Preserving capacity, General Tom Lawson, Chief of the Defence Staff, Keys to Canadian SAR
Issue link: http://vanguardcanada.uberflip.com/i/439940
Exercising a greater land-sea e ect T Training 26 DECEMBER 2014/JANUARY 2015 www.vanguardcanada.com by chris Thatcher r ear-Admiral John Newton would like to see a similar synergy between the navy and the Canadian Army, what he calls a "land-sea" effect. Newton is the commander of Joint Task Force Atlantic (JTFA) as well as Maritime Forces Atlantic (MARLANT). Together with his deputy commander, Brigadier- General Nicolas Eldaoud, who is also the commander of 5th Canadian Division (5 Cdn Div), he has sought opportunities to generate greater mutual appreciation and understanding of people and capabil- ity that both services can provide to man- age the consequences of a range of events throughout Atlantic Canada and into the Subarctic. "We have an inherent relationship with the air force," Newton explained during an interview at his headquarters this fall. "Airmen and women have served aboard our ships in a close environment and the effect, especially the surveillance effect, that we get from aircraft is part of the maritime package. What we lack is a simi- lar coherence with the Canadian Army. "So working with 5th Canadian Divi- sion and with the Canadian Rangers, who come under 5 Div in Newfoundland and Labrador, we have created a series of ex- ercises where we have teased out the rela- tionship between the army and the navy." Take Coastal Ranger, for ex- ample. Held in July in St. Anthony on the northern peninsula of N e w f o u n d l a n d and Labrador, the ex- ercise involved the search for a missing piece of surveillance equipment owned by Defence Research and Devel- opment Canada. Though the Rangers already play a vital role in maritime search and rescue (SAR), the exercise brought them, and thus 5 Cdn Div, into a new SAR context, tasking them with near-shore maritime surveillance in a networked environment that includ- ed patrol aircraft and patrol ships, as well as the Joint Rescue Through almost a century of maritime aviation, there is a well understood relationship between the royal canadian navy (rcn) and royal canadian air force (rcaf). from long-range patrol to coastal surveillance and the pioneering use of ship-borne helicopters, the two have aptly dem- onstrated the eff ects of air-sea power.