N
ninty9
Guest
4,500 soldiers train in Alberta
CanWest News Service
Sunday, April 20, 2003
Canada‘s largest army exercise in a decade is underway at a Canadian Forces Base 180 kilometres east of Edmonton, as a brigade of 4,500 soldiers train for missions in Afghanistan and Bosnia.
During the exercise, which began April 7 and continues to May 3, soldiers with the 2 Canadian Mechanized Brigade from Petawawa are practising everything from combat patrols to full-scale, live-fire warfare involving tanks, armoured personnel carriers, helicopters and support from fighter aircraft. The training will become an annual event as the sprawling base at Wainwright, Alta. becomes Canada‘s primary training centre for large-scale exercises at the brigade level.
It took more than 900 railway flatcars to move the soldiers‘ trucks, armoured personnel carriers, tanks and other vehicles from Petawawa and it cost about $17.1 million -- nearly half the army‘s training budget for the year. When the exercise is over, the soldiers will have fired $17.6 million worth of ammunition, 20 per cent of the year‘s supply.
Conducting the training at one location allows it to be much more efficient, said Col. Peter Devlin, commander of 2 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group. "This is the premier training event for the army this year -- it‘s money extremely well-spent, it‘s efficient use of our limited resources."
CanWest News Service
Sunday, April 20, 2003
Canada‘s largest army exercise in a decade is underway at a Canadian Forces Base 180 kilometres east of Edmonton, as a brigade of 4,500 soldiers train for missions in Afghanistan and Bosnia.
During the exercise, which began April 7 and continues to May 3, soldiers with the 2 Canadian Mechanized Brigade from Petawawa are practising everything from combat patrols to full-scale, live-fire warfare involving tanks, armoured personnel carriers, helicopters and support from fighter aircraft. The training will become an annual event as the sprawling base at Wainwright, Alta. becomes Canada‘s primary training centre for large-scale exercises at the brigade level.
It took more than 900 railway flatcars to move the soldiers‘ trucks, armoured personnel carriers, tanks and other vehicles from Petawawa and it cost about $17.1 million -- nearly half the army‘s training budget for the year. When the exercise is over, the soldiers will have fired $17.6 million worth of ammunition, 20 per cent of the year‘s supply.
Conducting the training at one location allows it to be much more efficient, said Col. Peter Devlin, commander of 2 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group. "This is the premier training event for the army this year -- it‘s money extremely well-spent, it‘s efficient use of our limited resources."
