A foreign military buzzing Ottawa with a four engine behemoth is a flex.

Don’t dismiss the significance of the E-3G Sentry buzzing Ottawa September 16.

(File photo) A E-3 Sentry makes a low pass flyover during the 2024 Warriors Over the Wasatch Open House and Air Show June 30, 2024, at Hill Air Force Base, Utah. The E-3 Sentry is an airborne warning and control system, or AWACS, aircraft with an integrated command and control battle management, surveillance, target detection, and tracking platform. (U.S. Air Force photo by Cynthia Griggs) https://www.dvidshub.net/image/8521422/2024-warriors-over-wasatch-open-house-and-air-show

The USAF E-3G Sentry buzzing downtown Ottawa at 1700 feet is a visible manifestation of the decisions of military officers; more revealing and insightful than anything the US military could say about their attitudes towards Canada.

Consider that nothing in the military happens in a vacuum. There are emails, meetings, policies, approvals; the week long E-3G Sentry training deployment to Maine that happened the week of September 15, that brought a United States Air Force E-3G Sentry to Ottawa on the afternoon of September 16, was a culmination of many officers’ efforts, and many decisions that could have been made differently.

Pilots need to keep up their qualifications and proficiency. While training is routine, flying over Ottawa is not. Many officers had input, and the result of that input manifested September 16.

OTTAWA IS A CAPITAL CITY OF A SOVEREIGN COUNTRY

None of the officers involved published a head’s up to the residents of Ottawa, the capital of the foreign sovereign country of Canada they would be overflying, as they would do for exercises over their capital city of their own country Washington DC (pic below), and other cities. Why would the American military not give the same courtesy to Canadians as they do Americans, as they have done before over Ottawa (pic below), unless it was a flex to show they can do whatever they want over Canada?

https://x.com/NORADCommand/status/1427362877422260233

https://x.com/NORADCommand/status/1826309886583734314

READ THE ROOM

59% of Canadians surveyed by Pew research believe the United States is a threat, and 53% believe they’re a threat to Canada’s national security. Despite those numbers being published in July 2025, U.S. Air Combat Command went forward with flying an American military aircraft over Canada, at low altitude, over Canada’s capital city, for a training flight that could be performed at any airport, in any country, and didn’t even have the courtesy to tell Canadians in Ottawa first.

ON THEIR HEELS

Neither the Canadian Armed Forces or U.S. Air Combat Command engaged with the public before the flight, all responses to the flight have been reactionary. While U.S. Air Combat Command and the Royal Canadian Air Force said a Canadian pilot was part of the crew, they didn’t put out any press ahead of time asking Canadians to wave at their home town boy aboard the USAF E-3 Sentry, a historic and significant aircraft in the American fleet, first delivered in 1977. They only mentioned that personal interest angle because Canadians noticed the plane flying at 1700 feet, shaking their windows.

BUT BUT THEY’RE ALLOWED

The Royal Canadian Air Force responded to CBC and CTV News saying the United States military is allowed to use Canadian airspace for operations and exercises, and countered that the Royal Canadian Air Force use American airspace for transit, operations, and training as well. Despite there being binational agreements in place allowing the overflight, consider that it wasn’t necessary, had poorly executed communications, and was tone deaf in light of binational relations. Also, the Royal Canadian Air Force has never conducted a low-pass at 1700 feet over Washington DC unannounced, so RCAF training flights in New England, California, Arizona, Louisiana, Florida, or elsewhere don’t really compare.

CANADA IS UNDER THREAT

The President of the United States is the Commander in Chief, the Supreme Commander, of the United States Military. The same person has on more than three occasions in 2025 publicly mused that the border between Canada and the United States is just some ugly line that was drawn by someone (January, March, May). Canadians are clear-eyed about the threat posed by the United States, despite the Canadian Armed Forces continuing to pal around with Americans on exercises like nothing is wrong. I’ve heard that Canadian officers believe ordering an American invasion of Canada would be an illegal order by the POTUS, but that provides little comfort when Canadians can watch the US military (USSOUTHCOM) carrying out illegal orders already in the Caribbean.

CAPABILITY AND INTENT

J. David Singer is cited for using the earliest definition of a military threat as being capability and intent, in his 1958 paper “Threat-Perception and the Armament-Tension Dilemma” published in The Journal of Conflict Resolution. The United States is the only country that has both the capability and has expressly voiced the intent to take over Canada.

There is no other country, not China, not Russia, that has telegraphed their intent to take over Canada like the United States, or has the capability to do so both economically and militarily. The United States government has launched a trade war against Canada in an effort to ruin the Canadian economy and promote misery among Canadians, to soften Canada up for an American takeover. The American military operates freely within Canadian borders. Their Commander in Chief has expressly voiced their intent to expand American borders, as well as questioning why the border between Canada and the United States even exists.

YANKEE GO HOME

Until concrete measures are taken to show the American public that Canada is serious about being a sovereign country and does not take kindly to threats of annexation, the American public will not understand that Canada is not their northern doormat. Since the American news media is so polluted and partisan, Americans can’t trust anything they’re told anymore; only action will catch their attention.

By now the Canadian Armed Forces should be taking steps to extricate their members serving with the United States military, remove American officers serving in the Canadian military, and limit Canadian military exposure to American influence.

The Ukrainian Military conducted exercises with the Russian military up to 2013. With the continued devolution of the American government, the Canadian government should direct the Canadian Armed Forces to take the threat the United States poses to Canadian sovereignty more seriously, and implement defensive measures. It is delusional to believe everything will be fine in 3 years. We cannot base our national defence on the American military upholding their pledge to their Constitution, and personal relationships our officers have with theirs.

References:

“The USAF can do whatever they want over Canada, including buzzing the nation’s capital at 1,700 feet.” from me. https://medium.com/@steffanwatkins/the-usaf-can-do-whatever-they-want-over-canada-including-buzzing-the-nations-capital-at-1-700-67323af16ee7

“Rare U.S. military aircraft spotted over Ottawa likely on training flight, ex-NORAD official says” from CBC News. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/ottawa-military-plane-1.7636157

“Here’s why a USAF plane was flying over Ottawa on Tuesday” from CTV News Ottawa. https://www.ctvnews.ca/ottawa/article/royal-canadian-air-force-pilot-takes-part-in-us-training-sortie-over-ottawa/

“Rare US E-3 Airborne Early Warning Aircraft Conducts Unusual Flight Over Canada” from Army Recognition. https://armyrecognition.com/news/aerospace-news/2025/rare-us-e-3-airborne-early-warning-aircraft-conducts-unusual-flight-over-canada

“Shadows in the Skies: A U.S. AWACS Spotted Flying Over Ottawa” from Dean Blundell’s Substack. https://deanblundell.substack.com/p/shadows-in-the-skies-a-us-awacs-spotted