Canadian Forces Base Suffield (also CFB Suffield) is the largest army training area in Canada. The CFB is in southeastern

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

, north-northwest of Suffield, northwest of

Medicine Hat Medicine Hat is a city in Southern Alberta, southeast Alberta, Canada. It is located along the South Saskatchewan River. It is approximately east of Lethbridge and southeast of Calgary. This city and the adjacent Town of Redcliff, Alberta, R ...

and southeast of

Calgary Calgary () is a major city in the Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the third-largest city and fifth-largest metropolitan area in C ...

. It is accessible via Highway 884, a public road that bisects the main hub section of the base. The base has its own radio station, CKBF-FM, which airs programming for both the Canadian and British military personnel stationed at the base. The Crown village of Ralston is on base lands.

History

Chemical warfare training

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

Dominion Land Survey The Dominion Land Survey (DLS; ) is the method used to divide most of Western Canada into one-square-mile (2.6 km2) sections for agricultural and other purposes. It is based on the layout of the Public Land Survey System used in the United St ...

, and comprised marginal agricultural land, given the perpetual

semi-arid climate A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not as low as a desert climate. There are different kinds of se ...

. Some settlement was attempted, but during the droughts of the 1920s most farms were abandoned, along with some horses, whose feral descendants formerly roamed the region. The total area measures approximately and borders an area north of the

South Saskatchewan River The South Saskatchewan River is a major river in the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan. The river begins at the confluence of the Bow River, Bow and Oldman Rivers in southern Alberta and ends at the Saskatchewan River Forks in ce ...

. Following the

fall of France The Battle of France (; 10 May – 25 June 1940), also known as the Western Campaign (), the French Campaign (, ) and the Fall of France, during the Second World War was the German invasion of the Low Countries (Belgium, Luxembourg and the Net ...

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

, the

British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...

required a new training facility for carrying out experiments in chemical warfare to replace the one it previously used in

French Algeria French Algeria ( until 1839, then afterwards; unofficially ; ), also known as Colonial Algeria, was the period of History of Algeria, Algerian history when the country was a colony and later an integral part of France. French rule lasted until ...

. In 1941, the federal government expropriated the Suffield Block, purchasing the majority of the land from the

Canadian Pacific Railway The Canadian Pacific Railway () , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadian Pacific Kansas City, Canadian Pacific Ka ...

and the

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), originally the Governor and Company of Adventurers of England Trading Into Hudson’s Bay, is a Canadian holding company of department stores, and the oldest corporation in North America. It was the owner of the ...

; 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 The Canadian Army () is the command (military formation), command responsible for the operational readiness of the conventional ground forces of the Canadian Armed Forces. It maintains regular forces units at bases across Canada, and is also re ...

in 1946. In 1947 the Canadian Army turned operation of Experimental Station Suffield over to the Defence Research Board, now

Defence Research and Development Canada Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC; , ''RDDC'') is the science and technology organization of the Department of National Defence (Canada), Department of National Defence (DND), whose purpose is to provide the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF), ...

. 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 to 1971, the Canadian Army continued occasional use of the Suffield ranges.

RCAF aerodrome

In approximately 1942 the aerodrome was listed at with a variation of 22 degrees east and elevation of . One runway was listed as follows:

British Army

On August 25, 1971, the

Canadian Government The Government of Canada (), formally His Majesty's Government (), is the body responsible for the federal administration of Canada. The term ''Government of Canada'' refers specifically to the executive, which includes ministers of the Crown ( ...

ratified a ten-year agreement with the

British Government His Majesty's Government, abbreviated to HM Government or otherwise UK Government, is the central government, central executive authority of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

that allowed the

British Armed Forces The British Armed Forces are the unified military, military forces responsible for the defence of the United Kingdom, its British Overseas Territories, Overseas Territories and the Crown Dependencies. They also promote the UK's wider interests ...

to use the northern three-quarters of the Suffield Block for armoured, infantry, and artillery live-fire training. On December 1, 1971, Canadian Forces Base Suffield (CFB Suffield) was officially created and allocated to Mobile Command. Over 160 staff members, 90 buildings, 80 vehicles, and the Crown Village of Ralston were transferred from Defence Research Establishment Suffield to the newly created base and CFB Suffield was co-located with the Research Establishment."Interim Memorandum of Agreement Between the Chief of the Defence Staff and the Chairman, Defence Research Board Relating to (A) the Establishment of the Canadian Forces Base, Suffield (B) the Provision of Services to the Defence Research Establishment Suffield and (C) the Provisions of Services to the Canadian Forces Base, Suffield", signed 27 October 1971 By January 1972, the British Army Training Unit Suffield (BATUS) was established and the first live round was fired by a battlegroup from the 4th Royal Tank Regiment (4th RTR) on July 15, 1972. British Army training has continued at Suffield since 1971, with the shared-use agreement being extended several times (made indefinite in 2006). Regular and reserve units of

began to make use of the base beginning in 1991, around the same time as the downgrading of CFB Wainwright. The British Army Training Unit Suffield (BATUS) consists of pool training equipment used by army units rotating through the base on exercises, as well as a training "opposition force" (OPFOR). In 1996/1997, CFB Suffield had two federal heritage buildings recognized on the Register of the Government of Canada Heritage Buildings: Central Laboratory, Building B-1 and Ralston School.http://www.pc.gc.ca/apps/beefp-fhbro/FHB_Rech_Search_e.asp Register of the Government of Canada Heritage Buildings. DRES was merged into a new organization, Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC), in 2000.

Defence Research and Development Canada, Suffield

Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC) is an agency of the Canadian Department of National Defence responding to the

scientific Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...

and

technological Technology is the application of conceptual knowledge to achieve practical goals, especially in a reproducible way. The word ''technology'' can also mean the products resulting from such efforts, including both tangible tools such as ute ...

needs of the Canadian Forces. Its mission is to ensure that the CF remains scientifically and operationally relevant. The agency is made up of eight research laboratories, one of which is 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

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 Industrial agriculture is a form of modern farming that refers to the industrialized production of crops and animals and animal products like eggs or milk. The methods of industrial agriculture include innovation in agricultural machinery and ...

. In 1992, the military signed a Memorandum of Understanding with

Environment Canada Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC; )Environment and Climate Change Canada is the applied title under the Federal Identity Program; the legal title is Department of the Environment (). is the Ministry (government department), department ...

and in 2003 lands along the South Saskatchewan River comprising some were designated as the Suffield National Wildlife Area.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Suffield Canadian Forces bases in Alberta Proving grounds Heliports in Canada Military airbases in Alberta Cypress County Military history of Alberta Military training areas