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Canadian Forces Base Suffield (also CFB Suffield), is the largest Canadian Forces Base
Canadian Forces base

A Canadian Forces Base or CFB refers to a military installation of the Canadian Forces. For a facility to qualify as a Canadian Forces Base, it must station one or more major units ....
 and the largest Commonwealth
Commonwealth of Nations

The Commonwealth of Nations, also known as the Commonwealth or the British Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organization of fifty-three independent member states....
 military training base. It is located in southeastern Alberta
Alberta

Alberta is one of Canada Canadian Prairies Provinces and territories of Canada. It became a province on September 1, 1905.Alberta is located in western Canada, bounded by the provinces of British Columbia to the west and Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Territories to the north, and the U.S....
  north of the city of Medicine Hat
Medicine Hat, Alberta

Medicine Hat, known to locals as "The Hat", is a city of 60,000 people located in the southeastern part of the province of Alberta, Canada. It is enclaved within Cypress County, Alberta along with the nearby town of Redcliff, Alberta, although neither is part of the county....
 and southeast of Calgary.

The base has its own radio station, CKBF-FM
CKBF-FM

CKBF-FM is a Canada radio station, which broadcasts at 104.1 FM radio at CFB Suffield in the province of Alberta. The station airs a mixture of news and music programming, some produced locally for Canadian Forces personnel stationed at the base, and some syndicated from the BBC for personnel of the British Army Training Unit Suffield....
, which airs programming for both the Canadian and British military personnel stationed at the base.

lands comprising modern-day CFB Suffield were known as the "Suffield Block", resulting from the Dominion Land Survey
Dominion Land Survey

The Dominion Land Survey is the method used to divide most of Western Canada into one-square-mile sections for agricultural and other purposes....
 and comprised marginal agricultural land, given the perpetual semi-arid climate.






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Canadian Forces Base Suffield (also CFB Suffield), is the largest Canadian Forces Base
Canadian Forces base

A Canadian Forces Base or CFB refers to a military installation of the Canadian Forces. For a facility to qualify as a Canadian Forces Base, it must station one or more major units ....
 and the largest Commonwealth
Commonwealth of Nations

The Commonwealth of Nations, also known as the Commonwealth or the British Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organization of fifty-three independent member states....
 military training base. It is located in southeastern Alberta
Alberta

Alberta is one of Canada Canadian Prairies Provinces and territories of Canada. It became a province on September 1, 1905.Alberta is located in western Canada, bounded by the provinces of British Columbia to the west and Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Territories to the north, and the U.S....
  north of the city of Medicine Hat
Medicine Hat, Alberta

Medicine Hat, known to locals as "The Hat", is a city of 60,000 people located in the southeastern part of the province of Alberta, Canada. It is enclaved within Cypress County, Alberta along with the nearby town of Redcliff, Alberta, although neither is part of the county....
 and southeast of Calgary.

The base has its own radio station, CKBF-FM
CKBF-FM

CKBF-FM is a Canada radio station, which broadcasts at 104.1 FM radio at CFB Suffield in the province of Alberta. The station airs a mixture of news and music programming, some produced locally for Canadian Forces personnel stationed at the base, and some syndicated from the BBC for personnel of the British Army Training Unit Suffield....
, which airs programming for both the Canadian and British military personnel stationed at the base.

Chemical warfare training

The lands comprising modern-day CFB Suffield were known as the "Suffield Block", resulting from the Dominion Land Survey
Dominion Land Survey

The Dominion Land Survey is the method used to divide most of Western Canada into one-square-mile sections for agricultural and other purposes....
 and comprised marginal agricultural land, given the perpetual semi-arid climate. Some settlement was attempted, but most farms were abandoned during the droughts of the 1920s. The total area measures approximately and borders an area north of the South Saskatchewan River
South Saskatchewan River

The South Saskatchewan River is a major river in Canada that flows through the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan.For the first half of the 20th century, the South Saskatchewan would completely freeze over during winter, creating spectacular ice breaks and dangerous conditions in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Medicine Hat, Alberta and elsewh...
.

