Streamlining CF training for Afstan--in California: Task Force 1-10 (TF 1-10)

One focal point for field exercises rather than two:

Canadian soldiers to face 'California Taliban' before real thing

In the northeastern reaches of the Mojave Desert lie a series of small villages with exotic names such as Medina Wasl, Al Jaff and Wadi Al-Ra'id. They are places that cannot be found on most maps.

The villages, built to resemble those in Iraq and Afghanistan, are part of a vast U.S. Army training ground known as "The Box," where soldiers must constantly be on guard against mock guerrilla attacks.

Soldiers from CFB Petawawa near Ottawa will travel to the training post in early January to face the desert insurgency. The troops will spend seven weeks in the high desert as part of their intensive preparation for Afghanistan.

Petawawa's 2 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group will send about 1,900 soldiers to Kandahar in late April for a six-month tour-of-duty [more on the Task Force here].

First, though, they will be exposed to what officials at Fort Irwin's National Training Centre [sic] call the "Afghan scenario:" elaborate simulations of Taliban ambushes, roadside bombs, suicide car bomb blasts and riotous mobs.

Fort Irwin employs U.S. soldiers, local actors, Afghan-Americans and Hollywood special effects artists to create ultra-realistic training exercises in the California desert...

Before their last tour of duty in Afghanistan in 2007 [2008 actually], soldiers from CFB Petawawa trained at both Fort Bliss, Texas and at Alberta's CFB Wainwright [see this post]. That training schedule, however, meant soldiers were forced to leave their families twice in the months before their overseas deployment [see this post].

This time, officials from CFB Wainwright will travel to Fort Irwin to work with the war-bound Canadian soldiers in Southern California...

Soldiers from CFB Petawawa will live in the desert bases and conduct daily operations as if in Afghanistan. They'll face various kinds of insurgent attacks and other crises.

"When you leave the base and enter The Box, you enter the mindset that you are in a theatre of operations," said Lieut. Dennis Power, public affairs officer for the 2 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group. "Everything you do in The Box, you do as if you're in a theatre of operations."

Video cameras are mounted throughout the villages, allowing military trainers to review the conduct and reaction of soldiers to various situations. They can then offer critiques to both individual soldiers and their officers...

In preparation for their move to Southern California, soldiers at CFB Petawawa this week began to load more than 700 military vehicles onto railcars for transport to Fort Irwin.

A total of 3,700 Canadian soldiers, support staff and trainers will eventually be in Fort Irwin, allowing the brigade to be completely self-sufficient while in the Mojave Desert.

Soldiers from CFB Petawawa have been in training since September for their deployment to Afghanistan.