Valiant Shield 2026 Underscores Canada’s Naval Contributions—While Exposing the Capabilities It Will Need for Future Indo-Pacific Conflict
Canada’s participation in Exercise Valiant Shield 2026 continues to underscore the Royal Canadian Navy‘s ability to integrate with allied forces during high-end maritime operations in the Indo-Pacific. Through anti-submarine warfare training, multi-domain command-and-control activities and expeditionary support operations, the Canadian Armed Forces are contributing to one of the U.S. military’s premier joint exercises while advancing interoperability with key regional partners.
Yet Canada’s assigned missions represent only one part of a much broader exercise. Across the battlespace, Valiant Shield 2026 has simultaneously showcased two developments that could significantly influence the future of coalition warfare: the operational employment of the AGM-158C Long Range Anti-Ship Missile from the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber during a SINKEX, and the multinational exercise debut of Australia’s MQ-28 Ghost Bat collaborative combat aircraft. Taken together, these developments reinforce an increasingly important reality: future Indo-Pacific operations will demand capabilities extending well beyond traditional anti-submarine warfare.
READ: CAF participates in Exercise VALIANT SHIELD 2026
Canada’s Contribution Centres on Undersea Warfare
According to the Department of National Defence, HMCS Charlottetown is participating in advanced anti-submarine warfare training designed to strengthen interoperability with allied naval forces operating throughout the Indo-Pacific. Canadian Armed Forces personnel are also supporting multi-domain planning, cyber-enabled command-and-control activities and expeditionary airfield damage repair exercises across Hawaii, Guam and Japan.
The deployment forms part of Operation HORIZON, Canada’s ongoing military presence in the Indo-Pacific, and complements Ottawa’s broader effort to deepen defence relationships with the United States, Japan, Australia and other regional partners. Canada’s recent decision to deploy a third Halifax-class frigate to the region further reflects the growing emphasis being placed on sustained naval engagement in support of regional stability.
For the Royal Canadian Navy, anti-submarine warfare remains a longstanding area of expertise. As China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy continues expanding its submarine fleet, detecting and tracking hostile submarines remains a vital contribution to coalition maritime operations. Even so, the exercise demonstrates that defeating submarines represents only one component of a much broader high-end fight.
Beyond ASW: Valiant Shield Demonstrates the Evolution of Maritime Strike
While Canada has concentrated on the undersea domain, other elements of Valiant Shield have highlighted how rapidly maritime warfare is evolving. Among the most significant developments has been confirmation that the U.S. Air Force’s B-2 Spirit stealth bomber is now capable of employing the AGM-158C Long Range Anti-Ship Missile.The disclosure accompanied discussions surrounding this year’s SINKEX, illustrating the growing role of stealth bombers in long-range maritime strike missions against heavily defended naval formations.
Unlike previous generations of anti-ship weapons, LRASM is specifically designed to survive within contested electromagnetic environments. The missile combines passive sensors, autonomous target recognition and advanced guidance systems to locate and engage high-value surface combatants even when GPS and communications are degraded.
Consequently, the weapon fundamentally changes the risk calculus for maritime operations. Rather than forcing aircraft to penetrate sophisticated naval air-defence systems, LRASM enables stand-off attacks from hundreds of kilometres away while significantly reducing risk to the launch platform. As potential adversaries continue fielding increasingly capable destroyers, cruisers and integrated air-defence systems, long-range precision strike is becoming an increasingly important component of maritime deterrence and sea denial.
Collaborative Combat Aircraft Come of Age
Valiant Shield has also marked an important milestone for collaborative combat aircraft. For the first time, Australia’s MQ-28 Ghost Bat, developed by Boeing Australia, has participated in a major multinational exercise, operating alongside crewed aircraft during realistic combat scenarios. Rather than functioning as a traditional remotely piloted aircraft, Ghost Bat is designed as a “loyal wingman” capable of supporting fighters through electronic warfare, intelligence collection, sensor extension, decoy operations and potentially weapons employment. Its participation signals that collaborative combat aircraft are moving beyond experimentation and into operational integration.
In an Indo-Pacific environment increasingly defined by long-range missiles, sophisticated electronic warfare and contested airspace, autonomous aircraft are emerging as force multipliers capable of increasing combat mass while reducing operational risk to human pilots. Their inclusion in Valiant Shield reflects how allied air forces are beginning to incorporate these systems into realistic coalition operations instead of treating them as future concepts.
A Glimpse of the Future Battlespace
Taken together, these capabilities illustrate the broader purpose of Exercise Valiant Shield. Long regarded as one of the U.S. military’s premier joint exercises, Valiant Shield provides an opportunity to integrate air, maritime, land, space and cyber capabilities under realistic operational conditions. This year’s iteration appears particularly focused on demonstrating how emerging technologies—including autonomous aircraft, long-range precision weapons and integrated command networks—can be combined into a cohesive operational framework. Increasingly, interoperability means more than operating alongside allies. It requires the ability to integrate seamlessly into a multi-domain combat system in which information, sensors and weapons are shared across national and service boundaries.
Valiant Shield’s Broader Lessons for Canada
Canada’s contribution to Valiant Shield remains both relevant and valuable. Anti-submarine warfare will continue to play an essential role in any Indo-Pacific contingency, particularly given the continued expansion of China’s undersea fleet and the Royal Canadian Navy’s established expertise in submarine detection and tracking.
However, the broader exercise also highlights capabilities that Canada may eventually require if it intends to remain fully interoperable with its closest allies during future high-end conflict. Foremost among them is the AGM-158C LRASM. Canada’s future F-35A Lightning II fleet possesses the networking, survivability and sensor fusion needed to employ advanced stand-off weapons in contested environments. Integrating LRASM would provide the Royal Canadian Air Force with a credible long-range maritime strike capability, enabling Canadian aircraft to engage hostile surface combatants while remaining outside the engagement envelopes of sophisticated integrated air-defence systems.
READ: F-35 vs Gripen: Why a Mixed Fleet Makes Sense for Canada
Equally significant is the emergence of collaborative combat aircraft. Platforms comparable to the MQ-28 Ghost Bat could substantially increase the combat effectiveness of Canada’s relatively small F-35 fleet by providing additional sensors, electronic attack capability, reconnaissance, decoy functions or weapons carriage. Loyal wingmen would also offer greater operational flexibility while reducing risk to crewed aircraft during high-threat missions. Notably, several allied air forces are already investing heavily in collaborative combat aircraft as a central element of future force design. Valiant Shield suggests these systems are rapidly transitioning from experimental programmes to operational capability.
Meanwhile, strategic planning for the Indo-Pacific increasingly assumes that any major regional conflict would involve simultaneous maritime and aerial campaigns against sophisticated adversaries employing layered air defences, long-range missiles and advanced electronic warfare. Public reporting has also highlighted Chinese military modernization objectives extending toward 2027 and statements regarding readiness goals related to Taiwan. Although governments and defence analysts continue to monitor those developments closely, the timing and likelihood of any future military action remain uncertain.
Against that backdrop, Valiant Shield 2026 offers an important reminder for Canadian defence planners. Maintaining excellence in anti-submarine warfare remains essential, but it is unlikely to be sufficient on its own. Future coalition operations are expected to require forces capable of integrating undersea warfare, long-range anti-ship strike, fifth-generation airpower and autonomous collaborative aircraft into a single, networked battlespace.
As Canada’s F-35 fleet enters service over the coming decade, decisions surrounding weapons integration and loyal wingman capabilities may ultimately prove just as consequential as the aircraft themselves in determining the Royal Canadian Air Force’s effectiveness in future Indo-Pacific operations.
