Close X
Monday, September 23, 2024
ADVT 
National

US, Canadian Soldiers Train In Interior Alaska

Darpan News Desk The Canadian Press, 05 Aug, 2016 01:30 PM
    ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Soldiers from U.S. and Canada have spent much of the last few weeks engaging in war games in expansive interior Alaska, with Iowa National Guard personnel playing the role of the enemy.
     
    Arctic Anvil, which ended this week for about 5,000 soldiers and support personnel, was the largest training held in Alaska in the last 15 or so years, said Brig. Gen. Martin Frank, a member of the Canadian Army and the deputy commanding general for U.S. Army Alaska. He is the first foreign officer to serve on the U.S. Army Alaska staff.
     
    Among those training were 140 soldiers from the Third Canadian Division, a light armoured vehicle company, Frank said.
     
    "We've also got about 800 folks from the Iowa National Guard that are participating in the exercise who are playing the role of opposing forces," he said.
     
    Also on hand were observers from partner nations Japan and Singapore.
     
    The exercise tested the soldiers against two kinds of opponents, insurgents similar to what the forces faced in Iraq and Afghanistan and more traditional foes.
     
     
    Frank said the troops have to maintain their skills with fighting insurgent forces.
     
    "But we also have to be capable of defeating a near-peer enemy who might be equipped with tanks, with unmanned aerial vehicles, with aircraft, with all the things that we have so that we are ready to fight and ready to win regardless of what kind of opposing force or kind of adversary we come against," Frank said.
     
    The exercise was intended to prepare the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division at Fort Wainwright, near Fairbanks, for an upcoming rotation at the National Training Center at Fort Lewis, California. The training also included soldiers from the 52nd Aviation Regiment.
     
    Frank called the exercise a success. "I've seen an exponential increase in the capability and the readiness of the 1st Stryker Brigade, and in large part this is due to the command climate, the perspective of the commanders on the ground, and the soldiers on the ground, wanting to learn, wanting to become better," he said.
     
    The training scenario, equipment and technical expertise were provided by the 196th Infantry Brigade's Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Capability, and this was the first time they have provided the training outside its home base in Hawaii.

    MORE National ARTICLES

    B.C. College Issues Cease And Desist Letter To 'Death Midwives' Group

    B.C. College Issues Cease And Desist Letter To 'Death Midwives' Group
      "It was such an honour, such a privilege to be able to do it," said Bains, a professor of Sikh studies at the University of the Fraser Valley in Abbotsford, B.C.

    B.C. College Issues Cease And Desist Letter To 'Death Midwives' Group

    Jason Kenney Says United Alberta Right Would Face 2nd Leadership Race

    Jason Kenney Says United Alberta Right Would Face 2nd Leadership Race
    Kenney made it clear at a news conference in Edmonton that he isn't interested in the Progressive Conservatives or the Opposition Wildrose taking each other over.

    Jason Kenney Says United Alberta Right Would Face 2nd Leadership Race

    P.E.I. Restaurant Creates Lobster Ice Cream, Says People Seem To Enjoy It

    P.E.I. Restaurant Creates Lobster Ice Cream, Says People Seem To Enjoy It
    A Summerside, P.E.I., restaurant has created lobster ice cream, and its owner insists people are enjoying it.

    P.E.I. Restaurant Creates Lobster Ice Cream, Says People Seem To Enjoy It

    'Not Out There Alone:' Winnipeg Nightclub Owner Plans Bus Trip To Steinbach, Man., Pride March

    'Not Out There Alone:' Winnipeg Nightclub Owner Plans Bus Trip To Steinbach, Man., Pride March
    WINNIPEG — A Winnipeg nightclub owner is organizing a bus trip to support marchers in a gay pride parade this weekend in the heart of what's referred to as Manitoba's Bible Belt.

    'Not Out There Alone:' Winnipeg Nightclub Owner Plans Bus Trip To Steinbach, Man., Pride March

    Oscar-winner Gibney On Cyberwarfare In 'Zero Days'

    Oscar-winner Gibney On Cyberwarfare In 'Zero Days'
    NEW YORK — Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney believes the first atomic bomb of the cyberwarfare age has already been dropped.

    Oscar-winner Gibney On Cyberwarfare In 'Zero Days'

    Environment Canada Says 5 Tornadoes Hit Alberta Over Canada Day Weekend

    Environment Canada Says 5 Tornadoes Hit Alberta Over Canada Day Weekend
    The agency says two of the twisters were rated EF-1 wile the others were EF-0, meaning moderate to light damage.

    Environment Canada Says 5 Tornadoes Hit Alberta Over Canada Day Weekend