Canada Command Backgrounder

BG #09.002a17 August 2009

The Canadian Forces in the North

The Canadian Forces in the North

INTRODUCTION

In its Northern Strategy, the Government of Canada has committed to a “real, growing, and long-term presence in its Arctic region.” With the Arctic’s potentially vast reserves of fossil fuels, abundance of minerals, gold, and diamonds, and potential for shorter shipping routes as the Arctic ice cap melts away in the face of global warming, this once less accessible land is drawing increasing national and international attention. The Canada First Defence Strategy calls for the Canadian Forces (CF) to have the capacity to conduct daily domestic and continental operations, including in the Arctic. The 2007 Speech from the Throne expressed the Government’s intention to bring forward an integrated Northern Strategy. The CF are contributing to this Northern Strategy in numerous ways, particularly the commitment to “vigorously protect Canada’s Arctic sovereignty.” Effective stewardship of the North can only be achieved through productive partnerships between federal and territorial departments and agencies, and the peoples of the North. The CF have committed to working closely with these partners, including the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), the Canadian Coast Guard, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, and Indian and Northern Affairs Canada at the federal level.

The Canadian Arctic begins at the 60th parallel and includes the entire Arctic Archipelago, which reaches as far north as the Lincoln Sea in the east. Within the North lies the Arctic Circle, just north of the 66th parallel (66º 33' 39"). The Circle marks the point at which there is no sun for at least one 24-hour day per year, and is sometimes used to distinguish the “Arctic” from the “North.” Eight nations stretch beyond the Arctic Circle: Canada, Denmark (Greenland), Finland, Iceland, Norway, the Russian Federation, Sweden, and the United States. Comprising 40 per cent of Canada’s landmass and more than 19,000 islands in the Arctic Archipelago, Canada’s North has an estimated population of 108,000 inhabitants.

As the Arctic ice melts away, Canada’s internal waters are becoming more navigable throughout the year. Free of ice, an Arctic voyage through Canadian waters could cut some 7,000 kilometres off the traditional shipping route between certain ports in Europe, Asia, and the east and west coasts of North America. Along with the movement of goods, tourism is expected to grow, especially from cruise ship travel in the near term. In 2003, seven cruise ships operated in Canadian Arctic waters; by 2008, this number had increased to 15. Air traffic is also increasing—annually some 115,000 commercial flights now transit the Canadian Arctic.

As a consequence of the increase in maritime and air traffic, and the escalating exploration of natural resources, there is a potentially greater risk of criminal activity, illegal entry of people and goods, human and drug smuggling, and foreign military activities. Environmental concerns and search and rescue needs might also increase. While other government departments and agencies, such as the Canadian Coast Guard and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), remain responsible for dealing with most security issues in the North, the Canadian Forces have a significant role to play in supporting them, exercising our sovereignty and providing assistance to our citizens.

MILITARY ROLE

The Canadian military has operated in the North since the days of the volunteer Yukon Field Force, established in 1898. The Force helped the Northwest Mounted Police maintain law and order during the Gold Rush. In the 1930s, the Royal Canadian Air Force began photo-mapping the North and expanded this aerial surveillance considerably in the 1940s as the Cold War started. In the late 1950s, Canadian Forces Station Alert was established on the northern tip of Ellesmere Island to collect signals intelligence; for 50 years it has been the most northern permanently inhabited settlement in the world. In 1970, Canada established a permanent military command in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, with a view to treating the North as a single theatre of operations.

Today, military responsibility for the North falls under Canada Command. Created on February 1, 2006, Canada Command is responsible for the defence of Canada and North America. Headquartered in the nation’s capital city, Ottawa, the Command oversees six sub-commands, known as regional joint task forces. Additionally, Canada Command is responsible for the overall effective operation of the federal coordinated maritime and aeronautical search and rescue system and the provision of air resources in response to aeronautical and maritime SAR incidents. For this purpose the country is divided into three search and rescue regions—SRRs Halifax (eastern Canada), Trenton (central Canada), and Victoria (western Canada). The Trenton Search and Rescue Region, with its higher headquarters in Winnipeg, Manitoba, provides search and rescue coverage for most of the North. Canada Command is also responsible for responding to a major air disaster in the North, and will support responses to other disasters or humanitarian crises as requested.

