Anytime, Anywhere

If there is one lesson we can learn from history, it is that the world can be a very volatile place. Human conflict has been a near constant throughout our history. These conflicts can arise and escalate very quickly, threatening the safety of not only the people caught in the middle, but also that of the belligerents’ neighbours. On the other hand, sometimes the planet itself can lash out—through hurricanes, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, floods and all manner of natural disasters. 

Usually, the military alone has the capability to respond to these types of situations, and the speed of its response can mean the difference between lives saved and lives lost. For the Canadian Armed Forces, that speedy response often comes in some form of air power delivered by the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF). A fast and effective response boils down to one word in the military world: readiness. 

Readiness can be described as an organization’s ability to: 

• acquire an adequate number of forces to deal with situations that may arise;
• ensure its forces are properly trained and equipped to deal with the tasks they may be given;
• mobilize those forces quickly;
• transport those forces to the places where they are needed; and
• continue resourcing and supporting those forces as long as they are needed in the field.

While it may sound neat and tidy when described on paper, getting to an acceptable level of readiness—and then maintaining it—is an enormous task, reaching into and across all levels of the armed forces. 

The challenge of staying ready is one that the RCAF has met over decades of operations, running the gamut from combat in wartime to humanitarian assistance. Responsibility for the RCAF’s day-to-day operations and its readiness lies with 1 Canadian Air Division Headquarters (1 CAD) in Winnipeg, Man.

“In situations like natural disasters or armed conflict, the military is often the first and last line of defence for protecting people and property,” said Col Michel Brisebois, who is in charge of 1 CAD’s planning and exercise division. “Our core strength in maintaining readiness is our people, but to make sure we can nurture, develop and sustain readiness, our efforts have to be focused and organized.” 

The RCAF has always kept its forces trained and ready, but threats to the safety of Canadians and others around the world evolve over time. The RCAF revamped its readiness capability in 2012 through the introduction of a Managed Readiness Plan (MRP) as part of its Air Force Expeditionary Concept (AFEC).

The AFEC is applicable to two RCAF Lines of Operation (LoO): LoO 1 Deliberate Operations and LoO 2 Contingency Operations. The AFEC also presents RCAF forces as Air Task Force (ATF); the organizational framework for the deployment of air power, whether that be at home or abroad. The ATF structure has two main components. The first is a command element composed of an ATF commander and support staffs that interact with those commanding the overall operations. The second component is an Air Expeditionary Wing, which combines all the elements necessary for operations: a command element, with a commander and the staff needed to maintain control of the operation; operational and mission support elements, to ensure the task force has all the communications and logistical support it needs to operate; and air detachments consisting of the aircraft needed to fulfil the mission at hand. 

The responsibility for generating the ATF that supports the deliberate LoO falls to the RCAF designated high-readiness wing and the ATF that supports the contingency LoO is permanently assigned to 2 Wing Bagotville. Both wings are expected to have all the elements of their ATF trained and ready to deploy on short notice. The air detachments that will be attached to a particular ATF will be tasked-tailored based on specific mission requirements. For example, to ensure a fighter capability for NATO Baltic Air Policing, a fighter detachment of CF-18 Hornets is attached to ATF Lithuania. 

The designated high-readiness wing for the deliberate LoO rotates annually among six RCAF Wings across Canada and additional support is provided by other Wings when required. This is done for two reasons. First, the Canadian Army maintains a similar readiness posture in Canada. The Army divides the country into regions, and the Army and RCAF have established a schedule such that both Army and RCAF high-readiness forces are co-located in the same region. This helps to cut down on the time necessary to deploy those forces when needed. Second, it ensures that the RCAF spreads the burden of high-readiness to avoid over-taxing any one wing. Being on short-notice recall takes a toll on people and resources, and moving the responsibility around helps to mitigate those impacts. 

Even high-readiness units committed to the deliberate ATF take some time to deploy. When an RCAF presence is needed as quickly as possible, 2 Wing in Bagotville, Que., springs into action. They are the RCAF wing holding the quickest reaction time and their raison d’être is to continually generate an ATF that can deploy at a moment’s notice.  They are prepared to form the same ATF components with 2 Air Component Coordination Unit generating the core of the ATF HQ, while 2 Air Expeditionary Squadron generates the core of the AEW. The task-tailored air detachments are then attached to the organization. 

“At 2 Wing, our motto is ‘The Vanguard of the RCAF,’ and we work hard to maintain the level of excellence and motivation to be ready when the call comes to deploy,” said Col Erick Simoneau, commander of 2 Wing. “For the RCAF, 2 Wing is really the focus of our capacity to deploy quickly to troubled areas, whether at home or abroad.”

The difference between the two ATFs—deliberate versus contingency LoOs—is mainly one of timing. If there is enough time for the deliberate ATF to deploy as the initial RCAF presence on-the-ground, then that is what is done. However, most often the Canadian Government requires a very fast RCAF response to a crisis, thereby activating 2 Wing Bagotville. 

As such, 2 Wing Bagotville can be seen as the ATF that is the “first responder” for the RCAF and is on high-readiness state to respond to such missions as humanitarian relief, non-combatant evacuation operations, up to full-spectrum operations. It can serve as the main ATF for up to two months, and will be replaced with the deliberate ATF once it is ready. The unit can also be called in to surge capacity or to cover off a hand-off between deliberate ATFs if necessary. 

This system works well, and has been tested recently with operations like humanitarian assistance in the Philippines in the wake of Typhoon Haiyan in 2013, the deployment of fighter jets to Eastern Europe following Russian intervention in Ukraine in 2014, and the deployment of cargo aircraft to transport supplies and aid into Iraq. 

Deploying forces in this manner requires everyone involved, top to bottom, to be very knowledgeable about what to do and how to do it, making training the key to success. The MRP is the structure that lays out who is assigned in support of the deliberate and contingency LoOs, who is responsible for generating the deliberate LoO and the liability time frame of the designated high-readiness wing. The MRP also guides the designated units in their training towards their road to High-Readiness. At 2 Wing, 2 Expeditionary Readiness Centre oversees training for the contingency ATF, and the entire ATF concept has been rigorously employed and evaluated in exercises. 

The MRP has shown itself to be effective in ensuring the RCAF’s readiness for short-notice missions. Going forward, the challenge will be to keep the ATF concept flexible enough to meet the requirements of operations within existing resources, and to reflect the needs of likely deployments in geo-political context. 

“We work hard to make sure our people are trained to the highest standard,” said Col Brisebois. “When the call comes, we’ll be ready.”