of Escadron de Chasse 1/2 based at Dijon.
The deployment concluded at the end
of June. In January 2013 NATO officially
designated the periodic deployments
to Iceland as Airborne Surveillance and
Interception Capabilities to meet Iceland’s
Peacetime Preparedness Needs (ASIC-
IPPN). To date, nine different countries
have conducted 28 NATO deployments.Operation Reassurance
The most recent ASIC-PPN deployment was
executed by Canada as part of Operation
Reassurance, and continued the work
previously performed in Iceland under
Operation Ignition during 2011 and 2013.
Operation Reassurance refers to a series of
military activities undertaken by the Canadian
Armed Forces since 2014. On April 17 that
year the Canadian government offered
Canadian Armed Forces assets to NATO to
support alliance assurance and deterrence
measures aimed at maintaining stability and
security in Central and Eastern Europe.
On July 8, 2016, at NATO’s Warsaw Summit,
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced
that Canada would continue to support
NATO via Operation Reassurance until at
least the end of March 2019. As part of
this renewal of the Operation Reassurance
mandate, the Canadian Armed Forces, under
the command of Canadian Joint Operations
Command (CJOC) can send land, sea and air
components to wherever they are needed.
Part of Operation Reassurance’s air
component is Air Task Force (ATF)-Iceland.
This task force, when active, consists
of between 150 and 180 personnel, up
to six CF-188 Hornets, aircraft support
teams and fighter controllers.Rebirth of a squadron
The first Canadian ATF-Iceland deployment
under Operation Reassurance began in
early May when CC-177 Globemaster III
and CC-150 Polaris aircraft transported
support equipment and quartermasters
to Keflavík Airport to prepare for the
arrival of 155 personnel and six CF-188s
from 433 Tactical Fighter Squadron and
3 Wing at CFB Bagotville, Quebec.
The squadron has a rich Second World War
history and then flew the Avro Canada CF-100
from 1954 until disbandment in July 1961.
The unit was resurrected in September 1969
as 433 Tactical Fighter Squadron and was
equipped with the Canadair CF-116A/B (CF-5)
in the offensive air and reconnaissance roles.
It flew these aircraft until the arrival of the
CF-188 in 1984. Assigned a North American
Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) role
since 1988, and part of NATO’s Rapid Reaction
Force, the unit participated in the 1991
Gulf War during Operation
Friction, Operation Echo
over Kosovo and
Operation
Noble Eagle
over North
America.Above: A Canadian pilot in front of ‘his’ Hornet
before boarding for a training mission over Iceland.
Canadian CF-188s have participated in numerous
operations since the early ’90s, including the 1991
Gulf War, in the Balkans during the late 1990s, the
confl ict with Libya, and most recently the fi ght
against IS from 2014 until 2016.A CF-188 starts up for a mission from Kefl avík. The
personnel of 433 Squadron and 3 Wing operated
from the shelter area on the southwest of Kefl avík
Airport. This was previously home to the USAF’s 57th
FIS, which was inactivated in 1995.CF-188 IN ICELAND
84 // SEPTEMBER 2017 #354 http://www.airforcesmonthly.com