JOINT TASK FORCE (NORTH)

Joint Task Force North, (JTFN) headquartered in Yellowknife, is responsible for Canadian Forces operations in the North, which is by far Canada Command’s single largest region. In fact, JTFN’s area of responsibility encompasses approximately four million square kilometres, or 40 per cent of Canada’s land mass and 75 per cent of its coastal regions. The Commander of JTFN reports to the Commander of Canada Command. JTFN’s role is to exercise Canadian sovereignty north of the 60th parallel, to coordinate and support CF activities in the North, and to provide liaison with the territorial governments and peoples of the three northern territories—Northwest, Yukon, and Nunavut. JTFN employs Canadian Rangers in the North through 1 Canadian Ranger Patrol Group. It also oversees two youth programmes: the Junior Canadian Ranger programme and the Cadet programme, in the three territories. In addition to its headquarters in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, JTFN maintains detachments in Whitehorse, Yukon, and Iqaluit, Nunavut.

CF activities within the North involve sovereignty operations, communications unit exercises, deployments to northern airfields of Canadian and North American Aerospace Defence (NORAD) Command-assigned fighter and support aircraft, and Northern Operations Readiness Patrol flights by CF CP-140 Aurora maritime patrol aircraft.

CANADIAN NAVY

The Canadian navy plays a key role in asserting sovereignty along Canada’s three coasts and routinely sails in the nation’s northern waters. With the Government’s intention to acquire new ships and establish a berthing and refuelling facility that will support the navy in the Arctic, there will be a marked increase in the navy’s presence in Canada’s Arctic waters.

The planned acquisition of six to eight ice-capable Arctic/Offshore Patrol Vessels will enable the navy to conduct sea-borne surveillance operations in the Arctic during the navigable season, and on the east and west coasts throughout the year. These new patrol ships will enhance Canada’s ability to enforce its right, under international law, to be notified when foreign ships enter Canadian waters, and will further enhance the Canadian Forces’ ability to support other government departments in responding to emerging security challenges such as organized crime and illegal immigration, and in carrying out drug interdiction operations and environmental protection. The first ship is expected in 2014.

The Department of National Defence Berthing and Refuelling Facility at Nanisivik, Nunavut, will help Canada exert a sustained naval presence in Arctic waters during the navigable season. Strategically positioned inside the eastern entrance of Parry Channel, and more than 1,100 nautical miles by sea north of Iqaluit, this facility will serve as a refuelling location for naval vessels on station in the high Arctic, and a place to embark equipment and supplies, transfer personnel, and work closely with the Canadian Coast Guard, who will also have access to the facility. The Nanisivik facility is expected to be fully operational by 2015.

Two Marine Security Operations Centres (MSOCs), located in Halifax, N.S. and Esquimalt, B.C., maintain vigilance over Arctic waters. The navy currently hosts these MSOCs, but they represent a "whole of government" approach and an equal partnership between departments and agencies involved in marine security. MSOC facilities are staffed by personnel from the five core partners that have a vested interest in marine security: Canada Border Services Agency, National Defence, Fisheries and Oceans Canada (including the Canadian Coast Guard), the RCMP, and Transport Canada.

The current capability of the MSOCs allows them to collect and synthesize marine information within existing legal frameworks in order to enhance the Government's capability to respond to marine security threats and thereby protect Canadians. Responsibility for monitoring marine activity in the Arctic is shared between the east and west coasts.

CANADIAN ARMY

The Canadian army has been active for decades in the Arctic, primarily through the Canadian Rangers programme. Established in 1947, the Rangers are the “eyes and ears” of the Canadian Forces, providing a military presence in remote regions throughout Canada, including Canada’s North. Recruited from 56 communities across Canada’s North (in addition to 109 communities south of the 60th parallel), the Canadian Rangers play a key role in protecting Canada’s sovereignty by conducting surveillance and sovereignty patrols, reporting unusual activity or sightings, and collecting local data of significance to the CF.

