NORAD trip to Resolute a first
Forty-five person squad operates mobile radar unit in Far North
Stewart Burnett
Northern News Services
Friday, June 5, 2015
QUASUITTUQ/RESOLUTE
The Canadian Armed Forces got some unique Northern training experience in Resolute when they deployed a mobile radar unit in an exercise held from May 25 to June 1.
Members of 42 Radar Squadron install a mobile radar unit during operation Amalgam Dart 15-2 in Resolute, May 22. - photo courtesy of Cpl. Patrick Drouin, 4 Wing Imaging |
Forty-five people took part in operation Amalgam Dart in Nunavut.
Other aspects of the training took place across the Northwest Territories and Alaska.
"(The mobile radar unit) was used as a means to detect, in the context of the exercise, fictitious air threats and also to provide tactical control for NORAD assets to go and identify, detect and deter those threats," said Capt. Alexandre Cadieux.
"The mobile radar unit was good training because it was their first time going to Resolute Bay and setting up their mobile radar equipment that far north. For them it was a learning experience to operate in that environment, but their mission is to detect possible air threats and provide tactical control for military assets."
The exercise sent NORAD troops farther north than ever before but Cadieux could not provide details about
exactly how far they flew, citing security reasons.
National Defence Minister Jason Kenney said Amalgam Dart was another example of Canada and the United States seamlessly integrating their militaries in defence of the entire continent.
"I'm proud to see Canadians leading NORAD exercises in our North in the face of the Putin regime's aggression," stated Kenney in a news release.
The mobile radar unit has been returned to its based in Cold Lake, Alta.
