NATO Exercises

HMCS HALIFAX sails to join NATO in Belgium

By Virginia Beaton

HALIFAX -- HMCS Halifax left the Dockyard on August 22 for a 4-month deployment to Zeebrugge, Belgium to join the Standing NATO Response Force Maritime Group One (SNMMG1). Halifax sailed with a crew of 230 including a Sea King detachment from 12 Wing Shearwater. 

Credit:  Lt(N) Brian Owens HMCS Halifax departed for a four-month NATO deployment.

A small group of friends and family members were on hand to watch as Halifax departed. Among them were Robert Lewis and his daughter, Bailey. Leading Seaman (LS) Sherri Lewis, Robert’s wife and Bailey’s mother, is a supply tech in Halifax. 

“This is her first big deployment,” observed Lewis. He is ex-military and says that the family prepared for his wife’s departure by attending briefing sessions and gathering the materials about deployment offered by the Military Family Resource Centre.

Seven-year-old Bailey said she was looking forward to corresponding with her mother and preparing presents for her return. “I can’t wait until school starts,” said Bailey, who is about to start Grade Two. 

SNMMG1 is a multi-national and multi-disciplined naval squadron comprising destroyers, cruisers and frigates from NATO countries.

During this deployment, Halifax is scheduled to operate in the North Atlantic, the Baltic Sea, and Skagerrak, the strait between Norway and the southwest coast of Sweden and the Danish peninsula.

The frigate will participate in exercises and operations in order to achieve greater interoperability with Canada’s NATO allies. In the course of these actions, Halifax will conduct maritime interdiction operations, force protection evolutions, exercise combat training skills, and maintain an international Canadian presence.

HALIFAX will return from the SNMMG1 deployment in December.

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