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The Royal Canadian Air Force's largest plane, the CC-177 Globemaster, gets loaded up at Yellowknife airport on Monday afternoon. Joint Task Force North will be flying planes transporting cargo and personnel into Yellowknife for the next month, as it undertakes Operation Nanook. - Cody Punter/NNSL photo |
It's a bird, it's a plane, it's Nanook Joint Task Force North's exercise will bring increased air traffic to Yellowknife over the next month
Cody Punter
Northern News Services
Published Wednesday, August 7, 2013
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Yellowknifers may be witnessing some unfamiliar sights and sounds when they look up the sky over the next few weeks.
Joint Task Force North (JTFN) will be undertaking Operation Nanook from Aug. 2 to 23, and while the four simulations are taking place in Whitehorse and Nunavut, the annual training exercise, will be conducted from the JTFN's Yellowknife headquarters.
"We control and execute the operation with our four teams on the ground in each location," said Captain (Navy) Derek Moss, deputy commander and chief of staff for JTFN.
Every aspect of the four exercises is run through a joint operation centre, which has been set up in Yellowknife. Through the operation centre, JTFN has direct contact with Ottawa as well as with the relevant civilian and military bodies involved in the operation across the North.
"We're providing orders and directions in addition to the planing that we've done for the last year for the tasks and roles of the Canadian Armed Forces on land, sea and in the air," said Moss.
In order to provide support to the operation, there will be more military aircraft than usual flying in and out of the city's airport, but it won't just be the usual Hercules transport planes swooping over the city.
The Royal Canadian Air Force's largest plane, the CC-177 Globemaster, which has a maximum range of more than 10,000 km and can carry a payload of nearly 73 metric tonnes, will also be making periodic stops in Yellowknife. One of the massive aircraft is currently stationed at Yellowknife's airport.
Lt. Colonel Paul Doyle is usually based out of Cold Lake, Alta., but is currently in Yellowknife as the air component commander for Operation Nanook.
According to Doyle, the Hercules will be making daily flights for the rest of the week, while the Globemaster will be making more sporadic flights over the next month.
Doyle, who took part in the first Operation Nanook in 2007, said that one of the advantages of the Air Force is that its tasks remain similar no matter where they are stationed.
"The way that we plan to use airplanes and the way that we task to use them, it's all the same. Whether we're in Yellowknife, whether we're in Whitehorse or whether we're in Winnipeg," said Doyle. "
In order to help with the operation, there will also be an additional 40 ground staff deployed to Yellowknife.
According to Moss, more than 1,000 military personnel, most of whom are based in southern Canada, will be taking part in operation Nanook over the next month.
Capt. Sandra Levesque, JTFN's public affairs officer, said some of the extra staff will be preparing and receiving cargo while others will be filling in for personnel who are taking part in the exercises.
"We don't want to affect our normal operations because of Nanook, so we need those people to come in and replace staff to make sure we can carry on the mission of Joint Task Force North," Levesque said.
Moss said that people with experience in operation centres are in particular demand.
"They develop our situation reports and broadcast those back to Ottawa and across our command centres in the North."
According to Levesque, one of the major changes to the operations of the JTFN is the fact that the command centre will be running at all hours, day and night, for the duration of the operation.
"Usually, the joint operation is not 24/7, but during Operation Nanook, it's 24/7," said Levesque.
In order to maintain that kind of schedule, there will also be additional staff working in JTFN's command centre to track what is happening on the ground in the various locations where exercises are taking place.
"It's a lot of tracking, gathering information, making sure we have the right information," said Levesque. "This year, it's a little more complex than usual because we are dealing with four different locations with different challenges for those different locations."
The four locations of the exercises include Whitehorse, Resolution Island, Cornwallis Island, and King William Island where the Canadian Rangers will be conducting sovereignty patrols and reporting on activity in the Northwest Passage.
According to Moss, the range of the operations being run by the JTFN is what makes the exercise such a challenge.
"The biggest challenge is the vast, vast geography and the number of time zones we work across," said Moss.
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