Plane crash scenario planned
Annual emergency exercise Operation Nanook 2016 expected to cost $7 million
Jessica DaveyQuantick
Northern News Services
Wednesday, August 17, 2016
RANKIN INLET
A plane is going to crash in Rankin Inlet this month - sort of.
Operation Nanook 2016 brings the Canadian Armed Forces to Nunavut from Aug. 18 to 29.
Members from Canada Border Services Agency, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Royal Canadian Navy, Nunavut Coroner's Office and Transportation Safety Board are transported to a simulated cruise ship grounding at York Sound, NU during a Search and Rescue exercise as part of Operation NANOOK 2014 on 27 Aug 2014.
- photo courtesy MCpl Johanie Maheu |
Involving simultaneous activities at sea, on land and in the air, the simulation takes place each year.
Last year, it was based out of Inuvik in the Northwest Territories and brought 650 military personnel. This year, in exercises split between the Yukon and Nunavut, around 800 personnel will be coming North, with around 250 people, including ships at sea, arriving in Rankin Inlet. The Yukon scenario will involve an earthquake, but Rankin Inlet's will be a little different.
"Basically there's going to be an unmanned aircraft flying around, and it will suffer some malfunction and be lost out in rural Rankin Inlet," said Lt.Cmdr. Terence Cross.
In addition to being the lead planner for Joint Task Force North headquarters, he's also the task force commander in Rankin Inlet for the defence line of operation for this year's scenario.
"Because of the nature of this particular aircraft we're going to want to recover it. We're also saying that there's some bad guys in the area that find out abut it and we're in a bit of a race to get there before the bad guys do ... The guys will have the opportunity to practice their ambush techniques, their combat techniques."
The Rankin Inlet scenario will include patrols, urban Search and Rescue training, and combat exercises.
Operating about 50 kilometers outside of Rankin Inlet, about 100 members of the Royal 22 Battalion based in Quebec will be on the land as the "good guys" with vessels from the Canadian Navy Marine Maritime Coastal Defence supporting them.
There will also be RCAF aircraft involved, specifically an Aurora and a Twin Otter.
"This is basically to continue our abilities to work together as a joint force in the military," said Cross.
The "bad guys" will be played by the Loyal Edmonton Regiment from Yellowknife. But that doesn't mean they have it easy.
Cross says both roles will be furthering their training.
"It's not just go out and get killed by the good guys – we make it difficult. Make it realistic," said Cross.
Operation Nanook isn't just one big game of elaborate pretend, however.
The operation's stated objectives are to assert Canada's sovereignty in the North, improve coordination in wholeofgovernment operations, increase cooperation between different mission partners in the North, and help train the Canadian Armed Forces in Arctic conditions.
"It's not just winter months that we're north of 60. We come up here throughout the year in order to ensure the sovereignty, safety and security of all people in Canada," said Cross, adding that the cooperation between different stakeholders has become increasingly important since devolution in 2014.
"The governments of the various territories are still learning, they're still developing. We do the whole of government portion of Nanook in order to facilitate interoperability right from the municipal level straight up through federal and over to the military. So the territories, the municipalities, federal government, military, RCMP, we all get together so we can figure out how to work better together," he said.
His headquarters starts storyboarding and planning the scenarios about 14 months in advance. "I don't want to create an exercise where a bunch of the guys come up and don't get any value from it, because if they get too wrapped up in that strategic objective of the sovereignty, then at the tactical level, maybe the guys don't get as good training. So what I do is I try to keep my eye on making sure it is valuable for everybody."
The whole thing, Cross estimates, is budgeted at around $7 million.
Rankin Inlet residents are warned that they may notice an increase in military air and ground traffic. Cross says the major influx can be expected on Aug. 22, with the majority of the action between Aug. 24 and 28. The scenario will wrap up in Rankin by Aug. 30.
"The big message from my perspective is we're in the North," said Cross. "We're ready to further Canada's interests and defend it, and we're here to help the people, whatever their call is. And we train for that year long."
