The Canadian Strike Complex

Resource

Graphics. We don't do that often here at TNSR. Along with most of my posting being spontaneous, and as such giving me no time to prepare, I also never really quite believe they're ever up to a professional standard. As such, most of my little graphics remain strictly for my personal use only. I like handy graphics, pamphlets, all of it. When you bounce around a bunch, it's nice to have some cheat sheet resources to pull up.

I posted this to Twitter the other day, and the response was very positive. Several people encouraged me to post it because "it's better than nothing," and you know what? I can understand that. No one else will do something like this, and so why shouldn't I throw it out there, even if it isn't fantastic?

I won't dump a million at a time, but I will at least get this one out. This is the Canadian Strike Complex, or CSC. It is one half of the Canadian Deep Sense-Strike Complex that we've been talking about for the last few months. I didn't come up with that name, a friend of mine did, but I have elected to adopt it because I think it captures the ecosystem well.

So what is it, actually? The short version: a strike complex represents a state's ability to target adversaries and critical targets at a distance. It represents the coverage of effectors that a state has to strike at targets. For Canada, that Strike Complex represents an onion that stretches from about 800 metres to about 1,600 kilometres. Across land, air, and sea, there is no band of range and no launch domain where Canada has nothing to answer with out beyond 1,000 km.

A few quick notes:

• Bars run to the maximum cited range. Where a weapon's reach depends heavily on flight profile, JSM for example, the tick marks show the honest spread rather than one flattering number.

• The DDIM bar fades out on purpose. It's an envelope across a whole family of potential procurements, not a single weapon, and drawing it with a hard edge would be inaccurate. I still wanted to include it, though, so it remains a vague line on purpose.

• Figures are official specifications where those exist and open-source estimates where they don't. Everything is profile-dependent and subject to change if I decide to keep this updated.

I originally developed this as a quick guide for myself to keep track of available, ordered, and planned munitions (that I know of) coming online and expected to form part of Canada's Strike Complex past the 2030s. I make note of planned because things can always change. Any munition here is at least one that I have directly heard mentioned, referenced, or in official plans. That includes stuff like JASSM-ER and AARGM-ER, which are being heavily discussed but still not settled on.

The funny thing, now that I think about it, is how much of the Naval side of things is based on specifically two munitions, NSM and Tomahawk. That isn't unique to us, obviously, but mapped out like this, it did give me a giggle at the naval side sitting at the bottom there.

The other thing to rattle your brain is how Canada went from functionally no strike ladder to trying to build out a nearly complete one on paper by 2035. I am a relative newbie to many of you. I've been following defence for four years now. I still struggle to wrap my head around much of this stuff, how quickly plans seem to be moving, how long-dormant ideas pop back up from the ashes, and how quickly they go from idea to stated desire these days.

Things move fast, faster than I feel many expect. If you showed this to me three years ago? And said the plan was for almost all of this to be in service before 2035? I would have laughed you off. Now? We're edging ever closer to that reality, faster than I think many would expect. It is a strange feeling, and I know for many of you who have been here since before I was born, since I was a child, it must feel even weirder how quickly the stagnation and decline feels like it just turned around on a whim...

Feelings are not reality, mind you, and neither are paper concepts and plans on a sheet, but it means something to the mind and heart. It gives a strange feeling; it feels like anxiety some days at how fast everything feels like it goes.

The limitation, as always, is that this chart shows reach. It cannot show readiness, magazine depth, nor the Sense half of the Deep Sense-Strike Complex. It is a limited, halfway look at the wider picture. A 1,500 km range ring is a concept, and the concept only becomes reality if you have the ability to identify, track, and engage at 1,500 km.

The Sense half is a lot harder to generate graphics for. The wider complex itself is a whole, multi-post discussion unto itself. Arguably, you would need to go branch by branch to really get the idea of it. Stuff like Fight from MOC feels like a concept post all on its own.

What this does, for now, is get you a picture of what the CAF wants to build: its maximalist, dream strike complex that covers multi-domain anti-ship/land strike at nearly 2,000 km, layered between a multi-platform, launcher-agnostic ecosystem that provides a rapid-strike deterrence and punishment capability.

Basically, it's having the ability to engage adversaries, through multiple channels and platforms, in a way that both deters them from action and, if needed, hits back with disproportionate retaliation in a way that degrades their ability to target us both continentally and abroad, backed by a future integrated fires ecosystem that successfully unifies potential launchers on land, in the air, and at sea to strike in unified coordination within seconds.

That, at the end of the day, is fundamental to what the Deep Sense-Strike Complex wants to build. It is more than sensors and shooters. It is more than munitions. It is a Pan-Domain ecosystem, backed by emerging technologies like modern cloud infrastructure, Quantum Computing, AI-assisted decision-making, and large-scale data processing to create a near-autonomous Continental and Expeditionary response capability, backed by similar initiatives like Integrated Air and Missile Defence, the CUAS National Array, and backbones like the Canadian Signal Network, which is kept separate from her Sense and Strike sisters.

We will, of course, talk more about these, as we always do, but for now? This is but a little taste of that, a small glimpse into what I hope will be a wonderful future.