Canadian Forces highlights the success of its High Arctic Operation

RESOLUTE BAY, NU. – One of the major sov­er­eign­ty oper­a­tions con­duct­ed every year by Cana­di­an Forces (CF) in the High Arc­tic, Oper­a­tion (Op) Nunalivut 2012, con­clud­ed on Wednes­day, April 25. This year’s oper­a­tion focused on the domes­tic capa­bil­i­ties demon­strat­ed by the CF in response to a sim­u­lat­ed Whole of Gov­ern­ment, safe­ty-dri­ven mis­sion.

“Op Nunalivut 2012 con­tin­ues to exem­pli­fy the Gov­ern­ment of Canada’s com­mit­ment to exer­cise secu­ri­ty and sov­er­eign­ty in the North and ensure the Cana­di­an Forces are well-trained to meet the chal­lenges of the Arc­tic,” said Min­is­ter MacK­ay. “The Cana­di­an Forces are a crit­i­cal fac­tor in our government’s vision for that region, and with oper­a­tions like Nunalivut, we help ensure they have what they need to car­ry out a full range of tasks effec­tive­ly in the North.” 

Dur­ing Op Nunalivut 2012, the CF worked in some of the most chal­leng­ing and aus­tere con­di­tions encoun­tered in Cana­da. The oper­a­tion was con­duct­ed in the Cana­di­an High Arc­tic, in the vicin­i­ty of Corn­wal­lis Island and on the west­ern por­tion of Devon Island. 

“The Cana­di­an Rangers are ambas­sadors of Canada’s North. I am extreme­ly proud of the cru­cial sur­veil­lance patrols the Cana­di­an Rangers have con­duct­ed dur­ing Op Nunalivut 2012,” said Com­mis­sion­er Elias, who attend­ed the clos­ing cer­e­mo­ny. “The Cana­di­an Rangers used their knowl­edge of the land to work with oth­er mem­bers of the Cana­di­an Forces to ensure the safe­ty of the North.” 

The long-range Cana­di­an Ranger Patrols, the Arc­tic div­ing abil­i­ties pro­vid­ed by the Roy­al Cana­di­an Navy (RCN) divers, as well as the unique ski-land­ing capa­bil­i­ty of the Roy­al Cana­di­an Air Force CC-138 Twin Otter were all inte­gral to the suc­cess of the oper­a­tion. Dur­ing their sov­er­eign­ty patrols, the Cana­di­an Rangers had an oppor­tu­ni­ty to fur­ther refine their area search tech­niques, as well as their recon­nais­sance and preda­tor con­trol duties. 

“Sov­er­eign­ty oper­a­tions like Op Nunalivut 2012 allow the Cana­di­an Forces to reg­u­lar­ly demon­strate a vis­i­ble pres­ence in the region,” said Lieu­tenant-Gen­er­al Wal­ter Semi­aniw, the Com­man­der of Cana­da Com­mand. “As part of the Cana­da First Defence Strat­e­gy, we main­tain the capac­i­ty to exer­cise con­trol over and defend Canada’s Arc­tic ter­ri­to­ry, and to pro­vide assis­tance to oth­er gov­ern­ment depart­ments and agen­cies when called upon.” 

The 2012 edi­tion of Op Nunalivut also allowed the RCN to improve their abil­i­ty to con­duct Arc­tic div­ing oper­a­tions in sup­port of Defence Research and Devel­op­ment Canada’s North­ern Watch Project. The dive team used a sub­mersible Remote­ly Oper­at­ed Vehi­cle to sur­vey the wreck of HMS Breadal­bane, a Franklin expe­di­tion res­cue ship that sank in 1853, which is the world’s most north­ern known ship­wreck. High Arc­tic search and res­cue train­ing was also con­duct­ed by 413 Trans­port and Res­cue Squadron from Green­wood, Nova Sco­tia, and 442 Trans­port and Res­cue Squadron from Comox, British Colum­bia, who deployed a CC-130 Her­cules and a CC-115 Buf­fa­lo aircraft. 

Source:
Depart­ment of Nation­al Defence, Canada