Canadian Forces Station

A Canadian Forces Base or CFB (French Base des forces canadiennes or BFC) is 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 (e.g., army regiments, navy ships, air force wings).

Minor installations are named Canadian Forces Station or CFS (French Station des forces canadiennes or SFC). A Canadian Forces Station could host a single minor unit (e.g., an early warning radar station). Many of these facilities are now decommissioned for administrative purposes and function as detachments of a larger Canadian Forces Base nearby.

Note: Primary lodger units at Canadian Forces Bases used by the Canadian Army are regiments of the Canadian Army.

Note: Primary lodger units at Canadian Forces Bases used by the Royal Canadian Navy are individual commissioned ships of the RCN.

Note: Primary lodger units at Canadian Forces Bases used by the Royal Canadian Air Force are wings of the RCAF.

The RCAF supplies aircraft to Canadian Joint Operations Command which frequently operate from a chain of "Forward Operating Locations" at various civilian airfields across northern Canada, capable of supporting RCAF operations. CF-18 Hornets, CP-140 Auroras and various transport and search and rescue aircraft periodically deploy to these FOLs for short training exercises, Arctic sovereignty patrols, aid to the civil power, or search and rescue operations.

The Canadian Forces were reduced during the 1990s from a high of 90,000 personnel in the late 1980s to the present force levels. Coinciding with personnel and equipment reductions was the politically controversial decision to close a number of bases and stations which were obsolete or created duplication.

A small number of these "closed" facilities have actually continued operating as before; but, because of cost and administrative efficiency—or, in the case of radio and radar facilities, automation—, they have been absorbed into other nearby bases and therefore do not qualify for separate designations. For example, the CF Leadership and Recruit School at St. Jean, Quebec, is now a lodger unit of CFB Montreal, and the former CFS Masset is a detachment of CFS Leitrim. Other facilities are now used as training grounds for reserve/militia units.

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