https://declassified.library.utoronto.ca/files/original/b4b3d54df95b538162a669c4b914562d.pdf 29f0dd18c212d9756d50816fa46d0fa1 PDF Text Text Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act Document divulgue en vertu de la Loi sur I'acces a I'information S E C R E T THIS DOCUMENT IS THE PROPERTY OF THE CANADIAN GOVERNMENT MEMORANDUM FOR CABINET DEFENCE COMMITTEE: USAF Requirement for Refuelling; Facilities in Canada 1 At its meeting on 24 January, 1958, Cabinet agreed to authorize the U.S. Government to proceed with the installation of refuelling facilities for tanker aircraft of the USAF Strategic Air Command at Frobisher, Cold Lake, Namao and Churchill, subject to certain qualifications concerning construction and procurement. This'plan allowed the USAF to exercise tanker aircraft at these bases occasionally in peacetime and to construct such facilities as necessary to permit full utilization under emergency conditions. 2 New factors have now emerged of such significance that, in order to retain the deterrent capability of U.S. Strategic Air Command, an "immediate readiness" concept for bombers and tankers becomes a vital necessity. This new concept alters the conditions and requirements. In particular it affects the peacetime use of the Canadian bases and changes the status from that,of occasional utilization to that of continuous use of the refuelling facilities. The requirements under the new concept are: -Ya) 6 tanker aircraft on "immediate readiness" at each base at all times in peacetime, these to be rotated to their parent units in the U.S., every seven days; b) to-build up, at each base, to a total of 20 tankers if and when war appears imminent; c) aircraft and personnel readiness facilities adjacent to the end of the runway; d) stationing permanently of approximately 160 personnel at each base, of which about 40 could be Canadian Service or civilian personnel; 1 1 i ' i e) assigning about 100 U.S. aircrew on a temporary duty \ ' basis, these to rotate weekly in consonance with the alert aircraft at each base; f) if and when war appears imminent, increasing the personnel strength at each base to a total of 530. 3 It will be recalled that the original U.S. proposal embraced a total of 11 refuelling bases in Canada (subsequently reduced to 9), four of which were to be developed in Phase One and the balance at a later date as funds could be made available. In submitting the new proposal the U.S. has dropped the requirement for Phase Two development, hence under this "immediate readiness" concept, authority is sought for refuelling facilities at 4 bases only, namely Namao, Cold Lake, Churchill and Frobisher. 4 The Chiefs of Staff have given careful consideration to all aspects of the problem and are of the opinion that this proposal is sound and necessary in order to permit U.S. Strategic Air Command to continue to fulfill its function as the major deterrent to war. The Chiefs of Staff appreciate that the change in concept may create some new problems at some of the Canadian bases. Each site is reviewed in turn hereunder: • • * <d 001016 �Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act Document divulgue en vertu de la Loi sur I'acces a /'information - 2 - S E C R E T i? a) Frobisher, N.W.T. - No insurmountable problems foreseen. This base already has a fairly sizeable complement of USAF personnel. It is used from time to time by transient USAF aircraft. This is a Department of Transport airfield. b) Churchill. Man. No problems of major significance foreseen provided the U.S. makes suitable provision for augmentation of basic services, such as electric power supply. Churchill already has a large complement of U.S. personnel; consequently the addition of another 200 will not constitute any special problem. This base is administered by the Army and the airfield is operated by the RCAF; c) Cold Lake. Alta. - This base is the Operational, Training Centre for the aircrew designated for allweather fighter squadrons of the RCAF. Additionally it takes care of Weapons Training for all squadrons of Air Defence Command. It is also a major aircraft and armament test and development centre. As such, the base facilities are fairly heavily taxed. There are no USAF personnel based here at present. The inclusion of the 200 personnel in question would constitute a further loading of the facilities, however, this could be accepted having regard to the adjustments and additions provided for in the U.S. construction programme. d) Namao. Alta. - This is a large RCAF base close to the city of Edmonton. There are no U.S. personnel stationed here at present and the presence of 200 USAF personnel at this station may draw some comment. However, USAF aircraft fairly frequently use this base as a staging point en route to Alaska. From a purely military point of-.view this "immediate readiness" requirement can be accepted. 5 In the interests of maintaining the deterrent to war, the Chiefs of Staff consider it vital that Canada cooperate with the United States along the lines proposed, which is in accordance with the accepted strategical objectives of the Canada-US Regional Group. Specifically, the Chiefs of Staff recommend, and I concur) that approval in principle be given to the U.S., to proceed with this "immediate readiness" tanker refuelling programme at Namao, Cold Lake, Frobisher and Churchill> subject to a satisfactory exchange of intergovernmental notes. MINISTER OF NATIONAL DEFENCE 15 May, 1958. � Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context CDAC02208 Title A name given to the resource Memorandum For Cabinet Defence Committee Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 5/15/1958 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived RG25-A-3-b, Volume number: 5910, File number: 50195-40, pt 3-2 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource LAC Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Canadian Crown Subject The topic of the resource SAC Refuelling Facilities Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Canada Declassified Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF Language A language of the resource en