Latest news with #OperationNanook
New York Times
4 days ago
- Politics
- New York Times
Patrolling the High Arctic, Rifles and Snow Shoes at the Ready
The soldiers clambered onto snowmobiles and disappeared into a whiteout, snaking across the frozen Arctic Ocean in Canada's Northwest Territories. Members of the Canadian and American militaries, accompanied by units from other NATO allies, patrolled the sea, land and skies across a vast stretch of the Canadian Arctic surrounding the Mackenzie River Delta. They were training in one of the most inhospitable environments on earth. Canadian soldiers were issued snowshoes as part of their kit for the training exercise. Several patrols traveled across the frozen Arctic Ocean. As the region warms, the sea ice has thinned and retreated, and the period when the Northwest Passage can be traversed is asserts sovereignty over the passage, which links the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, but it can't support a global shipping lane on its own. Canada and the United States have worked together on Arctic security for over 80 years. Now, NATO wants to deter Russian ambitions in the region. 'There's no fight up here that's not joint,' said Maj. Matthew Hefner of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Arctic temperatures can quickly cause frostbite to exposed skin. Radio batteries die, engines break down, metal firearms and goggles become coated. Even lighting cigarettes is a challenge. Most of the approximately 700 U.S. and Canadian soldiers who took part in the exercise in March, called Operation Nanook-Nunalivut, had little experience in such difficult conditions. Accompanying them was a contingent of Canadian Rangers, reservists from Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities who bring a knowledge of the land, culture and climate. The Rangers serve as scouts, advisers and pathfinders, among other roles. During their downtime, Canadian Rangers played cards in Inuvik. Rangers and Junior Rangers went out to watch a large herd of reindeer north of Inuvik. Canada and United States have long been close allies, but their relationship has been tested in recent months. The Mackenzie River Delta is a maze of lakes and waterways stretching hundreds of square miles. The soldier is American, while the helicopter belongs to the Royal Canadian Air Force. Canadians have been angered by new American tariffs on exports, and offended by Trump administration talk of making their country the 51st state. Snowmobile and animal tracks on a frozen lake near Inuvik. Canadian Arctic security policy is pivoting to demonstrate the nation's credibility as a reliable ally of the United States, while at the same time deter potentially hostile nations, like Russia. A line of Canadian soldiers, above, patrolling past two satellite domes at a remote North Warning System site. Canadian Rangers make a trail across the tundra for U.S. Special Forces following behind. Over the past year, Canada and the United States have released updated strategies for the Arctic, making clear the region's increasing importance. Climate change, expanding commercial access and Russia's military buildup in the Arctic may reshape the region's future. So might the shifting Canada-U.S. relations.
CBC
15-05-2025
- Politics
- CBC
Canada's military plans to be in the Arctic 'on a near permanent basis,' says commander
Social Sharing Canada intends to expand its military training regime in the Arctic, deploying a variety of forces in the region for up to 10 months a year, starting this year, the military's operations commander says. Lt.-Gen. Steve Boivin says the military's signature Far North exercise — Operation Nanook — will see additional elements created, resulting in a greater, consistent presence in a region that is increasingly the focus of geopolitical rivalry. The plan, says one defence expert, is an unprecedented opportunity for the Liberal government to not only demonstrate Canadian sovereignty in the Arctic, but to rally NATO allies behind the country. Michael Byers, an expert in the Arctic and geopolitics at the University of British Columbia, says major allied nations should be invited in greater numbers than they have in the past as a signal of solidarity at a time when the Trump administration has said it wants to use economic force to annex Canada — and possibly military force to swallow Greenland. Boivin says inviting allies is part of the plan "when it makes sense" to have them join, but the intention is a national objective to get more Canadian boots on the ground, warships in the water and planes flying over the vast expanse of territory. "We want to be in the Arctic on a near permanent basis," Boivin told CBC News in a recent interview. "The current approach to Operation Nanook puts us in the Arctic for five to six months a year. We're looking at being there 10 plus months per year." WATCH | Plan for Arctic military increase part of sovereignty push: Canada plans Arctic military expansion as part of sovereignty push 6 hours ago Duration 2:02 Federal government increases emphasis on Arctic The Liberal government has put an increased emphasis on the Arctic, appointing a specific minister in this week's cabinet appointments and dropping an extra $420 million into the Department of National Defence budget to create a greater sustained military presence in the Far North. Boivin said the order to expand Operation Nanook predates the Liberal government's funding announcement. Military staff was told last September to draw