A sprawling military training base in southern Alberta can expect to see more activity this summer, says the commander of the Canadian Army.
Lt-General Michael Wright told an audience at a defence trade show Thursday that Canadian Forces Base Suffield, the country’s largest training area, shall be used increasingly as a testing hub for brand new technology and for increased training.
“Suffield is a training base that now we have not used very much over the past 10 or 11 years, but in an agreement between Canada and the UK, we’re going to be beginning to use it increasingly this summer,” said Wright on the Defence Aerospace and Security Exhibition of Western Canada, or DEFSEC West.
“It’s incredible to see, but we’ve also got some investments we’d like to make into CFB Suffield, like so a lot of our bases across the country.”
Wright didn’t specify what form of investments could be made but said it will not be to the purpose where 1000’s of troops could be training there, as was seen up to now.
The bottom, which is situated within the southeast corner of Alberta, just north of Medicine Hat, is sort of 2,700-square-kilometres in size — greater than thrice the scale of the town of Calgary — and its use dates back greater than half a century.
Within the early Seventies, the British Army signed a cope with Canada to send 1000’s of troops to the bottom east of Calgary for armour training and exercises, until the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 brought every little thing to a halt.
Canadian, UK and other allied forces are seen participating in training exercises at CFB Suffield in 2010, before the COVID pandemic within the early 2020s brought the training to a halt.
File photo
When reports in 2021 suggested the British would pull out of Suffield entirely, the U.K.’s then-defence minister Ben Wallace hinted that armoured training could be “flexed” to other locations.
In 2023, the U.K. defence ministry announced it will begin to wind down operations and training at Suffield.
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The U.K. government has since indicated it can spend £17 million (Cdn$31 million) on maintaining British Army Training Unit Suffield.
In January, the U.K.’s secretary of state for defence Al Carns said Suffield continues for use for each training and experimentation activity.
Two British training missions were planned at Suffield for 2025-26.
In an interview, Wright said there might be more. “I won’t speak for the British Army, but they’re absolutely planning for increased use as well,” he said.
Yet one more was slated for 2027, the U.K. government says.
The bottom can be still utilized by Canadian reserve units for training, with a few of those soldiers joining the NATO mission in Latvia.
Canadian and allied forces are seen participating in chemical and biological training at CFB Suffield in August 2019.
Global News
Every year, the Defence Research Development Canada branch hosts allied biological and chemical agent training.
Wright said the bottom must be used after a protracted period of inactivity.
“Because the Canadian army builds and the Canadian Armed Forces builds, we’re going to wish that ability to do larger-scale training across the country,” he said.
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