8 ACCS on Bold Quest 19.1 in Finland

News Article / July 25, 2019

Click on the photo under “Image Gallery” to see more photos.

By Corporal Jeffery Chartier

The Royal Canadian Air Force’s 8 Air Communication and Control Squadron welcomed home its Tactical Aerospace Management Detachment from Exercise Bold Quest 19.1 after deploying equipment and 11 personnel to Sodankylä, Finland.

The exercise was hosted by the Finnish Defence Forces in Rovajärvi and Rovaniemi, in the Lapland region, as well as at Rissala airfield in central Finland, and the southern towns of Riihimäki and Turku. A total of 2,200 people from 16 nations participated, from North America and Europe to as far away as the United Arab Emirates, Australia, and New Zealand.

One year of planning, one month of pre-deployment preparation, and countless training days spent learning new systems and applications led to four weeks overseas, where the 8ACCS unit achieved unprecedented mission success. The RCAF Air Task Force Information Fusion Center processed and disseminated digital target information and full-motion video to partner nations, and acted as the Regional Interface Control Cell, supporting the Joint Interface Control Officer (JICO) in their area of responsibility.

Bold Quest proved the ideal platform to develop, test, and improve the units’ interoperability with NATO nations and other allies. The Common Ground Station detachment utilizes a scalable approach to fulfil its operational requirements, disseminating digital target information and real-time streaming video to higher command and aircraft in flight.

“The value of joint training opportunities like this cannot be overstated,” said Major Dave Green, the Canadian Air Task Force Commander for this event. “Developing joint capabilities with partner nations is crucial to our success on the modern battlefield.”

Training opportunities should always be taken advantage of whenever they’re available; when a manning shortfall in the coalition interface control cell was identified, Canadian JICO Sergeant Craig Robertson offered to cross-train his personnel to fill the gap. Augmentation from RCAF personnel helped ensure the exercise was fully supported while giving RCAF members the chance to work in new positions in an allied command centre.

In the second week of the event, a Canadian fighter pilot on an exchange posting with the US Marine Corps conducted a live weapons drop on a training target under the control of a Canadian Army Joint Terminal Attack Controller. The drop exhibited CAF professionalism across borders and elements during a demonstration of a new digitally aided close air support platform, which integrates air and ground assets to improve accuracy and weapons system effectiveness.

Each nation comes in with its own set of challenges and issues, and only by working together can success be achieved. Participation in this and other Bold Quest serials has raised the operational effectiveness of 8 ACCS, and improved the interoperability between the RCAF and allied nations.

The United States Joint Staff-led Bold Quest series of events is a multinational enterprise where allied nations pool their resources in a recurring cycle of capability development, demonstration, and analysis. In 2003, during the coalition support to the war in Afghanistan, it was the ideal platform for coalition forces to test and refine tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs) and to smooth out hiccups in new platforms, capabilities and upgraded assets before deploying them to a theatre of operations.