View Comments

The Canadian Land Force Command (LFC), often also called the Canadian Army, is responsible for army operations within the Canadian Forces. The current size of Land Force Command is 19,500 regular soldiers and 16,000 reserve soldiers, for a total of around 35,500 soldiers.

LFC maintains regular forces units at bases across Canada and is also responsible for the largest component of the Primary Reserve, the Army Reserve, which is often referred to informally by its historic name, the "militia". The Chief of the Land Staff is Lieutenant-General Andrew Leslie.

LFC is the descendant of the Canadian Army which was the name of Canada's land forces from 1940 until February 1, 1968. At the time of unification all army units were placed under Mobile Command (MC), later changed to Force Mobile Command (FMC) in 1975 when tactical air units were assigned to newly-created Air Command. The name was changed from FMC to Land Force Command in a 1997 reorganization of the Canadian Forces.

Following unification of the three armed services in 1968, Mobile Command became in effect the "Canadian Army" though the term "army" did not find favour until the 1980s when it became once again unofficially used to refer to Canada's land forces, both Regular and Reserve. The early organization of Mobile Command included tactical ground attack fixed and rotary wing aircraft, in addition to ground forces, and was akin to the integrated warfare approach of the United States Marine Corps. In a 1975 reorganization of the Canadian Forces, Air Command was created and all air assets were reassigned to that organization. Mobile Command was renamed Force Mobile Command and became an exclusive ground force. In 1997, Force Mobile Command was officially redesignated Land Force Command of the Canadian Forces.

The Royal Military College of Canada mission is to educate, train and develop Officer Cadets for leadership careers of effective service in the Canadian Forces-Canadian Forces Air Command, Canadian Forces Maritime Command and Canadian Forces Land Force Command.

Canadian infantry and armoured regimental traditions are strongly rooted in the traditions and history of the British Army. Many regiments were patterned after regiments of the British Army, and a system of official "alliances", or affiliations, was created to perpetuate a sense of shared history. Other regiments developed independently, resulting in a mixture of both colourful and historically familiar names. Other traditions such as Battle Honours and Colours have been maintained by Canadian regiments as well. Approximately two thirds of the Regular Force is composed of anglophone units, while one third is francophone.

Between 1953 and 1971, the regular Canadian infantry consisted of seven regiments, each of two battalions (except the Royal 22^e Régiment, which had three, and the Canadian Airborne Regiment, which was divided into three "commandos"). The three present regular infantry regiments were augmented by three further regiments each of two battalions:

After 1971, the regular force battalions of the QOR and the Black Watch were dissolved (their Militia battalions remained in Toronto and Montreal, respectively) with their personnel distributed between The RCR and PPCLI, while the Canadian Guards were disbanded. The Canadian Airborne Regiment was disbanded in 1995.

The regular forces currently consist of the following regiments:

Regular Force units include:

Canada's regular field artillery has traditionally been called the Royal Canadian Horse Artillery. Canada currently has four Regular Force regiments:

Regular Force infantry regiments and battalions of the Canadian Army are:

Canada's battledress developed parallel to that of the British from 1900 to 1950, though always with significant differences, and then increasingly followed the US pattern of separate uniforms for separate functions, becoming distinctively "Canadian" in the process and utilizing CADPAT design. Prior to unification in 1968, the uniforms of the Canadian Army, Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) and Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) were similar to their counterparts in the forces of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth countries, save for national identifiers and some regimental accoutrements. With unification in 1968 all branches started wearing the new rifle green uniform. The present distinctive environmental uniforms in different colours for the army, navy and air force were introduced in the late 1980s and are generally similar to their pre-1968 counterparts.

Field kitchens and catering are used to feed members of the CF Land Forces personnel at bases and overseas operation centres. For personnel on patrol away from bases, they are supplied Individual Meal Pack.

Comparison of ranking structure available at Ranks and insignia of NATO. Not shown are the various appointment badges for specialist positions such as master gunner, drum major, etc. Many ranks are associated with specific appointments; for example a regimental sergeant major is usually a chief warrant officer. The title of master corporal also, technically, refers to an appointment and not a rank. Some ranks may have different names depending on the customary tradition of certain army corps, and may not appear here. Two commonly heard examples are the rank of Sapper, referring to a trained private in the combat engineers, and Trooper, referring to a trained private in the armoured trade. In addition, in the artillery, the ranks Trained Private through Master Corporal are represented by Gunner, Bombardier, and Master Bombardier respectively.

The Canadian Army has participated in the following campaigns as a combatant:

Commander-in-Chief • Chief of the Defence Staff • Armed Forces Council
Canada Command • Canadian Expeditionary Force Command • Canadian Operational Support Command • Joint Task Force North • Reserve Force

Comments about "Canadian Forces Land Force Command"

Post your Comment

Name

E-mail Address

Comment Body