The Canadian Armed Forces in the Arctic

The CAF’s role in the Arctic has often been misconstrued in the popular media and the intent of this paper is to clarify the nature of this mission; and, by relying primarily on published and unpublished Department of National Defence (DND) documentation, to weigh the CAF’s ability to carry it out by examining its strengths, weaknesses, and ongoing challenges. [...] To achieve this, the CAF would “demonstrate a visible presence” and assist other government departments in responding to “any threats that may arise.”6 As a broad framework, the CFDS left the nature of those threats, and the manner in which the CAF was to exercise that control, unspecified. [...] The scenarios in which DND envisions the CAF contributing in this regard are all unconventional security situations.13 Increased activity in the North is, for example, expected to bring more illegal fishing, maritime and aerospace accidents, dumping, pollution, trespassing, and criminal activity.14 For the most part, the CAF is not be the force mandated to respond to 6 DND, Canada First Defence St [...] Current Arctic training is designed, first and foremost, to minimize the amount of effort required for a unit to sustain itself in order to maximize the energy available to provide support.34 The ARCGs were built to be inserted wherever needed to provide Canada with a basic Arctic presence, not in the traditional flag- waving sense of the word but as a versatile all-purpose force capable of provid [...] The IRUs are permanent force units designed around the same model as the ARCGs, trained with the same capabilities to achieve the same objectives, but to do so on a smaller scale and a much shorter timeframe.42 In the event that more support is required, an ARCG can be mobilized and deployed.