In shifting geopolitical landscape, Canada, U.S. and Denmark militaries train together in Greenland

In shifting geopolitical landscape, Canada, U.S. and Denmark militaries train together in Greenland

Planes landed in Kangerlussuaq as part of NORAD's Operation Arctic Vanguard

The Canadian, American and Danish Air Forces and NATO recently trained together in Greenland to better improve their operations in the Arctic.

CBC News was the only media from North America granted access to travel with the Royal Canadian Air Force on a CC-130H Hercules to Kangerlussuaq, Greenland as jets from each air force landed after an exercise north of the air base.

The media access extended to sitting in the cockpit of the plane, watching the pilots, engineer and navigator conduct the flight, and even listening in on the pilots' conversations with oceanic air traffic controllers in Gander, N.L.

The exercise was a part of Operation Arctic Vanguard, led by the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). The operation's objective is to improve NORAD’s readiness to operate in the Arctic and in harsh conditions that see challenges related to weather, isolation, communication and a lack of infrastructure.

“Our mandate [is] to protect North America and the different environments that we’d have to operate in to do that, the Arctic is, is one of those focus areas for us, it’s very unforgiving," said Maj.-Gen. David Moar, the director of operations for NORAD.

The operation took place as the United States, Greenland and Denmark signed a new security deal, which followed U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats to seize the island and take it over.

Moar said that for NORAD, ensuring the defence of North America means they need to be at "peak readiness" to operate in the Arctic, and this is particularly important as global focus on the Arctic increases.

“Whether that’s commercial or economic interest, scientific interest or security type interests the Arctic is certainly, like I say, an area of global focus. So in looking at our mission at NORAD to conduct aerospace warning, we need to look at our ability to operate in that environment," said Moar.

Military exercise in Greenland brings together soldiers from Canada, U.S. and Denmark

Military jets take off from Goose Bay

On Sept. 16, the operation saw fighter jets from the Royal Canadian Air Force, United States Air Force and Royal Danish Air Force land in Kangerlussuaq, Greenland. The RCAF and USAF aircrafts departed from 5 Wing Goose Bay and the RDAF aircrafts from Iceland.

Dozens of people from the community stood outside the fence at the air field, watching as the planes flew around the airspace over Kangerlussuaq and taxied onto the runway.

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Ahead of the jets, a search-and-rescue aircraft from 17 Wing Winnipeg flew to Kangerlussuaq, with the plane's crew, members of the United States Air Force, a Canadian Armed Forces public affairs officer and a CBC reporter.

The plane took part in the exercise in case search-and-rescue assets were needed and would have been responsible for responding to any situations the jets encountered.

“We got all of our forces together out over the water, we executed a tactical mission and then we had to co-ordinate an extensive mission-planning kind of cell to get all of our aircraft down here into Kangerlussuaq, Greenland," said Maj. Harrison “Ahab” Gebs with the United States Air Force.

"So it was quite the large amount of co-ordination that needed to happen for that. But all of our forces work together well."

Gebs said this operation is significant because of the co-operation it requires from different countries, with people that speak different languages and may tactically work a little differently.

He said operations like these will strengthen relationships and the operation happening in the Arctic is part of the reason it’s so important.

“It's the avenue of approach for potential attacks coming from our adversaries. And so the NORAD team has to work together with its partner nations in order to defend the Arctic and defend those approaches,” said Gebs.

Maj. Conor Anson-Cartwright with the Royal Canadian Air Force says there's value in conducting operations in areas where communication is limited.

"There's a lot of challenges with that — with sustainment for maintenance, fuel replenishment, communications up to our higher headquarters, which all proves a quite a bit of a challenge, just operating from different locations and coming together to formulate a plan and also execute the plan," he said.

Maj.-Gen. Jan Dam is the chief of the Royal Danish Air Force. He says he sees more operations like this happening in the future.

"We share the same interest in defending the Arctic area and we want to be strong in doing that in our air forces and in order to be strong and professional in that, we need exercise and the training in an operation like this," he said.

Moar said that as the operational environment is changing, NORAD needs to look farther away from North America in the interest of North American security.

"We see our competitors operating different types of military vessels, vehicles and new weapons that are, you know, capable of threatening North America... and frankly if a vessel is capable of threatening North America at a greater range, we need to be able to reach that vessel at a greater range," said Moar.

NORAD's operation is happening at a time when there are political tensions between the two countries that make up the organization, but Moar says the focus of NORAD isn't impacted.

"NORAD was the agreement signed in 1958, so we are literally talking about decades of completely integrated operations between Canada and the United States and so our focus really is on one thing and that's the defence of North America, and so in that we have no seams in our organizations, regardless of what may be happening politically," said Moar.

The significance of 5 Wing Goose Bay

Operation Arctic Vanguard is hosted at 5 Wing Goose Bay, a location that Moar says has clear strategic importance.

In April of this year, the federal government announced that it would be investing up to $8 billion into 5 Wing Goose Bay, as one of northern Canada's sites where NORAD can operate from.

"There isn't really an area I think of Canada that may be more strategically important, or at least serious strategic importance back from 1941 and its role in World War II and then all the way through the last number of decades," said Moar.

He said that he sees the future importance of 5 Wing Goose Bay growing, when looking at how to secure airways and seas from the Arctic and Atlantic, through the North Atlantic, Goose Bay is a location that NORAD is able to run operations out of and meet its mandate of ensuring North American security.

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Regan Burden works with Labrador Morning from CBC's bureau in Happy Valley-Goose Bay.