This post may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.
Canada’s Arctic Strategy presented by the Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute.
The Canadian Armed Forces’ return to the Arctic over the past decade and a half has been a slow and difficult process (after stopping its Cold War era Arctic training), and its basic operational limitations remain an ongoing challenge. Activities have regularly reinforced the difficulties of moving and surviving in the northern climate as well as the need for better communications, facilities, and specialized coaching. Yet, in spite of its constraints, the army has made a great improvement. From a standing start, the Army has put together a number of small but well-trained reserve and permanent force units designed for fast and flexible response. The Army can now deploy a staggered series of responders everywhere in the North to reinforce the ever capable Rangers or expand to an area without a Ranger patrol. This ability is limited in size but relevant to the sorts of threats envisioned. Given the logistical and transportation challenges native to Arctic operations, a small self-sufficient force is favored, for instance, to the kinds of army level deployments and airdrops trained from the 1940s to the 1980s (Adam Lajeunesse).
