The Arctic demystified – Operation NA-NU 22

May 11, 2022 - Capt Taylor Rogalsky

The Arctic has always been a foreign place for me.

I know it exists and there are people who live there, but I didn’t understand it completely, and I still don’t. But I did learn some things in the short time spent next to the Arctic Ocean; mostly that when you smile at ‑50 C with the wind chill it makes your teeth hurt. It’s that cold.

Operation NANOOK‑NUNALIVUT (Op NA‑NU) is an annual operation that allows all components of the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) to test and validate their skills operating in the Northern Tundra. The hamlet of Tuktoyaktuk, N.W.T., graciously allowed us to use their infrastructure to conduct the operation. Captain Jean‑Paul Cloutier of Canadian Forces Base Suffield and I were afforded the opportunity to participate as part of the Joint Task Force Support Component.

The operation itself was only six days long, however all of the support elements were on the ground for three weeks, not including the lead up planning. The time the support elements spent on the ground in comparison to the actual operation is one of the most important take‑aways – it takes significantly longer to set up and take down in Arctic temperatures, which ranged from ‑20 C to ‑50 C in the month of February. To paint a picture: two sections of modular tent took nearly eight hours to set up and tie down. The wind, the cold, the dexterity you need to tie the pieces together, getting ice screws into the ice/permafrost – it all proved very challenging. Something like this would take less than an hour in temperate conditions.

This operation was an International Joint Operation that included the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF), Royal Canadian Navy (RCN), Canadian Army (CA), Canadian Rangers and the French Foreign Legion, as well as U.S. Special Operations Forces (SOF). For me this was the first time I had seen an operation with so many constituents.

The RCN was diving with the French Foreign Legion. The U.S. SOF were learning from the Canadian Rangers and the CA component. The RCAF was supporting all elements.

Coming from a Material Management background, it was like nothing I’d seen before. Normally we have the means to get whatever we need when we need it; this is not the same in the Arctic. The hamlet had limited supplies and the closest community was a three hour drive away on a road that often closes to due to weather conditions. The RCAF air support was even grounded at times due to white‑out conditions. Again, following the same theme, things just take longer in the Arctic.

During any operation, there is always work to be done and a mission to complete; however, there is always time to fit some fun activities in. A LOSV (snowmobile) trip around the Pingos was organized. For those who don’t know what Pingos are, they are intrapermafrost ice‑cored hills that grow as the ground shifts – small ice mountains, if you will. What a work out snowmobiling across the Arctic is; I have never sweated so much in just 30 minutes. Once we arrived at the Pingos, I took my helmet off and my hair was so sweaty that it immediately froze solid.