The Canadian Rangers also assist CF activities by: providing local expertise, guidance and advice during operations and exercises; conducting North Warning System patrols; and providing local assistance to search and rescue activities. In August 2007, the Government of Canada announced an expansion of the Canadian Rangers programme throughout Canada from 4,100 to 5,000 members, enabling the addition of new patrols and the strengthening of existing ones.

The Government also announced the establishment of a multi-purpose facility for Arctic military training and operations in August 2007. The Canadian Forces Arctic Training Centre (CFATC) in Resolute Bay will be used year-round for both winter warfare and Arctic training, and routine operations. The facility can also be used as a command post for emergency operations and disaster response. The CFATC will also provide a location to pre-position equipment and vehicles, thereby generating an increased capability to support regional military or civilian emergency operations in this rugged and remote region of the country.

CANADIAN AIR FORCE

Since the earliest days of flight, the Canadian air force has had an ongoing and vital presence in Canada’s North, providing aerial reconnaissance, surveillance, and deterrence as well as support to operations and search and rescue. From the photo-mapping flights of the 1930s, the air force developed a highly-specialized and covert surveillance capability in the 1940s. These days, regular Northern Patrols are conducted by CP-140 Aurora maritime patrol aircraft. With an endurance of 17 hours and a range of almost 10,000 kilometres, these strategic surveillance aircraft safeguard Canada’s waters from emerging security challenges such as illegal fishing, immigration, drug trafficking, and pollution violations. There are plans to augment these patrols with satellite-based systems and uninhabited aerial vehicles.

440 (Transport) Squadron is the only formed Canadian air force unit based full-time in the North. Operating four Canadian-designed and -produced CC-138 Twin Otters, 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. The Squadron operates these rugged Twin Otters in some of the harshest weather conditions on the planet and maintains the capability to conduct “off-airport” operations on skis in the winter and on tundra tires in the summer.

Given the lack of roads or ports throughout much of the North, aircraft are often the only lifeline in and out of the many isolated communities in this region. Canadian air force aircraft such as the CC-177 Globemaster III, CC-130 Hercules, CC-138 Twin Otter, CC-150 Polaris, and CH-146 Griffon helicopter provide a vital resupply service for northern military installations such as Canadian Forces Station Alert on the northern tip of Ellesmere Island and North Warning System radar sites. The latest addition to the air force’s fleet, the CC-177 Globemaster is already flying support missions in the North. Many of these aircraft also support search and rescue response in the North, including a potential response to a major air disaster.

The air force, in conjunction with NORAD, also maintains four Forward Operating Locations (FOLs) where it can pre-deploy fighter aircraft in response to, or anticipation of, unwelcome activity. The FOLs are located in Inuvik and Yellowknife, NWT, and in Iqaluit and Rankin Inlet, Nunavut. They provide all the necessary infrastructure and supplies to support the air force’s CF-18 Hornet fighter aircraft in these remote and isolated regions. A front-line, multi-role fighter with a sophisticated radar system, the CF-18s and their world-class pilots capably defend Canada’s airspace throughout the North.

NORAD

NORAD was established in 1958 to monitor and defend North American airspace—the Canadian North is a critical region under this mandate. Although there are no NORAD personnel permanently stationed in the North, the Canadian NORAD Region, headquartered in Winnipeg, maintains a significant amount of infrastructure throughout the area.

The Forward Operating Locations (FOLs) maintained by the Canadian air force 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. Tied in with other NORAD radars, the system forms a radar buffer zone 4,800 kilometres long and 320 kilometres wide that stretches from Alaska, across Canada, to Greenland, allowing NORAD to detect all approaching airborne activity.

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. RADARSAT-2 is ideally suited for Arctic land surveillance due to its polar orbit and radar characteristics of all-weather, day or night sensor capability. The satellite’s near real-time processing of images will allow a more efficient and timely CF response to help maintain Canada’s Arctic situational awareness and to address potential situations such as environmental and humanitarian crises, including search and rescue operations, natural disasters, and large oil spills.

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 or agencies as well as monitor activity or changes in the Arctic.

