CAN Enhanced (Permanent?) Fwd Presence in Latvia
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Ludoc
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I actually have a super power. I can look into the future. Let me just take a glance at this...
Everyone at the higher level AAR is in agreement, the whole endeavour was a rousing success, high fives for all the command teams involved. CJOC/Army commendations for multiple Majors and Senior Captains for planning such a successful exercise.
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Is the timing of arrival flexible based on whether we actually can get serviceable A/C together or if the aircrew wants a nice layover in Malaga?
Fabius
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Interestingly enough the deployment of the LIB going to Op REASUSSANCE in Latvia is specifically and explicitly NOT the GRTF construct although it is the Bn that is filling the GRTF role.
The GRTF expressly does not include reserves due to the HR timelines yet the LIB deployment has significant reserves augmentation due to the manning pressures in the Bns.
In theory it would be simple enough for CJOC to mobilize aircraft to Latvia and load the LIB and redeploy it elsewhere. However that would require a dynamic capability that would stretch the mental and physical agility of the CAF I think.
Edited to add it’s likely more of a CA agility challenge than RCAF. The CA and CJOC seem to view forces assigned to specific missions as rigid and unable to be shifted or reinforced dynamically like we see inside a US Combatant Command for example. My experience is that outside of a mindset issue it’s also due to the role that the SJS and Cabinet have in rigidly setting pers caps etc.
The GRTF expressly does not include reserves due to the HR timelines yet the LIB deployment has significant reserves augmentation due to the manning pressures in the Bns.
In theory it would be simple enough for CJOC to mobilize aircraft to Latvia and load the LIB and redeploy it elsewhere. However that would require a dynamic capability that would stretch the mental and physical agility of the CAF I think.
Edited to add it’s likely more of a CA agility challenge than RCAF. The CA and CJOC seem to view forces assigned to specific missions as rigid and unable to be shifted or reinforced dynamically like we see inside a US Combatant Command for example. My experience is that outside of a mindset issue it’s also due to the role that the SJS and Cabinet have in rigidly setting pers caps etc.
McG
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Exercise the fly-over capability, or just fly-over and then exercise? Subtle nuance but the first option is much more challenging for the RCAF to exercise how it’s going to get through Russian AAAD to deliver a LIB to Latvia. The second option ignores that problem and administratively flys the LIB into theatre for a ground exercise.
Fabius
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From what I’ve seen it’s the second option. My understanding is that it’s a FLF Bde exercise that the LIB is joining NOT an exercise of strategic force projection per se, although obviously elements of it get practiced.
I am not sure we would want to be flying the LIB in after a war has started, I would imagine we would want to get it on the ground before hostilities actually start, same as we flew weapons into UKR prior to the invasion.
I am not sure we would want to be flying the LIB in after a war has started, I would imagine we would want to get it on the ground before hostilities actually start, same as we flew weapons into UKR prior to the invasion.
McG
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So, we hope Russia will not contest a build-up when we reach the point of believing war is about to start? I suspect Russia would have attempted to interdict the western arms flights into Ukraine if it though war with NATO was an imminent inevitability.
FJAG
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Who says the LIB needs to fly into Latvia?
It could fly into Spain or France or Norway or any of a dozen much safer places and take buses or a train over as long as their equipment and supplies are prepositioned.
The Russians can't be everywhere especially if Ukraine is still a thing.
Getting the LIB over to Latvia strikes me as a much simpler proposition than getting the government to purchase and preposition the war stocks needed into theatre before its too late.
It could fly into Spain or France or Norway or any of a dozen much safer places and take buses or a train over as long as their equipment and supplies are prepositioned.
The Russians can't be everywhere especially if Ukraine is still a thing.
Getting the LIB over to Latvia strikes me as a much simpler proposition than getting the government to purchase and preposition the war stocks needed into theatre before its too late.
markppcli
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I think we assume we respond to their build up in kind. We watched them build up for Ukraine for months, I assume they’ll need similar time for a war with NATO. Fun thing about Russian Air defences / air superiority, NATO gets a vote in that. They could establish Air Superiority against Ukraine, I don’t see them having an easy time vs NATO.
markppcli
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Isn’t that sort of a distinction with no difference. The GRTF is Bn, minus its augmentation. If the GRTF is tasked that LIB isn’t going to send just its augmentation to Latvia.
