resilience of our economy and our capacity to act independently when it matters most. Our national security and our economic security go hand in hand."

He further stressed that the new strategy "ensures Canada remains a sovereign nation, in charge of its own destiny."

At the core of the plan is a commitment to deploy more than 500 billion Canadian dollars — approximately 365 billion U.S. dollars — over the next 10 years to reinforce national security, economic resilience, and sovereign integrity, according to a statement from the prime minister's office.

Among its most ambitious targets: directing 70 percent of all federal defense contracts to Canadian companies while driving a 240 percent surge in domestic defense industry revenues within the decade. Officials say the strategy also aims to dismantle a procurement system long condemned as bloated, slow-moving, and dangerously dependent on foreign suppliers.

Central to the plan's execution is the creation of a new defense investment agency, which will serve as the strategy's governing body — tasked with accelerating procurement timelines and delivering military capabilities with greater speed and efficiency.

On the NATO front, Canada is projected to hit the alliance's benchmark defense spending threshold of 2 percent of GDP within the current fiscal year, with the government eyeing a far more aggressive target of 5 percent of GDP by 2035.

MENAFN18022026000045017169ID1110755644