The Canadian Armed Forces will get a fiscal boost, starting next year, to buy new uncrewed vehicles and equipment to defend against them, the 2026 federal budget said. Roughly another $1 billion is to be reallocated to the program, for a total of $1.4 billion to be spent on drones and counter-drone technology by the 2030-31 fiscal year. The budget also promises to expand an existing program meant to give Canada the ability to launch domestic rockets into space, to add medium-lift rockets to the current plan that concentrates on light-lift ones. (The Logic)

Talking point: The Liberal government has invested heavily and broadly in defence already, so the new moves focus on relatively narrow needs that the feds have decided are important. Adding drone warfare to the Forces’ capabilities responds to the way the Russia-Ukraine war is being fought; the support for medium-lift rockets follows SpaceX’s decision to retire its medium-lift Falcon 9 model, which has been the core of private space-launch capacity globally.

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