up a revised, expanded schedule that will see seven training regimes (instead of the usual four) conducted under the annual exercise. The first exercise under the expanded training plan — Operation Nanook-Nunalivut — took place in February in the vicinity of Inuvik and Mackenzie River Delta, Northwest Territories. It involved 450 Canadian troops as well as approximately 110 armed forces members from the United States, Belgium, United Kingdom, Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark. Byers says the token presence of allies is important, but in the current geopolitical climate it could be leveraged to Canada's advantage even further. "One could think imaginatively about how our allies could support Canadian sovereignty," said Byers, who added he could see Canada extending an invitation to host a larger contingent of Danish troops for an exercise that would encompass not only the Canadian Arctic, but also Greenland. "If there's political will, there's a lot we can do in the short term that doesn't involve spending billions and billions of dollars on new equipment." Inviting larger numbers of European allies to conduct cold-weather exercises on Canadian soil would be a subtle, but unmistakable signal to the Trump administration that Canada has allies at its back. Don't shut U.S. out: Defence expert But Byers says that doesn't mean the United States should be shut out of the Canadian Arctic. Rather, he believes regularly extending invitations to the U.S. military and coast guard — and having Washington accept them — would be a shrewd way of pushing back against U.S. President Donald Trump's arguments that question Canada's nationhood. "By participating, they would be recognizing Canadian leadership, Canadian sovereignty," said Byers. Like it or not, he says, geography is still an important factor in Canada's relationship with its southern neighbour. "The interesting thing here is that if we invite them, we're giving consent, and by accepting an invitation they're recognizing that consent and thereby our sovereignty." Every year, Norway hosts a major multinational military on its soil and waters, known as Exercise Nordic Response, which can involve as many as 30,000 NATO troops and personnel. Canada has long resisted holding a NATO level exercise in the country's Far North, but the notion was floated a few years ago in defence circles following former NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg's visit to the Canadian Arctic. Ed Arnold, a senior research fellow at the U.K.-based Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), says that beyond nuanced legal arguments about sovereignty, a greater show of allied participation in Canada's North would be a shot in the arm for Canadian and European NATO morale. WATCH | Looking at what's needed to increase Canada's Arctic security: What Arctic (in)security looks like in Canada's North 1 month ago Duration 7:20 As the leaders of the major parties make election promises about Arctic security, CBC chief correspondent Adrienne Arsenault goes North, where a history of unfulfilled government promises has left strong opinions about what needs to happen next. Silence from allies a concern Arnold says it's likely not gone unnoticed that many of Canada's allies have kept their heads down and said little publicly about Trump's annexation threats and 51st State blustering. "I think from the Canadian point of view, and also the Danish point of view, they'd probably be pretty annoyed about that and pretty let down," said Arnold who pointed to the deafening silence from the U.K. government. "I think the worry is that allies notice this type of behaviour and in the current security environment and, you know, maintaining that unity, it is critical that the sort of more powerful nations in Europe stand up for the smaller nations." He did acknowledge, however, the importance of King Charles opening the latest session of the Canadian Parliament with the Speech from the Throne later this month.
The Guardian
22-04-2025
- Climate
- The Guardian
On thin ice: the brutal cold of Canada's Arctic was once a defence, but a warming climate has changed that
In early February, during the depths of winter, Twin Otter aircraft belonging to the Canadian military flew over the vast expanse of the western Arctic looking for sea ice. Below, sheets of white extended beyond the horizon. But the pilots, who were searching for a suitable site to land a 34-tonne (76,000lb) Hercules transport plane a month later, needed ice that was 1.5-metres (5ft) thick. They could not find any. The teams scoured 10 other possible spots, stretching as far west in the Arctic as Herschel Island, five miles off the coast of Canada's Yukon territory. In the end, no site proved suitable for a sea-ice landing area. The north, it seemed, was too warm. However, that same month, during the same mission, the cold was snarling plans to move soldiers across the tundra. It had grounded transport helicopters. It had broken snowmobiles and other equipment and, at times, spirits. The north, it seemed, was too cold for the materiel the military had hauled up to the tundra. For generations, the intense cold of the Arctic has served as the bulwark of a military defence of the north. But a rapidly changing climate, defined by extreme shifts in temperature in both directions, threatens to unspool that defence, replacing it with a land and seascape more volatile and far less predictable. Over February and March, hundreds of soldiers from several countries gathered in Canada's western Arctic for Operation Nanook, a military exercise meant to show that allied nations, including the US, Finland, Sweden, Belgium and the UK could 'sustain force' in the region, testing cutting-edge equipment in the unforgiving tundra. In recent months, political leaders have revived longstanding fears that Canada has only a tenuous hold over its northern border. Despite the spectre of hostile nations creeping over unseen borders, however, the biggest threat facing the troops was the freezing temperatures. 