Buying platforms is only the beginning: Canada must invest in mission readiness

By Pascal Grenier

Canada will spend hundreds of billions modernizing the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) and meeting its NATO commitment to invest 5% of GDP annually in defence and defence-related priorities by 2035. These investments are essential, but they raise a practical question: how will Canada ensure its forces can train to use these capabilities effectively, together, and at an operational pace? In short, how do they become mission ready? 

That readiness question comes into sharp focus at the Cold Lake Air Weapons Range in Alberta. Already central to preparing Canada’s tactical fighter force, it is one of the country’s most important strategic defence assets. As Canada and its allies seek secure, expansive environments to test next-generation systems and rehearse complex missions, Cold Lake offers a tangible way to connect procurement decisions with operational readiness.

Cold Lake as a sovereign readiness backbone

For the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF), modernizing the Cold Lake Air Weapons Range could turn an existing national asset into a sovereign readiness backbone for the CAF. The range has supported advanced operational training for decades, giving Canada a strong foundation to build on as mission requirements and technologies evolve. It would also expand Canada’s ability to train with NORAD and NATO allies, while strengthening the domestic industrial base envisioned by the Defence Industrial Strategy. 

The opportunity is not simply to expand a range. By working with industry and allied partners, Canada could develop Cold Lake into a secure, world-class environment where Canadian and allied forces can train together using multiple aircraft types, remotely piloted systems, and emerging civilian and defence dual-use technologies. It could also support 5th-generation aircraft and emerging 6th-generation capabilities, where success increasingly depends on multiple platforms, systems and technologies working together. If pursued strategically, Cold Lake could become more than a national training asset. It could evolve into a destination for allied training, testing, experimentation, and mission rehearsal, and an enabler for future sovereign and allied defence capabilities and technologies, giving Canada a unique role in strengthening collective readiness among allied nations.

Furthermore, if Canada wants to play a meaningful role in the Global Combat Aircraft Program (GCAP) beyond its status as an observer, getting the Cold Lake Air Weapons Range right will be an important step towards our sovereign capabilities.  

In this effort, Canadian industry can make the difference. Canada is home to world-class companies developing advanced software, digital technologies, artificial intelligence, simulation, cybersecurity, and mission systems. Bringing these capabilities together could give the CAF a Canadian-led training and mission rehearsal environment that evolves as threats, technologies, and operational requirements change. It could also create Canadian expertise and technologies with export potential among allies facing similar readiness challenges.

From live exercises to a connected training environment

To achieve this, success depends on connecting live training, simulation, and digital mission rehearsal so personnel can train together in realistic operational scenarios. Live, Virtual and Constructive (LVC) training makes this possible by connecting real equipment with simulators and computer-generated scenarios in a giant wargame-like scenario for pilots and operators.

At Cold Lake, this means using modernization to strengthen both the live, multi-domain training environment and the secure digital systems that connect these different forms of training. Few allies have access to comparable geography, infrastructure, and expansive airspace, giving Canada an opportunity to attract allied participation while strengthening interoperability and collective readiness.

The modernization effort, known as RAGNAR (Range Advancement Generation Next and Airspace Revitalization), should be considered more than a range modernization project. It is an opportunity to connect CAF personnel in virtual environments with their live counterparts, enabling members operating submarines, helicopters, tanks, aircraft, and other systems to rehearse complex missions together before facing them in operations.

Three steps to turn investment into readiness

To maximize the value of Canada’s defence investments, training and mission readiness should be funded alongside major equipment purchases, ensuring CAF personnel can train to operate these new capabilities together effectively. Canada can leverage its industry to take three practical steps: accelerate the modernization of the Cold Lake range, establish a national LVC training strategy, and build more of this capability here at home. Together, these steps could put Canada at the forefront of LVC mission environments, integrating new platforms and technologies to strengthen mission readiness. Readiness is the real return on investment.

Modern platforms remain essential; Canada cannot defend its interests with outdated aircraft, ships, or vehicles. But procurement is only the beginning of readiness, not its completion. The value of every new platform depends on the ability of CAF personnel not only to train on it, but to repeatedly rehearse complex missions across platforms and domains until they are ready to execute them in operations. Canada’s security will ultimately be determined not only by the platforms it purchases, but also by the readiness of the people who operate them. If approached strategically, investments in readiness infrastructure also strengthen Canada’s defence industrial base, create highly skilled jobs, and establish capabilities that are relevant to allies facing many of the same operational challenges.

As Canada and other countries embark on a generational defence buildup, investing in the environments, technologies, and expertise that allow our forces to train and rehearse together is not optional. It is how Canada turns defence spending into operational capability.