Major exercise wraps up

Soldiers from the Royal 22nd Regiment race down the beach to board a rigid hull inflatable boat held by sailors from Canadian Forces Base Esquimalt during Exercise TRIDENT FURY 13 (JOINTEX).

The largest joint Canadian-United States military exercise on the West Coast wrapped up over the weekend, breaking new ground in the process.

Trident Fury 2013 featured cooperative training exercises between the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) and the United States Navy (USN) and Coast Guard up and down the waters off the coast of Vancouver Island.

Exercises included ship to shore assaults, littoral exercises, shoreline infantry extractions, and various maritime and aerial exercises focusing on the interplay between US and Canadian military assets and personnel.

Exercises like the littoral operations included composite military teams never before seen in the Canadian military, which included teams made up Royal Canadian Navy Clearance Divers and Royal Canadian Army
Patrol Pathfinders.

A total of 2000 personnel from both the Canadian and American militaries participated in Trident Fury including five Canadian warships, along with four United States Navy (USN) ships, and two US Coast Guard vessels.

HMCS Algonquin, Ottawa, Nanaimo, Saskatoon and Edmonton, and Her Majesty’s Canadian Submarine Victoria were joined for the exercise by United States Naval Ships (USNS) Carl Brashear, and United States Ships (USS) Ford, Lake Champlain, and Spruance, and United States Coast Guard Cutters (USCGC) Rush and Orcas.

Trident Fury also featured a large air component including the CP-140 Aurora, CC-130 Hercules, CH-124 Sea King, CF-18 Hornet, F-15 Eagle, Alpha Jets, the EA- 6B Prowler, and the EA-18G Growler were all integral air components of the multi-branch exercises that typified Trident Fury.

Shawn O’Hara
Staff writer