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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The Canadian Forces officially launched Exercise Arctic Ram Tuesday with approximately 1,500 military personnel participating in exercises, testing and improving the army's ability to operate in the North on land and in the air.

Cpl. Frank Wellwood and Cpl. Vincent Coupal drive around a light utility vehicle on the camp grounds at the sandpits in preparation for operation Arctic Ram on Feb. 4.

"We have to be able to essentially shoot, move and communicate in Canada's North in accordance with the Canada First Defence Strategy and in accordance with the government direction to project forces to the North, to fulfill our mandate in the Canadian Forces, and to assist with sovereignty operations," said Lt.-Col. Nick Grimshaw, chief of staff for the Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group 1.

During the 17-day operation, forces will be tested in a scenario designed to simulate a possible real-life situation in an operation area spanning 300 kilometres from their base at the Sand Pits to Gameti.

"The scenario that we've developed for this exercise is that a fictitious country has a sensitive satellite that has fallen out of orbit and is falling to Earth and all indications are that it is falling in this general area," said Grimshaw.

The Forces have to secure the potentially radioactive debris while keeping Canadian citizens safe.

He said a component of enemy forces, played by personnel from Canadian Forces Base Petawawa, was included in the scenario to make it more challenging from a conventional military perspective.

"This fictitious country that owns the satellite has infiltrated this part of Canada with a small element of forces, because they too are trying to recover sensitive components of the satellite," Grimshaw said. "So it's a race against time to some degree."

He said this type of Arctic training is challenging because of the harsh conditions, and is a first for many of the soldiers because of the focus on operations in Afghanistan.

"We have not been able to spend as much time in Arctic environments as we have in the past. So we find that we are really relearning a lot of those skills, revisiting those skill sets," said Grimshaw. "So it's very challenging from that perspective."

He said the military will be working with the Canadian Rangers, taking advantage of their knowledge of the terrain and expertise in winter-survival situations.

In addition to the 1,500 troops, the contingent includes approximately 500 pieces of equipment on the ground ranging from snowmobiles to light armored vehicles (LAV) and trailers.

During Exercise Arctic Ram, the Forces will also participate in a "show of force" by demonstrating military capabilities, including live-fire exercises, testing the LAV III, firing a 25-mm cannon, as well as testing other small arms, medium machine guns and light machine guns.

"This exercise is by far one of the biggest and most complex army-led exercises undertaken in the Canadian Arctic, in Canada's North in a very long time," said Grimshaw.

On the operation's last day on Feb. 26, a "community-relations" event is planned, which will include a parachute drop.

As a part of the exercise, the Forces participated in a parachute drop Wednesday near the Edzo Bridge and in live-fire exercises at Russell Lake near Behchoko yesterday.

The operation got off to a rocky start when a military helicopter struck power lines Monday evening, knocking out power to the city. Nobody was hurt in the incident, although the helicopter did sustain damage.

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