The Northern Watch Technology Demonstration Project, led by Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC), explores various technologies that may be utilized to provide enhanced Arctic security and surveillance. The key project areas focus on combinations of assorted surface, underwater and space-based sensors and systems that may ultimately offer the Canadian Forces and the Government of Canada with additional resources to monitor and protect the Canadian Arctic.

OPERATIONS

The Canadian Forces currently conduct three major sovereignty operations each year, in the high, western and eastern Arctic respectively. While the precise objectives of each operation differ, they all share the same overarching purpose: to exercise Canada’s sovereignty in the region, to advance the Canadian Forces’ capabilities for Arctic operations, and to improve interdepartmental coordination in response to Northern security issues. These operations are conducted under the command of JTFN, but with the participation of partner departments and agencies.

Recurring Operations

The Operation NUNALIVUT series are enhanced Ranger sovereignty patrols. The operation employs the unique capabilities of the Canadian Rangers to support JTFN operations in the extreme environment of the High Arctic, as Ranger snowmobile patrols provide a presence and demonstrate a response capability in the most remote areas of the North. Op NUNALIVUT 2008 took place from March to April and spanned the length of Ellesmere Island; three patrols of Canadian Rangers and scientists operated on the northwest side of Ellesmere Island. Significantly, this support during the International Polar Year permitted scientists to investigate the changes occurring in the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf. NUNALIVUT 2007 was held in the same timeframe but in the Northern Arctic Archipelago. NUNALIVUT 2009 took place in the Canadian High Arctic in April 2009.

The NUNAKPUT series are conducted in the Western Arctic and are integrated JTFN operations that take place each summer in cooperation with the Canadian Coast Guard and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The aim of the operation is to exercise sovereignty and practice interoperability, focusing on the Beaufort Sea region including Herschel Island. Operation NUNAKPUT 08 was held in summer 2008 and involved aerial and maritime surveillance. The 2007 operation similarly focused on enhancing joint operational capability in this vast region. Operation NUNAKPUT 09 will be held from July to September 2009.

The NANOOK series are joint, inter-agency sovereignty operations conducted in the eastern Arctic. Planned and directed by JTFN, it highlights interoperability, command and control, and cooperation with interdepartmental and intergovernmental partners in the North. Operation NANOOK 08, held in August 2008, included exercise scenarios with simulated maritime emergencies, including the evacuation of a ship in distress and an oil spill. These exercises are designed to develop and refine the inter-agency relationships that underpin the whole-of-government approach to Arctic sovereignty. NANOOK 07 included drug interdiction and oil spill scenarios. Approximately fifteen other government department and agencies have indicated their intention to participate in Operation NANOOK 09, and have been asked to contribute to the planning process to ensure that their objectives are met.

Ranger Patrols. The Canadian Rangers routinely conduct patrols and training across the North. Their presence and vigilance help assert Canadian sovereignty and provide Canada Command with “eyes and ears” in the country’s most remote areas.

Past Operations

Operation HUDSON SENTINEL was a joint sovereignty operation involving the deployment of navy, army and air force personnel and resources and took place in Hudson Bay in August 2005. In addition to military personnel, members of “V” Division RCMP and the Canadian Coast Guard Ship Radisson participated in this operation.

Operation LANCASTER was conducted along the eastern and northern coasts of Baffin Island in August 2006 and included representation from several other government departments including the Canadian Ice Service, RCMP, Parks Canada Agency, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, and the Canadian Coast Guard.

The NARWHAL series were sovereignty operations that took place in the Northwest Territories. The final NARWHAL operation took place in April 2007 and involved two scenarios: CF assistance to the RCMP based on a threat to the oil industry and a CF response to a major air disaster in a remote northern area.

Conclusion

The Arctic is an essential part of Canada’s history and our national identity. But while it once provided a natural buffer between southern Canada and the world beyond its northern borders, with global warming and the increasing demand for shorter trade routes, fossil fuels, and minerals from gold to diamonds, the Arctic is itself now drawing unprecedented national and international interest. The Canadian Forces have been present in the North for more than a century. With a renewed commitment to maintaining a presence in the region and enhancing our capabilities to routinely operate in this often-inhospitable expanse, the Canadian Forces are contributing to the Government’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 Canadian Forces are 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.”