Military Exercise in Downtown Winnipeg

Canadian Army is planning to conduct a military exercise in downtown Winnipeg in April 2006. Have any of you heard of similar military exercises in the middle of a city?

This has nothing to do with this forum, but I could not resist and asked the question anyway.

It may well have alot to do with this forum. The military will be heavily relied upon by governments to maintain the status quo in the event of a pandemic. Crowd control, handing out rations, enforcing quarinteens, control looting. enforcing martial law, distributing vaccines,.......

Germany and India are using their military right now to fight BF.

The military is ideally suited for such task as they can draft members and shoot deserters. whereas the public organizations can just say,"I quit!"

Alot of police just quit durring Katrina.

Edited by Corn

The military appears to be becoming more involved around the world. In Germany troops were sent to the infected island and jets are scanning their coastline for more birds. In France, their defense minister has been quoted extensively.

Winnipeg Free Press
Tuesday, December 27th, 2005

Army to occupy downtown

Spring exercise to turn city into 'battleground'

Tuesday, December 27th, 2005


MORE than 500 army troops, backed by helicopters, armoured vehicles
and artillery, will turn downtown Winnipeg into an armed camp as part of
a military exercise to train soldiers for the modern battlefield.

Exercise Charging Bison will unfold for seven days and nights beginning
April 30 next year in what is believed to be the largest urban warfare
training exercise of its kind ever held in Canada.

There won't be live ammunition, but there will be laser weapons and a
variety of blanks and 'simunition' -- or simulated munitions -- that make
noise and smoke or discharge harmless projectiles.

The drill is designed to simulate the kind of complex conditions soldiers
would encounter in places such as Afghanistan and Iraq, where
conventional
warfare is conducted simultaneously with humanitarian relief operations
and nation-building, said Col. Kelly Woiden, commander of 38 Brigade.

Urban battlefields are sometimes known as "three-block wars" because
troops could help people on one block, fight insurgents on another, and
guard convoys on another, Woiden explained.

"We're going to create a realistic environment of the situation that
individual soldiers can face today," he said. "You could be doing
humanitarian relief one moment and then fighting a war the next. It is the
most complicated terrain for a soldier."

The operation is also part of a long-term plan to prepare 200 of the
brigade's soldiers to support a 1,000-person task force in 2008, if
necessary, he said.

The 38 Brigade is a reserve unit responsible for a dozen formations in
Saskatchewan, Manitoba and northwestern Ontario.

It will provide most of the personnel for the exercise, although some will
come from British Columbia and Alberta, and possibly from the United
States, Woiden said, adding 17 Wing will also provide logistics support.

About 100 police officers and civilians will be given a role in the
exercise, either as opposing forces or relief organizations.

The military may also recruit drama students from the University of
Manitoba to play the roles of demonstrators or insurgents.

"The purpose is to learn and we may rerun the same scenario several
times," Woiden said.

The operation will occupy a large swath of downtown Winnipeg from
Balmoral
Street on the west, south to the Assiniboine River, north to the CP Rail
tracks and east into The Forks and St. Boniface.

Woiden said the exercise is still in the planning stages and the
boundaries could change.

A base camp will be established on the western edge of the city, but there
will be smaller camps downtown, he said.

The exercise will continue night and day, but Woiden said he did not
anticipate any significant disruption of traffic or commercial operations.

Military observers will keep score and determine who was killed and who
was wounded during the exercise.

"This is different than traditional training when the infantry were facing
open ground in front of them, with soldiers in a different uniform,"
Woiden said. "This is much more complex because we don't know who
the
enemy is or where the threats are."

Reserve units have been used in the past to fill out the ranks of the
regular force, but Woiden said the military now wants the militia trained
to higher level of combat readiness.

dave.o'brien@freepress.mb.ca