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        Policy UpdatesNewsroomReoptimizationBIOGRAPHIESAF Senior Leaders      Airmen from the 109th Airlift Wing’s Polar Camp Skiway Team and members from the 440 Transport Squadron, Royal Canadian Armed Forces, test snow machines at Resolute Bay, Nunavut, Canada, to prepare for Exercise Guerrier Nordique.Airmen from the 109th Airlift Wing’s Polar Camp Skiway Team and members from the 440 Transport Squadron, Royal Canadian Armed Forces, test snow machines at Resolute Bay, Nunavut, Canada, Feb. 23, 2023, to prepare for Exercise Guerrier Nordique. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Madison Scaringe)
                
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New York ANG supports Canadian arctic exercisePublished March 1, 2023
                    
                    By Staff Sgt. Madison Scaringe and Master Sgt. Jamie Spaulding
                    
                    
                    New York National Guard
            **RESOLUTE, Nunavut, Canada (AFNS) --**The New York Air National Guard’s**105th**and**109th Airlift Wing**s partnered with **Vermont Army National Guard**and**CanadianArmedForces**to support Exercise GuerrierNordique, Feb. 22–March 31 in the Canadian Arctic.

The 109th AW, StrattonAir National Guard base in Scotia, New York, deployed two **LC-130Hercules**aircraftand 60 Airmen to Resolute Bay in Canada’s northern Arctic territories to act as tactical airlift support for the Canadian exercise.

VermontArmy National Guard soldiers will be transported to Resolute Bay, Nunavut, on a **C-17 Globemaster III**from the 105thAW, Stewart ANG base in Newburgh, New York. From there, teams will forward-deploy to establish remote camps.

Exercise Guerrier Nordique.An Airman from the 109th Airlift Wing’s Polar Camp Skiway Team loads equipment at Resolute Bay, Nunavut, Canada, Feb. 27, 2023. The Polar Camp Skiway Team will establish a remote camp and then build a ski landing area and provide Canadian and Vermont Army personnel with tactical support via the 109th’s LC-130 Skibirds. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Madison Scaringe)
            
            
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    Airmen from the 109th Airlift Wing’s Polar Camp Skiway Team and members from the 440 Transport Squadron, Royal Canadian Armed Forces, load equipment and fuel into a Twin Otter aircraft at Resolute Bay, Nunavut, Canada, Feb. 27, 2023, to prepare for Exercise Guerrier Nordique. The Vermont National Guard is also participating in the exercise.Airmen from the 109th Airlift Wing’s Polar Camp Skiway Team and members from the 440 Transport Squadron, Royal Canadian Armed Forces, load equipment and fuel into a Twin Otter aircraft at Resolute Bay, Nunavut, Canada, Feb. 27, 2023, to prepare for Exercise Guerrier Nordique. The Vermont National Guard is also participating in the exercise. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Madison Scaringe)
            
            
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    Exercise Guerrier Nordique.Airmen from the 109th Airlift Wing’s Polar Camp Skiway Team and members from the 440 Transport Squadron, Royal Canadian Armed Forces, test snow machines at Resolute Bay, Nunavut Canada, Feb. 23, 2023, to prepare for Exercise Guerrier Nordique. The Polar Camp Skiway Team will establish a remote camp and then build a ski landing area and provide Canadian and Vermont Army personnel with tactical support via the 109th’s LC-130 Skibirds. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Madison Scaringe)

The Polar Camp Skiway Team will establish a remote camp  and then build a ski landing area and provide Canadian and Vermont Army personnel with tactical support via the 109th’s LC-130 Skibirds.
            
            
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The LC-130H is the largest ski-equipped aircraft in the world, capable of landing on ice and snow in polar environments. As the only unit to fly the LC-130H, the 109th AW provides support to scientific research stations in Antarctica and Greenland.

Among the 109th deployers are the 109th’s Polar Camp Skiway Team — personnel trained to establish a remote camp in extreme cold — and build a ski landing area supporting the unit’s LC-130H aircraft. The PCST used specially equipped snowmobiles to lay out the landing zone for the larger American LC-130Hs.

The team works with the Royal Canadian Air Force’s 440 Squadron, which flies the Twin Otter ski-equipped aircraft to establish ski landing areas.

In the past, GuerrierNordique has operated as a training exercise for emergency response and domestic operations in extreme weather in Northern Canada.

The VermontArmy National Guard, which includes a mountain warfare battalion, has participated in the exercise since 2012.

This year, the GuerrierNordique exercise focuses on combat capability and lethality in temperatures that stay below zero all day during the training period.

“While elements of the Vermont Guard and Canadian Armed forces will be conducting training, the role of the 109thAW is as a real-world tactical airlift,” said Chief Master Sgt. Ron Jemmott, the senior enlisted leader for the wing’s maintenance squadron and a member of the PCST.

“Our job is to establish the ski landing area as a lifeline for the guys out there training,” Jemmott said.

Once established, the remote camp and ski landing area will provide multi-national ground forces with tactical support via the 109th’s LC-130Hs.

This can include flying supplies and personnel to and from the exercise site and aeromedical evacuation if needed,Jemmot said.

“The exercise will culminate in a mock overland assault of an airfield 100 miles away, wherein Canadian and American soldiers will utilize snow machines and vehicles — capable of traversing thearctic terrain — to travel, assault and secure the airfield,” said Lt. Col. Matt Sala, a pilot with the 109th AW and officer in charge of the PCST during Guerrier Nordique.

“Our job is to use skills we have built over years of operating in theArctic and Antarctic to provide the real-world tactical support to enable citizen-soldiers from Canada and the U.S. to develop similar abilities through exercising their role in possible arctic combat operations,” Sala said.

Canadian Armed Forces and VermontArmy National Guard personnel will deploy to the exercise area, establish their own remote camp and train in arctic combat and survival techniques.

“Exercises like this illustrate the growing strategic importance of developing American and allied capabilities in the Arctic as interest in the region is scaling up around the world,”Jemmott said.

“When adversaries like China and Russia are beginning to operate more often there, it is time for us to work with allies and other agencies to increase our individual capabilities as well as our interoperability so we can compete in the future,”Jemmott said.LR 



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