24 mars 2020 | Local, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité
“This is information we don't want opposing forces to have as we're relatively a small force,” a spokesman said Friday.
DAVID PUGLIESE, OTTAWA CITIZEN
The Canadian Forces won't be releasing information on the numbers of military personnel who have tested positive for the novel coronavirus because of security reasons.
The military had previously confirmed three cases, including one involving a reservist who had been on a personal trip to Spain. The Canadian Forces had also stated that no personnel on overseas operations had tested positive for COVID-19.
But going forward, the Canadian military will no longer be confirming any other cases publicly because of operational security, Department of National Defence spokesman Dan Le Bouthillier said Friday. “This is information we don't want opposing forces to have as we're relatively a small force,” he added.
Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Jon Vance has warned that the “integrity” of some military units could be threatened by personnel contracting coronavirus. The Canadian Forces could be eventually called upon by the federal government to provide support if the pandemic worsens.
The U.S. military has confirmed that more than 50 of its personnel have tested positive for COVID-19.
The Canadian Forces has also ordered approximately 2000 COVID-19 test kits for military clinics across the country, Le Bouthillier said. The kits are expected in the next week. “The needs of deployed units for COVID-19 testing will be considered in the distribution plan,” he added. “In the interim, we are working in collaboration with our partners, through a combination of integral, allied and host nation supports, to ensure deployed CAF members are provided with the best available health care.”
COVID-19 has also caused the cancellation of Exercise Maple Resolve, the army's main training event for the year, as well as a naval exercise off the coast of Africa. HMCS Glace Bay and HMCS Shawinigan, which were to take part in that naval training, are now returning to Halifax. The ships are expected to arrive in mid-April.
Troops from Canadian Forces Base Petawawa who were supposed to take part in Exercise Maple Resolve will now be training in smaller groups, Le Bouthillier said.
“We will mitigate this lost training opportunity through the aggressive pursuit of smaller training events and professional development,” he noted. “We will return to our normal managed readiness cycle when conditions permit.”
“The current situation with COVID-19 is unprecedented and prudence demands we adopt a posture that allows us to best support civilian authorities should the need arise while safe-guarding the well-being of our personnel and the broader Canadian public,” Le Bouthillier stated.
Maple Resolve was scheduled to take place from May 11 to 24 at Wainwright Alta. It normally involves approximately 5000 personnel and 1450 pieces of major equipment. The exercise gives participating personnel the opportunity to train with a wide variety of weapons, simulation technology, armoured fighting vehicles, and aircraft in order to hone their skills in a realistic setting, short of an actual operation.
Another exercise that was to have taken place before Maple Resolve has also been cancelled. That training event, scheduled to run from April 5 to May 5, would have involved around 2,000 troops.
Military personnel from the U.S., United Kingdom, France and Brazil had been scheduled to take part in Maple Resolve.
Many other nations are also cancelling military exercises because of COVID-19.
In addition, the Canadian Forces is also limiting public access to its recruiting centres across the country. The military is continuing to recruit but has asked new applicants to begin their recruiting process using its website. “For those applicants currently going through the recruitment process, please note that all face-to-face interactions will be restricted and by appointment only,” the Canadian Forces added in a social media post. “If contacted for an appointment, please note that we are implementing additional protective protocols including increased questions specific to individual circumstances in order to ensure the continued health of our recruiting teams.”
7 janvier 2022 | Local, Aérospatial
Canadians will at long last have a better idea this year which fighter jet the Liberal government intends to buy for the air force. The selection decision, however, is expected to have more significance than simply a choice between two shining, new, expensive aircraft: the F-35 or the Gripen-E.
