The Canadian Forces in the Arctic — Backgrounder

Reg­u­lar north­ern patrols are con­duct­ed by CP-140 Auro­ra long range patrol air­craft. These strate­gic sur­veil­lance air­craft safe­guard Canada’s waters from emerg­ing secu­ri­ty chal­lenges such as ille­gal fish­ing, immi­gra­tion, drug traf­fick­ing, and pol­lu­tion violations. 

440 Trans­port Squadron is based full-time in the North. Oper­at­ing four Cana­di­an designed and pro­duced CC-138 Twin Otter air­craft, this Yel­lowknife-based squadron con­ducts air­lift, util­i­ty and liai­son flights in the Yukon, North­west Ter­ri­to­ries, and Nunavut, as well as any assigned search and res­cue missions. 

Giv­en the lack of roads or ports through­out much of the North, air­crafts are often the only life­line in and out of the many iso­lat­ed com­mu­ni­ties in this region. RCAF air­craft such as the CC-177 Globe­mas­ter III, CC-130 Her­cules, CC-138 Twin Otter, and CH-146 Grif­fon heli­copter pro­vide a vital resup­ply ser­vice for north­ern oper­a­tions and mil­i­tary instal­la­tions such as CFS Alert, on the north­ern tip of Ellesmere Island, and North Warn­ing Sys­tem radar sites. 

The Roy­al Cana­di­an Air Force (RCAF), in con­junc­tion with NORAD, also main­tains four For­ward Oper­at­ing Loca­tions (FOLs) — locat­ed in Inu­vik and Yel­lowknife, N.W.T., and Iqaluit and Rankin Inlet, Nunavut — where it can pre-deploy fight­er air­craft in response to, or in antic­i­pa­tion of, unwel­come activ­i­ty, pro­vid­ing all the nec­es­sary infra­struc­ture and sup­plies to sup­port the RCAF’s CF-18 Hor­net fight­er air­craft in these remote and iso­lat­ed regions. 

NORTH AMERICAN AEROSPACE DEFENCE COMMAND

NORAD was estab­lished in 1958 to mon­i­tor and defend North Amer­i­can air­space, and the Cana­di­an North is a crit­i­cal region under this mandate. 

The FOLs and Per­son­nel Accom­mo­da­tion Bar­racks main­tained by the RCAF allow NORAD to strate­gi­cal­ly place air­craft and sup­port per­son­nel in Canada’s North to ensure a ready and rapid response to any poten­tial air­space threat. Sev­er­al times dur­ing a giv­en year, the Cana­di­an NORAD Region con­ducts oper­a­tions and train­ing at var­i­ous FOLs, some­times in part­ner­ship with one or both of the Alaskan and Con­ti­nen­tal U.S. NORAD Regions. 

NORAD also main­tains the North Warn­ing Sys­tem, a series of 11 long-range and 36 short-range radars along the entire Arc­tic coast of North America. 

TECHNOLOGY

Project Polar Epsilon is a $60 mil­lion space-based ini­tia­tive using imagery and infor­ma­tion from Canada’s radar satel­lite, RADARSAT‑2, to pro­vide enhanced land and sea sur­veil­lance capa­bil­i­ties for the CF at home and abroad. The Polar Epsilon Project includes satel­lite ground sta­tions that will process data from RADARSAT‑2 to pro­duce imagery prod­ucts in near real-time that can then be used to sup­port CF oper­a­tions and the activ­i­ties of oth­er fed­er­al depart­ments and agen­cies, as well as mon­i­tor activ­i­ty or changes in the Arctic. 

Defence Research and Devel­op­ment Canada’s (DRDC) North­ern Watch Tech­nol­o­gy Demon­stra­tion Project inves­ti­gates tech­nol­o­gy as an option to expand Canada’s win­dow into the Arc­tic by putting exist­ing sen­sor tech­nol­o­gy to the test in this extreme envi­ron­ment. Through test­ing, demon­stra­tion and assess­ment, DRDC will pro­vide the depart­ment with a bet­ter under­stand­ing as to how tech­nol­o­gy could be applied to iden­ti­fy activ­i­ties tak­ing place in Canada’s North. Giv­en the unique chal­lenges posed by the Arc­tic envi­ron­ment, as North­ern Watch pro­gress­es so too will DRDC’s knowl­edge in con­duct­ing defence sci­ence and deploy­ing tech­nol­o­gy in Arc­tic conditions. 

OPERATIONS

Recur­ring Oper­a­tions

As part of their man­date, the CF fre­quent­ly con­duct exer­cis­es and oper­a­tions in the Arc­tic, includ­ing sov­er­eign­ty patrols. For example: 

• Oper­a­tion NUNALIVUT is con­duct­ed in March and April each year by JTFN, specif­i­cal­ly 440 (Trans­port) Squadron and the Cana­di­an Rangers. The oper­a­tion employs the unique capa­bil­i­ties of the Rangers to sup­port JTFN oper­a­tions in the extreme envi­ron­ment of the High Arc­tic. Ranger snow­mo­bile patrols pro­vide pres­ence and demon­strate a response capa­bil­i­ty in the most remote areas of the North. 
• Oper­a­tion NUNAKPUT is an inte­grat­ed JTFN oper­a­tion that takes place each sum­mer in coop­er­a­tion with the CCG and the RCMP. The aim of the oper­a­tion is to exer­cise sov­er­eign­ty and prac­tice inter­op­er­abil­i­ty. It focus­es on the Beau­fort Sea region includ­ing Her­schel Island. 
• Oper­a­tion NANOOK is Canada’s largest annu­al oper­a­tion con­duct­ed pri­mar­i­ly in the East­ern and High Arc­tic. It is a Cana­da Com­mand-planned and ‑direct­ed joint and inte­grat­ed sov­er­eign­ty oper­a­tion. The oper­a­tion high­lights inter­op­er­abil­i­ty, com­mand and con­trol, and coop­er­a­tion with inter­de­part­men­tal and inter­gov­ern­men­tal part­ners in the North. 

CONCLUSION

With a renewed com­mit­ment to main­tain­ing a pres­ence in the region and enhanc­ing our capa­bil­i­ties to rou­tine­ly oper­ate in this often-inhos­pitable expanse, the CF is con­tribut­ing to the Gov­ern­ment of Canada’s North­ern Strat­e­gy. At the same time, exer­cis­ing Cana­di­an sov­er­eign­ty in the Arc­tic can only be achieved through a whole-of-gov­ern­ment approach. There­fore, the CF is also work­ing close­ly with our fed­er­al and ter­ri­to­r­i­al part­ners, as well as with the peo­ples of the North, to safe­guard this pre­cious inher­i­tance and ensure Cana­da remains “Our True North, Strong and Free.” 

Source:
Depart­ment of Nation­al Defence, Canada