Internal Department of National Defence documents show Canadian troops were ill-prepared and occasionally ill-equipped for Arctic conditions during a major training exercise with U.S. forces in Alaska last winter, according to reports obtained by CBC News.
The exercise, called Global Response, took place in February at the Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Center north of Fairbanks, Alaska. It involved more than 400 members of the 3rd Battalion Royal Canadian Regiment (3RCR), which was folded into a larger U.S. Army brigade. Temperatures plunged below –30 C.
Separate Canadian and American evaluations both listed concerns about troops’ readiness and equipment for harsh conditions.
“Throughout their stay in the waiting area the Coy [Company] consistently demonstrated a lack of preparations needed to live in Arctic conditions,” said an undated Canadian evaluation that assessed individual companies within the battalion.
The report criticized a recent initiative allowing the regiment to buy off-the-shelf civilian equipment to supplement military cold-weather gear. “This was evident when observing soldiers attempting to remedy issues with a Coleman stove and lanterns or watching them attempt to set up a 10-man tent,” the evaluation said. It noted a “lack of emphasis on basic winter soldiering skills” among some Canadian units.
Lt.-Col. Aaron Corey, commander of 3RCR, disagreed with the assessment. He said his troops trained for winter conditions for a year before the Alaska deployment.
“Every soldier to go up on that exercise had to be a cold weather operator qualified,” Corey said. “All of our leaders from the sections and up, we received cold weather leader training and then we had Arctic operations advisers that were sprinkled into the battalion as well.”
As many as 30 troops suffered various levels of frostbite during the exercise, though the battalion still captured its training objectives, the reports said.
Corey said troops learned they must slow down and account for weather more than in other operations. “We had the enemy and the weather, which was a greater enemy in most cases,” he said.
Other findings in the documents included gaps in the medical team’s understanding of its tasks. An undated evaluation prepared for the health services branch said medics thought they were only on standby for real casualties, not the training scenario. On three occasions, some were seen using personal phones for long calls, giving away their positions. The medical team received only a four-hour professional development seminar on Arctic medicine instead of a five-day U.S.-led course at the Arctic medicine simulation centre.
Chief Warrant Officer Robert McSpadden, regimental sergeant major for 3RCR, said he found the medical team outstanding, especially in treating frostbite casualties, and could not speak to training decisions.
The reports also noted rapid cold weather drained drone batteries, leaving in some cases only 10 minutes of flying time, and communications problems due to the absence of satellites so far north. The American assessment, prepared by the Ted Stevens Center for Arctic Security Studies, noted U.S. units had similar difficulties, including a lack of snowclearing equipment and a shortage of fuel to keep engines running.
Retired colonel Pierre Leblanc, who commanded in the Far North in the late 1990s, said it has been almost a generation since Canadian troops were present in large numbers in the Arctic and many skills will have to be relearned. “It’s a different world,” he said.
Sources: CBC Politics