9 septembre 2019 | Local, Terrestre
by DAVID PUGLIESE, OTTAWA CITIZEN Some 600 soldiers at Petawawa will be involved in testing what could be the new camouflage uniform pattern for the Canadian Forces. Known as “Prototype J” the new camouflage pattern is being examined as a possible replacement for both the current arid (tan) and temperate woodland (green) camouflage. Six hundred soldiers at Petawawa will receive the new camouflage pattern uniforms but that could eventually be expanded to around 1,000 personnel. The uniforms are initially being issued to soldiers of the 3rd Battalion, The Royal Canadian Regiment, for a series of trials and tests in the fall. “The trials will kick off in two weeks,” explained Lt. Col. Ray Corby, who is with the Army's Director Land Requirements' Soldiers Systems section. “We've put the whole battalion into the uniforms. In the next week or so they'll be wearing them.” Various camouflage patterns were examined as part of the SOCEM (Soldier Operational Clothing and Equipment Modernization) Project but this is the first to be taken out to the field for a large-scale test. https://ottawacitizen.com/news/national/defence-watch/petawawa-soldiers-to-test-new-camouflage-for-canadian-forces
11 juillet 2019 | Local, Aérospatial
by Chris Thatcher The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) is asking for industry help to develop a road map for the modernization of its fighter aircraft training ranges. Public Services and Procurement Canada on July 8 issued a request for proposals (RFP) for a plan that would capitalize on Live-Virtual-Constructive (LVC) training and experimental environments at the two primary air weapons ranges in Cold Lake, Alta., and Bagotville, Que., as well as other ranges in Gagetown, N.B., Wainwright and Suffield, Alta, and Valcartier, Que., and at the Canadian Forces Maritime Experimental and Test Range in Nanoose Bay, B.C. The Cold Lake Air Weapons Range (CLAWR), in particular, is considered a strategic asset that is vital to RCAF individual and collective training, as well as integrated training with the Canadian Army, Canadian Special Operations Forces Command, and allies. It regularly hosts the multinational Maple Flag exercises. But the ranges were last upgraded almost 20 years ago and no longer provide sufficient representation of current threats or the connectivity to work with advanced next-generation fighter jets. They have also become expensive to maintain. “Obsolescence, threat replication, and other land use stakeholders challenge the CLAWR's current utility to training fighter forces, while its future training environment must enable rehearsing the integration of future capabilities against emerging peer adversaries,” explained Stephan Kummel, director general of Fighter Capability, told Skies in a statement. “The RCAF requires airspace designed for advanced air platforms, target arrays suitable for modern weapons, modern training instrumentation, and low-level communications to monitor and control training, and a selective security classification system to permit challenging simultaneous training at different classification levels so participants can share data within their approved national caveats.” The RFP noted that RCAF investments in various virtual constructive capabilities over the past decades “were delivered through discrete projects where interconnectivity with the spectrum of RCAF LVC capabilities was not a requirement.” As part of the road map, the Air Force is asking industry to “consider” the current modelling and simulation environment, virtual proving grounds, and all current RCAF platform simulators — including an eventual remotely piloted air system — as well as air traffic control, air weapons, and air and space control simulators. The aim is a report that “recommended way forward to modernize the ranges and integrate all RCAF LVC capabilities ... Ranges, simulators and virtual environments need to be developed in a manner that supports collective training, but solutions must also support collective and distributed research and experimentation. The proposed investment strategy for the LVC modernization program must enable a seamless transition of equipment and environments between training and force development activities,” according to the RFP. The 12-month contract, which includes a one-year optional extension, is divided into three phases: initial scoping, design and lifecycle support. The initial scoping report is expected to identify shortfalls in “critical range infrastructure such as: threat replication, briefing and de-briefing capability and facilities, communication, Air Combat Maneuvering Instrumentation (ACMI), EM spectrum management, A/G target design, specialist support personnel and security.” “This roadmap is the first step in a multi-stage process that will ensure the long-term viability of force generation efforts, training, testing and evaluation, and the execution of large-scale multinational exercises such as Maple Flag,” said Kummel. https://www.skiesmag.com/news/rcaf-seeks-proposals-on-air-weapons-range-upgrades/