'In kinetic fight or a civil response, the primary enemy is the cold,' says Maj Matthew Hefner, who runs the US army's Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory in New Hampshire. 'Whether the bullets are flying or not, that's the thing that is going to eat people alive.' The American, commanding a team of military scientists, combat veterans and Arctic specialists, was in the hamlet of Tuktoyaktuk on the crumbling Arctic Ocean coastline, as part of a community celebration to mark Operation Nanook. Members of Hefner's international cooperative engagement programme for polar research have brought cold-weather gear to show local people. The event is also a few miles from where teams have cut triangular holes in the sea ice so Belgian naval divers can plunge into the emerald waters. Visibility extends as far as your arm and the frigid murky waters can disorient even seasoned divers astonishingly quickly. For those new to the landscape, Arctic veterans say a lack of awareness for the capacity of the cold to degrade and disorient is one of the biggest dangers. It makes plastic as fragile as glass. It confounds the intricate machinery of modern military aircraft. And at its most deadly, it untethers those travelling in its deepest reaches from reality. Exposed skin can sustain lasting damage within minutes; confusion quickly sets in with hypothermia. The Inuit who call the land home have pushed the outer bounds of human limits, finding pattern and tempo in a landscape that, to outsiders, is an unappeasable adversary. That knowledge is a lifeline to Arctic forces that have long acknowledged that tundra is one of the most hostile theatres for warfare conceivable for its ability to render hi-tech equipment unusable. During Operation Nanook, Hefner's team went through periods of a cold-imposed communications blackout as their radios and satellite devices shut down, the result of 'smart' lithium-ion batteries that will not charge in the cold. 'Most equipment is metal, and if you touch it without a glove on, your hands go bad. But even if you don't take your glove off, they'll get soaking wet because everything's covered in snow. Then they get really, really cold. And your hands go bad. 'So everything is slower up here,' says Hefner. 'I've got some guys complaining that we're not doing a lot of tactical stuff – you can't do tactical until surviving is second nature.' But the cold, for all its power to degrade, is also a powerful natural defence. In summer, the western Arctic is a boggy, infuriating morass of rivers strewn across the landscape like spaghetti. Enemy forces on the attack would find it near impossible to navigate. In the winter, travel routes open up with few natural barriers. It has long been the cold, and its power to break machine and mind, that has served as the chief deterrent. This winter, however, the community of Inuvik saw rain in December for the first time in nearly half a century. The drizzle came in the second half of a year that saw a punishing heatwave settle over the town, with the temperatures hitting 35C (95F) more than 125 miles above the Arctic Circle. This year, more snowmobiles plunged through ice roads – transport corridors built on frozen rivers – than ever before. Hefner's team also lost two snowmobiles when they fell through the ice. 'I've never experienced this many warm fluctuations in a year,' says Justin Pascal, who lives in Inuvik and is a member of the Canadian Rangers, a paramilitary force of northern reservists drawn from Indigenous communities. 'This year it was jumping between -8C, -40C, back to -8C and then even above 0C at the beginning of the year. Call it what you want, but it's different than anything I've experienced.' These changes have long been predicted and thaws coming earlier in the year have already expanded travel routes through the north-west passage for cargo and tourist ships. But they have also had profound effects on the landscape. Thawing permafrost and the subsequent sloughing of land into the ocean means communities such as Tuktoyaktuk are disappearing. 'There's open water where traditionally there was ice,' Lt Col Darren Turner, commander of Operation Nanook's land forces, tells Canadian reservists. 'Regardless of your opinion on global warming, you will have your own modified opinion when you get out there.' The uncertainty surrounding these shifts has confounded local people and military units testing their capabilities in the north. After a series of reconnaissance flights failed to find suitable sea ice, the military chose to build a landing area on a frozen lake – the first time a Hercules had landed on fresh water. The landing was framed as 'enhancing operational flexibility' by giving the plane access to otherwise inaccessible areas. But challenge, and failure, to find sufficiently thick sea ice in the depths of winter highlights a reality military leaders have had to start planning for in earnest. 'Our first level of defence is leaving us,' says Turner.
