Canada Command - Operation Boxtop

OP BOXTOP: Canada Command Takes It To The Top

Operation BOXTOP is a Canada Command operation conducted twice annually to provide Canadian Forces Station (CFS) Alert with sustainment and resupply of fuel and dry goods. The material is transported from Thule Air Base in Greenland each year, in the spring and at end-summer by Canadian Forces and commercial airlift. The next airlifts for Op BOXTOP will take place during the period 8-18 September 2009.

Canadian Forces Operation BOXTOP Concludes Tomorrow

Canadian Forces (CF) Aircraft as well as commercial airlifters have been flying around the clock since September 8th to provide CF Stations (CFS) Alert and Eureka with sustainment and resupply of fuel and dry goods. Air Force aircraft flying on the operation include the CC-130 Hercules, CC-150 Polaris and CC-177 Globemaster III. Alert and Eureka are located on Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, high in Canada’s Arctic, and are the two northernmost permanently-inhabited settlements in the world.

Operation BOXTOP is a Canada Command operation conducted twice a year (spring and fall). This season’s Op BOXTOP, which will wrap up the 2009 resupply to these locations, will conclude on September19th 2009. The next BOXTOP airlifts will begin again in the spring of 2010. [More]

Publication Date : 18 September 2009

MAMS (Mobile Air Movement Squadron) crew begin the loading of freight - bound for Alert.

Operation BOXTOP Continues this Week

Aircraft from Canada’s Air Force, as well as commercial airlifters, are currently flying day and night from the United States Air Force base in Thule, Greenland to provide Canadian Forces Stations (CFS) Alert and Eureka with sustainment and resupply of fuel and dry goods. Air Force aircraft flying on the operation include the CC-130 Hercules, CC-150 Polaris and CC-177 Globemaster III.

Operation BOXTOP is a Canada Command operation conducted twice a year (spring and fall). This season’s Op BOXTOP, which will wrap up the 2009 resupply operation, began on September 8th and will end on September 19th. [More]

Photography by: Corporal David Cribb

Publication Date : 16 September 2009

Cpl Michel Dufour, an AVN Tech from 8 AMS, stands by the nozzle as fuel is being unloaded from a Hercules aircraft in CFS Alert.

Operation BOXTOP is a Canada Command operation conducted twice annually (spring and fall) to provide Canadian Forces Stations (CFS) Alert and Eureka with sustainment and resupply of fuel and dry goods. CC-130 Hercules, CC-150 Polaris and CC-177 Globemaster III aircraft from Canada’s Air Force, as well as commercial airlifters, are currently flying around the clock to deliver the material. The aircraft stage and depart from the United States Air Force base in Thule, Greenland. This season’s Op BOXTOP, which will wrap up the 2009 resupply operation, began on September 8th and will end September 18th.

CFS Alert is the most northern permanently inhabited settlement in the world. It is situated on the northeastern tip of Ellesmere Island in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago.

Military personnel, civilian employees of DND, and employees of the Department of the Environment comprise the entire population of CFS Alert.

CFS Alert was named after a British ship, HMS Alert, which wintered off Cape Sheridan 9.7 km east of the present station in 1875 - 1876. She was under the command of Sir George Nares whose expedition was the first to set foot on northern Ellesmere Island.

Photo by 17 Wing Imaging, Corporal Chris Ward.

Publication Date : 14 September 2009

Thule, Greenland

Photo by 17 Wing Imaging, Corporal Chris Ward.

Publication Date : 10 September 2009

Aerial View of CFS Alert taken during Ex. Boxtop from the ramp of a CC-130 aircraft.

CF Photo by Sgt Guy Tardif

Publication Date : 09 September 2009

The CFS Alert sign with flags flying in the falling snow.

Photography by: Cpl David Hardwick

Publication Date : 08 September 2009

The CFS Alert distance signpost with the distances to several Canadian cities listed.

Boxtop is the bi-annual resupply of Canadian Forces Station Alert. Using United Sates Airforce Base Thule in Greenland as a staging point, for 2 to 3 weeks every spring and fall Canada’s Air Force runs day and night flying fuel and supplies to the station.

Photography by: Cpl David Hardwick

Publication Date : 03 September 2009