Thousands of soldiers are being put through the most realistic and intense training the Canadian Army has done since the war in Afghanistan - sharpening skills and preparing for future deployment - and it's all happening just south east of Edmonton.
Soldiers are fighting an uprising just a few kilometres outside of a camp in a place known as Hispaniola.
Hispaniola is not a real country, but it very well could be.
Barbed wire surrounds the camp and guns and helicopters are always at the ready.
The scenario is part of Maple Resolve, a six-week training program that began at CFB Wainwright on May 19, where thousands of troops are immersed into realistic battle so by the end, they’ll be ready for deployment anywhere and at any time.
“There’s no fake or no exercises associated with this,” said Maj. Mathiew Primeau, lead planner for Maple Resolve.
“If they succeed, they succeed. If they fail, then they will simulate dying.”
Canada’s combat role in Afghanistan ended over two years ago.
While some troops are still in the war-torn country until next year, the end of battle has left thousands back in Canada, waiting, and training, to be deployed again.
“The exercise is to train the Canadian Armed Forces, specifically the army but also with joint enablers that is elements of the air force and special operating forces, to work collectively in persecuting complex operations overseas,” Primeau explained.
“The most important part of this exercise is to train the high readiness battle group of the Canadian Armed Forces to be ready to deploy if they need to in the next year.”
Training begins at a command post where each soldier wears a special suit that includes a helmet with a GPS and a vest with a built-in computer.
If a soldier is shot in the field, the vest will calculate just how bad the wound is while the gun shows how precise the shot was.
The shots are comparable to a game of laser tag and while training includes simulated injuries, several soldiers have also faced real injuries during the gruelling exercise.
“We have had over 200 people come through the facility, many of which are minor and some of which are a little more extreme,” said Maj. Franz Kirk.
“For the most part, we’ve been able to return over 95 per cent of them back to the front lines."
When a soldier is treated for their simulated injuries, the vest will respond to show whether treatment is working.
The vest also includes video and radio capabilities so observers can monitor everything that’s happening on the field.
Nearly 3,400 soldiers involved in Maple Resolve
“We try to replicate what we see elsewhere in the world. Right now you have some countries that are basically failing countries. We observe the countries and try to find out in which type of environment could we end up being deployed to one day if the government decides to do so,” said Col. Jocelyn Paul.
“We try to mix together the good lessons learned from Afghanistan but also the good lessons learned from the era not so long ago where we were being trained and ready to face conventional warfare.”
The goal of Maple Resolve is to ensure the thousands of men and women on the front line can respond to that call with sharpened skills after spending a decade in the desert.
“We're used to operating in Afghanistan where it's a scenario where we have air superiority. We're not worried about air-to-air threats whereas in this scenario we're fighting a near peer enemy that is really, really making us think,” said Lt.-Col. Luc Girouard.
“Training like this is the way you want to keep your competencies up, your confidence up, your skills, your technical skills, right from the technician that's working on the aircraft to the mission planner that's sitting in the operations centre.”
The training exercise includes nearly 3,400 soldiers, as well as military and civilian role-players who act as mayors, residents, Red Cross, media, drug dealers and more.
It’s not just Canadian troops training either – 70 soldiers and eight air units from the United States have also come in to train.
Maj. Barry Simmons, Task Force Georgia executive officer with the U.S. Army, says joint-training with Canadians is important because American and Canadian troops could very realistically be deployed to the same battles in the future.
“You look back over the last ten years and you look to the left and to the right and who is in the fox hole with you and it's important to keep not only those relationships going but that joint-training going,” Simmons said.
“We could conceivably find ourselves together again, and it's not only possible, it's highly probable.”
Exercise part of nation-wide joint training mission
Maple Resolve is being integrated into JOINTEX 2013 – the first in a series of nation-wide joint training and readiness missions designed to change how the Canadian Forces train, develop and prepare for future operations.
“The way we like to train our people is to sometimes make it as hard as possible because it is in the adversity that we are learning the right lessons,” Paul said.
“I'd say it's been years since we've been able to exercise so many people in such a great training environment,” Girouard said. “This is really pushing us to the limit.”
JOINTEX training exercises have been taking place across Canada since May 1.
CFB Wainwright as chosen to host Maple Resolve for a few different reasons, the size, the unique terrain including rivers, grassland, hills and valleys, and a large airport unique to the base that means troops and equipment can be flown in from across Canada.
Others who can’t make the trip are watching video and audio being captured during Maple Resolve, saving the military millions.
“Without putting thousands of troops in the field, without spending millions and millions of dollars, not that it wouldn't be required, they've added the opportunity to be able to see what the entirety of a complex international operation looks like,” said Lt.-Gen. Stuart Beare.
Training wraps up in June and the troops will return home, skills sharpened, waiting for deployment.
No matter where or when that may be, these soldiers will be ready.
With files from Breanna Karstens-Smith
