Canada, the hangar door that would not open, and the drill that didn’t happen.
After US President Donald J. Trump threatened to seize Greenland and floated turning Canada into the 51st state, the government in the great white north held its biggest-ever Arctic military exercises.
But Canada’s military ambitions in the Arctic were defeated by a frozen hangar door that wouldn’t open, showing just how far behind Canada is compared with the Arctic powers at the top of the globe.
The New York Times reported:
“Hundreds of troops landing on an island in the High Arctic last month were confronted with wind chill temperatures of minus 80 degrees Fahrenheit, frigid even by the area’s standards. The cold kept the locals in the Victoria Island hamlet of Cambridge Bay indoors, suffused the air with tiny ice crystals called diamond dust, and sealed a 30-foot-tall door at an airport hangar.”
The planning was for the Chinook helicopter to airlift two M777 howitzers to be fired in front of a VIP delegation of military officials. But a LOT went wrong.
The 1,300 members of Canada’s armed forces participating on Operation Nanook represented three times as many as the 2025 drills.
“Prime Minister Mark Carney recently unveiled a multibillion-dollar plan to beef up Canada’s military capacity in the Arctic, part of the largest military spending surge in decades. Mr. Carney has vowed to revive Canada’s defense industry to make the nation less dependent on the United States.”
The Canadian drills were supposed to take place over two months, as a reaction to the US’s continued strengthening of military capabilities in Alaska, and Russia’s two-decade buildup of its Arctic territory.
“By contrast, Canada’s Far North — the world’s largest Arctic landmass after Russia’s — remains sparsely defended, with no permanent military base. It has few roads, deepwater ports or large airports.”
Since Canada has no military facility in Cambridge Bay, they set up command at a NORAD Arctic research center, while troops were housed in lodges, private homes, and even a senior center.
“The howitzers had been towed north about 1,000 miles and then flown aboard a C‑130 Hercules aircraft to Cambridge Bay. On the big day, the plan called for the Chinook to airlift the howitzers to a firing range about six miles west of the hamlet.”
The Canadians were trying to answer the question: Can they operate up there? And so far, it appears the answer is ‘no’.
The US has many heated hangars in Alaska – ‘tons’, a Canadian commander added. Canada has none.
So when it became clear that the frozen Chinook would not be part of the VIP day’s events, it was decided to tow one howitzer to the firing range, while leaving the second behind with mechanical problems.
Finally, the big day arrived, and a plane landed with the VIP delegation, who were taken to the firing range.
But bad weather shut down airports in the region, leaving Cambridge Bay’s airport open for flight diversions.
So the howitzer artillery firing was canceled abruptly, ‘to keep the airspace open’. What a flop!
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