Challengers manoeuvre along the prairies as part of live-fire exercises ran by the British Army Training Unit Suffield in this 2018 file photo. Commander Lt.-Col. Paul Eaton says BATUS' presence at Suffield may change but it will be no less significant.--NEWS FILE PHOTO
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BATUS commander Lt.-Col. Paul Eaton says warfare has changed, and how the British Army uses the range at CFB Suffield in agreement with Canadian Forces will change with it.
That supports overtures from both countries’ militaries that the base north of Medicine Hat may not see a return to large deployment tank exercises, but is a candidate for drone and other high-tech testing and exercises.
“You can now defeat a million-dollar tank with a $200 drone with a hand grenade strapped to it,” he told reporters, referring to the war in Ukraine, on Friday during an event in the Crown Village of Ralston. “We’ve asked ‘what wins wars’ and we’ve had to make that transition. For us, here, it means testing and evaluation for the near future. Drones, counter-drones, drone swarming, autonomous vehicles; and we’ll exploit the uniqueness here that we can’t get anywhere else.
“That is the future of BATUS, maybe not at the (personnel) number that we had before, but of equal value.”
Currently, British personnel stationed at CFB Suffield number about 70, he said, about one-fifth the permanent deployment that was in place before 2020 to support summer battle group armour training involving 5,000 to 10,000 troops.
Those were suspended in 2020 during the early the COVID pandemic. In 2021, armour training proceeded in Germany to avoid travel restrictions, and then continued in Latvia as a signal of NATO strength as the Russia-Ukraine war began.
“Previously we had lots of heavy armour here, doing lot of heavy armour training,” said Eaton. “Linked with our NATO partners we don’t have that amount of resources, equipment or manpower to do that in three or four locations. The point of need right now is eastern Europe.”
That same year, the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) completed an integrated review of battle field capability that suggested a program of “Army Transformation” to reduce the number of troops and slim down the number of heavy tanks, though provide an upgrade.
The integrated review’s conclusion was to focus was on increasing naval power and modern warfare, such as robotics, cyber-security, high-tech applications and unmanned vehicles.
“The British military presence in Canada will endure and certainly specifically here, the presence will endure as long as required,” said Eaton, who says Hatters have the general misconception that BATUS is no longer operating. “It’s a smaller footprint but the presence is huge. The value for training is ten-fold.”