Following the fall of Algeria
Algeria

Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country located in North Africa. It is the largest country of the Mediterranean sea, second largest in the Arab World, and the second largest on the African continent and the eleventh-largest country in the world in terms of land area....
 to Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany and the Third Reich are the colloquial English names for Germany under the regime of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party , which established a Totalitarianism dictatorship that existed from 1933 to 1945....
, the British Army
British Army

The British Army is the Army branch of the British Armed Forces. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdoms of Kingdom of England and Kingdom of Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707....
 required a new training facility for carrying out experiments in chemical warfare
Chemical warfare

Chemical warfare involves using the poison of chemical substances as weapons to kill, injure, or incapacitate an Enemy .This type of warfare is distinct from the use of conventional weapons or nuclear weapons because the destructive effects of chemical weapons are not primarily due to their explosion force....
. In 1941, the federal government expropriated the Suffield Block, purchasing the majority of the land from the Canadian Pacific Railway
Canadian Pacific Railway

The Canadian Pacific Railway , known as CP Rail between 1968 and 1996, is a Canada Class I railroad operated by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited....
 and the Hudson's Bay Company
Hudson's Bay Company

The Hudson's Bay Company , abbreviated HBC, is the oldest commercial corporation in North America and is one of the oldest in the world. The company was incorporated by British royal charter in 1670 as The Governor and Company of Adventurers of England trading into Hudson's Bay; it is now domiciled in Canada and has adopted the mo...
; 452 residents were displaced. Experimental Station Suffield commenced operations on June 11, 1941.

British forces left the joint operation of Suffield to the Canadian Army in 1946. In 1947 the Canadian Army turned operation of Experimental Station Suffield over to the Defence Research Board. In 1950 the facility was renamed Suffield Experimental Station and in 1967 it was renamed to Defence Research Establishment Suffield (DRES). Throughout the period from 1947-1971, the Canadian Army continued occasional use of the Suffield ranges.

Armoured unit training

In 1971 an agreement was signed between the British and Canadian governments permitting the British Army to use over three-quarters of DRES for armoured, infantry, and artillery live-fire training. DRES was renamed Canadian Forces Base Suffield (CFB Suffield) and new base housing and support facilities were constructed for the British Army and Canadian Forces personnel, including a new headquarters community at Ralston. DRES continued until 2002 when it was merged into a new organization Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC).

British Army training has continued at Suffield since 1971, with the shared-use agreement being extended several times (currently until 2006). Regular and reserve units of Canadian Forces Land Force Command
Canadian Forces Land Force Command

Land Force Command , often also called the Canada Army, is responsible for army operations within the Canadian Forces.The current size of Land Force Command is 19,500 regular soldiers and 16,000 reserve soldiers, for a total of around 35,500 soldiers....
 began to make use of the base beginning in 1991, around the same time as the downgrading of CFB Wainwright
CFB Wainwright

Canadian Forces Base Wainwright, commonly referred to as CFB Wainwright is a Canadian Forces Base located in Denwood, Alberta, Alberta, adjacent to the town of Wainwright, Alberta....
. The British Army Training Unit Suffield
British Army Training Unit Suffield

The British Army Training Unit Suffield is a unit located at the vast training area of CFB Suffield in Alberta, Canada. BATUS is the British Army's largest armoured training field and it can accommodate live-firing exercises up to the brigade level....
 (BATUS) consists of pool training equipment used by army units rotating through the base on exercises, as well as a training "opposition force" (OPFOR).

Defence R&D Canada-Suffield

Defence R&D Canada (DRDC) is an agency of the Canadian Department of National Defence responding to the scientific and technological needs of the Canadian Forces. Its mission is to ensure that the CF remains scientifically and operationally relevant. The agency is made up of six research laboratories, one of which being DRDC Suffield. DRDC Suffield is the lead laboratory for Chemical and Biological Defence research, as well as in areas generally related to military engineering, mobility systems, and weapons system evaluation.

Wildlife refuge

Ironically, the decision to designate the Suffield Block a military training facility in 1941 left tens of square kilometres of undisturbed prairie grassland intact from the effects of industrial agriculture. In 1992, the military signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Environment Canada and in 2003 lands along the South Saskatchewan River comprising some 458 square kilometres were designated as the Suffield National Wildlife Area
Suffield National Wildlife Area

Suffield National Wildlife Area is a National Wildlife Area located within the boundaries of CFB Suffield in Alberta, Canada.SNWA was formally created on the 19th of June, 2003 when it was officially gazetted under Canada Wildlife Act Regulations....
.

See also

  • Science and technology in Canada
    Science and technology in Canada

    Science and technology in Canada consists of three distinct but closely related phenomena:* the diffusion of technology in Canada,* scientific research in Canada...


External links

  • (Toronto Star, July 18, 2005). Soldiers, scientists exposed to sarin
    Sarin

    Sarin, also known by its NATO designation of GB, is an extremely toxic substance whose sole application is as a nerve agent. As a chemical weapons, it is classified as a weapon of mass destruction by the United Nations in UN Resolution 687....
    , VX gas, documents show.