Brigade gains new missions
All-terrain vehicles and assault boats coming for domestic operations; formed troops and platoons will head overseas

By Capt RH. Kennedy
32 CBG PA

The brigade’s approach to operations here and abroad is rapidly evolving toward a new permanent structure for domestic response and smart affiliations between our units and the Regular regiments of 2 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group. A parachute role for the Queen’s Own, bridging and water purification roles for 32 Combat Engineer Regiment, and a new assault-boat role for the Royal Regiment of Canada are all part of the plan.

LCol Ken Sproul, seen here as an armoured squadron commander, is the first commanding officer of the new territorial battalion group.

The new arrangements are being driven by the Army Commander and part of a national push to make the Reserve more operational. At LFCA, Brigadier-General Collin issued his orders in January. Brigade staff had plenty of input and Colonel Mann, 32 CBG’s Commander, issued his own orders on March 3. Underlying it all is a division of responsibility that’s been in place for some time. “The lead — the main contributor — for expeditionary operations is the Regular force. They form the core and are augmented by Reservists,” BGen Collin told the National Post in March. “What we have now said is that for domestic operations, the core will actually be provided by the Reserve force, augmented by the Regular force. The Reserves will take a dominant role in domestic operations in the future, once they are properly equipped and trained to do so.” The long-promised Territorial Battalion Groups, based on the Domestic Response Unit set up by 32 CBG several years ago, will be the new shape of national emergency response. Our TBG will comprise a permanent small core of headquarters staff — it’s being hired now — and contributions from units across the brigade. The first Commanding Officer of 32 TBG is Lieutenant-Colonel Ken Sproul, while his RSM is Chief Warrant Officer Scott Patterson. Both are part-time positions but their staff will be full time and located at Brigade HQ.

Also part of the domestic array is the Arctic Response Company Group, led by the Grey and Simcoe Foresters, manned by Foresters and Lorne Scots, and augmented from across the brigade. It is separate from the TBG and also ahead of the national plan. They’ve already run two exercises, one last year in Moosonee and another recently in Kitchenuhmaykoosib (see page 6).

Each brigade in Ontario will form a Territorial Battalion Group. They are structured as three infantry companies, a reconnaissance squadron, an engineer squadron and an integral support company. Although missions ranging from cordons around nuclear accident sites (that’s 31 CBG’s responsibility) to fighting forest fires and responding to floods are imagined, armed support to the police requires specialized training and is unlikely. A TBG could, however, be deployed anywhere in North America.

The TBG will be responsible for various tasks including flood response, production of drinkable water, bridge construction, and reconnaissance.

The new arrangements are being driven by the Army Commander and part of a national push to make the Reserve more operational. At LFCA, Brigadier-General Collin issued his orders in January. Brigade staff had plenty of input and Colonel Mann, 32 CBG’s Commander, issued his own orders on March 3. Underlying it all is a division of responsibility that’s been in place for some time. 32 TBG will include a platoon of Royals operating a dozen assault boats able to move a company-size element. The obvious purpose is flood response. A medium girder bridge will be the task of 32 CER, along with the production of drinkable water and the provision of a heavy equipment section. The bridging and reverse-osmosis equipment will remain in Petawawa but be available for training; eventually, the regiment will have a mini-ROWPU of its own. The recce squadron of the TBG will be led by the Queen’s York Rangers, who will also provide one mounted troop and one dismounted troop. The second mounted troop will be Horse Guards. Independent of the TBG — it will be an Area resource — is a new squadron of unarmed all-terrain vehicles. The squadron likely will also train on snowmobiles. The Horse Guards will provide the headquarters and one mounted troop. The other two troops will come from the Windsor Regiment and the Ontario Regiment, which has been handling ATVs for several years. More of these vehicles are being bought by the army, although exactly where they’re going isn’t clear (some are in use in Kandahar now). On the expeditionary side, the army accepts that some 20% of all future overseas battle groups will come from the Reserve (there are nearly 600 Reservists in Afghanistan now). Although individual augmentation for specialists will continue, Col Mann’s order goes farther. “Until now, we have asked individual soldiers to ‘self-identify’ and then assigned them to positions within a task force,” he wrote in March. “In the future, our participation will be based on standing operational tasks and fostered by fixed affiliations

between Reserve units and the Regular units of 2 CMBG in Petawawa.” What used to be haphazard will now be redictable; the idea is to head overseas with people you know.

“I have been ordered,” says Col Mann, “to seek every opportunity to strengthen the bonds of affiliation through individual and collective training opportunities.”

In many cases, the affiliations are obvious and some have an historical aspect. The infantry units of 31 CBG in London are affiliated with 1 RCR, which until the early 1990s was based there (and 4 RCR still is). Our infantry units will be affiliated with 3 RCR, including the Lorne Scots providing a Defence & Security Platoon – which was their role during the Second World War.

The Queen’s Own Rifles are tasked to provide a jump platoon to Mike Company for both domestic and overseas operations. When M Coy is deployed as a LAV company, as it is in Afghanistan, then Queen’s Own soldiers would provide augmentation to the sections. The unit is given overall coordination for Reserve parachute training in the Area and authorized to train Jump Masters and other specialists. Exactly who gets those jump courses will still be decided by the Brigade Commander.

The Grey and Simcoe Foresters will augment November Company while the 48th Highlanders, Royals and Toronto Scottish will (when it’s deployed) form Papa Company, which is designated Force Protection. Both the Queen’s York Rangers and the Horse Guards are affiliated with B Squadron of the Royal Canadian Dragoons (A Sqn gets Windsors, Ontarios and the 1st Hussars). Horse Guards provide a troop for convoy escort, the Rangers one for close reconnaissance.

Plenty is given to 7th ( Toronto) Regiment RCA. They’re going to need a lot more officers. The Regular affiliation of the gun dets is E Battery of 2 RCHA but the regiment is also tasked to provide Forward Observation parties, which on domestic ops will be liaison teams. One battery is being converted exclusively to forward observation including, eventually, forward air control.

The command of 25 ( Toronto) Service Battalion is moving from 32 CBG to 2 Area Support Group, a complicated process that’s already underway. The details remain to be seen but, while they’ll continue to support the brigade’s exercises, the benefit is expected to be better individual training opportunities. The substantial involvement now of the battalion in Afghanistan indicates how necessary their skills will remain.

The timing of all this is ambitious. Some aspects — notably the territorial battalion — are already in motion, while the affiliations will become visible in the coming training year. One big constraint is that maintaining current capabilities will trump everything except an actual domestic emergency. Buying and sorting out the equipment will take a long time but the orders name April 1, 2009, as the launch of these new tasks. They’re in play right now.