Japan Times
14-04-2025
- Climate
- Japan Times
'Hard on the body': Canadian troops train for Arctic defense
In normal conditions, Canadian Air Force helicopter pilot Jonathan Vokey uses the treeline to gauge his altitude. But in the Arctic, where the landing zone is an expanse of white snow, he has to adjust. "Operating in the cold, it's hard on the body, but it also can be challenging with the aircraft as well," Vokey, an Air Force captain, said during an exercise aimed at preparing Canadian troops to operate in the country's extreme north, a region fast becoming a military priority. Canada is making a significant push to boost its military strength in the Arctic, which accounts for 40% of its territory. Arctic ice is melting as a result of climate change, opening up the region and increasing the risk of confrontation with rivals such as Russia over the area's natural resources, including minerals, oil and gas, as well as fresh water. "If I was to boil it down: you can access the north now more easily than you have ever been able to. And I would say that that's going to change even more drastically over the next 10, 20 years," said Col. Darren Turner, joint task force commander of Operation Nanook, the annual Arctic training exercise established in 2007. "Once a route is opened, they will come. And that is something that we need to have an interest in. That is something that we need to have the capabilities to interdict, to stop," he said. That requires training more troops to operate in the region's extreme conditions and deploy to three Arctic military hubs that the government plans to build. Operation Nanook — the word for "polar bear" in an Inuit language — is central to that effort. In a long tent pitched on a vast sheet of ice and snow, troops practiced diving into frigid water. In another location, teams worked on detecting hostile activity with infrared imaging, a particular challenge in the Arctic where the cold can obscure thermal signatures. 'A little different' Dive team leader Jonathan Jacques Savoie said managing the brutal weather is key. "The main challenge on Op. Nanook in this location is the environment. The environment always dictates how we live, fight and move in the field," he said, noting the day's temperature of minus 26 degrees Celsius. This year's operation marked the first Arctic deployment for Corporal Cassidy Lambert, an infantry reservist. She's from the eastern province of Newfoundland and Labrador, where maritime Atlantic weather creates wet, damp winters. The Arctic, she conceded, is "going to be a little different." "I don't handle the cold too well, but I think I've prepped myself well enough," she said. Steven Breau, a rifleman with New Brunswick's North Shore regiment, said troops are trained on a range of region-specific safety measures, like avoiding frostbite. Sweat can also become a problem. "It's really important to stay dry, to take body heat into account. If you get too hot, you sweat. It gets wet, then it gets cold, then it freezes." 'Direct confrontation' The surrounding frozen tundra does not immediately look like the next front line in a looming global conflict. But leaders in multiple countries have put a spotlight on the Arctic. U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to annex Greenland, insisting the United States needs the autonomous Danish territory for its security. And days after taking over as Canada's Prime Minister last month, Mark Carney visited Iqaluit, in another part of the Canadian Arctic, to announce a multibillion-dollar radar deal he said would be crucial to securing the nation's sovereignty. Briefing troops arriving for Operation Nanook, Major Andrew Melvin said a direct confrontation with Chinese or Russian forces was "highly unlikely" during the exercise. But, he added, "it is possible that either the PRC (People's Republic of China) or the RF (Russian Federation) intelligence services will seek to collect intelligence during the conduct of Op. Nanook." For Col. Turner, protecting the Arctic from hostile actors means safeguarding a region that is inseparable from Canadian identity. "It's a part of our raison d'etre ... from a sovereignty perspective."
South China Morning Post
12-04-2025
- Climate
- South China Morning Post
‘Hard on the body': Canadian troops battle brutal conditions to train for Arctic defence
In normal conditions, Canadian Air Force helicopter pilot Jonathan Vokey uses the tree line to gauge his altitude. But in the Arctic, where the landing zone is an expanse of white snow, he has to adjust. Advertisement 'Operating in the cold, it's hard on the body, but it also can be challenging with the aircraft as well,' Vokey, an Air Force captain, said during an exercise aimed at preparing Canadian troops to operate in the country's extreme north, a region fast becoming a military priority. Canada is making a significant push to boost its military strength in the Arctic, which accounts for 40 per cent of its territory. Arctic ice is melting as a result of climate change, opening up the region and increasing the risk of confrontation with rivals such as Russia over the area's natural resources, including minerals, oil and gas, as well as fresh water. Canadian soldiers set up camp during Operation Nanook in Inuvik, Northwest Territories, Canada, on March 2. Photo； AFP 'If I was to boil it down: you can access the north now more easily than you have ever been able to. And I would say that that's going to change even more drastically over the next 10, 20 years,' said Colonel Darren Turner, joint task force commander of Operation Nanook, the annual Arctic training exercise established in 2007.
