Page 90 - The Royal Lancers Chapka 2017

88 REGIMENTAL JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL LANCERS (QUEEN ELIZABETHS’ OWN)
Lord Strathcona’s Horse (Royal Canadians) – A Year in Review
As Canada’s tank regiment, 2017 was another busy year for Lord Strathcona’s Horse (Royal Canadians) (LdSH(RC)) as we completed Road to High Readiness (RtHR) training and pre- pared for several international operations. Most notably, Regi- mental Headquarters was identified as Battle-group Headquar- ters for deployment to Ukraine on Operation UNIFIER. The task force was comprised of members of the Regiment as well as other combat arms and service support soldiers who came pri- marily from Canadian Forces Base (CFB) Edmonton and CFB Shilo. Recce Squadron received the task of providing the Me- dium Recce Troop and command and control structure for the Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Company to Lat- via as part of NATO’s enhanced Forward Presence Battle Group. While both of these deployments were occurring, various mem- bers of the Regimental leadership were also deployed to both NATO and United States headquarters in support of several NATO and United Nations operations. With all of these various taskings occurring, the remainder of the Regiment settled in for the better part of the year focused on completing Individual Bat- tle Task Standards to maintain deployability, support Brigade training events and undertake domestic operations.
Throughout 2017 and going into 2018 there were several events which required the attention of the Regiment. A Squadron was tasked with the RtHR and will be participating in Exercise MA- PLE RESOLVE, Canada’s capstone collective training event focused at the Battle-group level. This exercise tests friendly forces on the full spectrum of operations from Peace Support Operations to conventional warfighting and generally occurs during the beginning of the summer. Besides exercises, there were domestic emergencies that occurred. Canada’s west coast was hit by a significant natural disaster in the form of devastat- ing forest fires during the summer months. These fires spread out of control and consumed more than 1.2 million hectares of land, displaced 65,000 people, and destroyed numerous com- munities. When the Provincial and Federal governments were unable to contain the fires with conventional resources, the Ca- nadian Armed Forces (CAF) were called in to assist. In all, the
Members of LdSH(RC) in Ukraine conducting a quick- aim continuation target gallery using local AK's
CAF deployed over 2000 Regular and Reserve Force members as well as ten aircraft. These assets were used to help transport civilians, aid civil power in directing displaced persons, and augmenting the fire fighters battling the fires. In addition the commander of the Canadian Army placed new emphasis on sup- port and development of the Primary Reserve force. As such, the Regiment has significantly increased its involvement with Reserve units through increased combined training, exercises, courses, and personnel development opportunities to better en- able these part-time units.
There were many valuable international activities through 2017 and early 2018. In February 2018, a Troop of tankers from A Squadron was sent to Chile to conduct a week of training alongside the Chilean army. Some benefits of the exercise were exposure to the challenges and benefits of working in a desert environment, as well as learning the difference between Cana- dian and Chilean doctrine. The exercise focused on learning about the Chilean military and their proud history as well as a short field exercise culminating in a live fire range. Mean- while, Recce Squadron sent a Troop to Texas to work alongside