I was never worried about them, or any other dedicated AD equipment.
Our tactical limits were skids clear of ground and one-half rotor diameter from vertical obstacles. There would be plenty of treelines, villages, and cows between them and us, and there were only a handful of ZSUs, SA-9s, and SA-13s in a Motor Rifle or Tank Regiment. What really concerned me was the much greater number of 7.62 mm, 12.7 mm, 14.5 mm, 30 mm, 76 mm, 115 mm, and 125 mm weapons that would have been between them and me and occupying/moving through terrain that made them much, much harder to see - and they could engage us at much lower altitudes.
My Observer and I spent a very pleasant hour or so sneaking up on an active Skyguard AD radar atop a low, dome-like, bald hill a few hundred metres from the Contraves factory one sunny afternoon in 1988 or 1989. We were just flying along on the opposite side of a low ridge on our way back to Lahr from somewhere else when we caught a very distinctive and previously-unobserved signal on our radar warning receiver as we passed a gap in the ridgeline. Having nothing better to do, we decided to check it out. There was a small town on the far side of the hill, so we worked our way around there so that we could have some backdrop to provide a little clutter. We kept inching forward to see how close we could get without being spotted. We could plainly see the box with the antenna spinning around above it, a handful of chaps lounging around on lawn chairs, and a couple of guys in business suits. Their generator probably masked our sound, and I always tried to stay downwind of a target. We were only a couple of hundred metres away when I began a slow vertical climb as we really needed to be on our way at that point. We had a good giggle as lawn chairs went flying and their occupants dashed into the box, then dipped our nose and lazily turned Lahr-bound as my Observer waved from his doorway (I preferred to fly with front doors removed whenever possible).
The thought of having cost them a contract gave us a good chuckle . . .
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444 Squadron was a 4 CMBG unit, like any other, with a dotty line to 10 TAG HQ for such things as aircrew and tech training, flying and maint standards, flight safety etcetera. While a somewhat less-than-perfect arrangement, it was much, much better operationally.Interestingly the aviation is commanded directly by the ground force commander ( Bde Comd). That’s a departure from doctrine as practiced by the RCAF for over 20 years where the aircraft were commanded by an Air component command with it’s own commander.
Would be interesting to know more about that decision and the reasons behind it.
RCAF Today Magazine
issues.skiesmag.com
The "RCAF" has not existed as such for twenty years. It was still Air Command then.
When I become God Emperor, I shall correct the current Liberal travesty and return Tac Hel to its original, historical, and rightful place.Maybe it’s the first step for Tac Hel to become 1 Avn Regt
MH as well.
I take it that they remembered to unchain the tailboom of the rear-most Griffon before lowering the ramp this time.
markppcli
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Tac Hel and ignoring AD, GTL, and ACMs, name a more iconic duo
"GTL"?
Fixed that a bit.
markppcli
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Yes, we paid attention to those - especially as the "All over the place" crowd occasionally made "minor math errors", like the time in Pet where I gave a "drop 50 fire for effect" order for a target about 2K ahead of us during an AOP shoot, and just barely caught the smoke and dust puff out of the corner of my eye at about my four o'clock for a couple of hundred metres.
Fortunately, there was only one gun and one round in effect, but we left anyway.
The yanks occasionally liked to put M110 batteries (203mm SP) and airlift AH1 FAARPs with UH60s etcetera into 4 CMBG's area without informing the property manager during Fallex. I came around a treeline in our rear area one day, about thirty minutes after doing the exact same thing, and had to evade a whacking great barrel.
Kiowas were ground vehicles with rotors rather than wheels or tracks. Anything over fifty feet up in a tactical environment was stupid.
Fortunately, there was only one gun and one round in effect, but we left anyway.
The yanks occasionally liked to put M110 batteries (203mm SP) and airlift AH1 FAARPs with UH60s etcetera into 4 CMBG's area without informing the property manager during Fallex. I came around a treeline in our rear area one day, about thirty minutes after doing the exact same thing, and had to evade a whacking great barrel.
Kiowas were ground vehicles with rotors rather than wheels or tracks. Anything over fifty feet up in a tactical environment was stupid.
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