![\"LT-Col.](\"https:\/\/i.cbc.ca\/1.4155364.1497131724!\/fileImage\/httpImage\/image.jpg_gen\/derivatives\/original_620\/lt-col-wade-rutland.jpg\")
<\/p>\nCanada’s newest overseas military mission got underway Saturday as the first plane load of soldiers arrived at their new home near the Latvian capital of Riga.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
For their commander, Canadian Lt-Col. Wade Rutland, success at his high-profile military assignment to deter Russian aggression in the region will be relatively straightforward to measure.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Lt.-Col. Wade Rutland is commanding the Canadian battle group in Latvia. (Corinne Seminoff\/CBC)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
“It’s a funny mission success criteria, that if nothing happens, we’ll all go home happy, but that’s it,” said Rutland as he met the new arrivals on the airport tarmac.<\/p>\n
The Canadian CC-150 Polaris touched down under a warm Baltic sun carrying 100 soldiers from an Edmonton-based mechanized brigade.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
They’re the first of 450 troops who will arrive over the next several days as part of a bolstered NATO force.<\/p>\n
The battle group will be made up of troops and heavy equipment from several countries, including Italy, Spain, Albania, Poland and Slovenia, but it will be led by Canada.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Company commander Maj. John Hagemeyer was among the first off the plane carrying his kit bag.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
“It’s good to finally be here,” he told CBC News.\u00a0“We want to be here. Latvia wants us here.”<\/p>\n
![\"Latvia](\"https:\/\/i.cbc.ca\/1.4155367.1497131746!\/fileImage\/httpImage\/image.jpg_gen\/derivatives\/original_620\/latvia-lav-6.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Canadian LAV 6 armoured vehicles will be the primary heavy equipment for the Canadian soldiers. (Corinne Seminoff\/CBC)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Russia’s takeover of Crimea in 2014<\/a> and its continued support of pro-Russian separatists in Eastern Ukraine has rattled many in the tiny Baltic republic who worry they could be targeted next.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Canada offered to lead what the military terms the “enhanced forward presence” battle group in Latvia to deter any aggression.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Latvia has been hosting NATO troops ever since it was admitted to the alliance in 2004, but Canadians have always come and gone on short-term exercises.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n This time they’re here to stay as part of an open-ended mission with no expiry date.<\/p>\n The troops’ new home will be at a Soviet-era military base about 45 minutes from the capital, which under the U.S.S.R. served as the army’s main presence in the region.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Latvia’s government is contributing $13 million to help with the refurbishments.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The facility is badly rundown and the Canadians are building most of what they need from scratch.<\/p>\n Lt.-Col. Hugo Delisle, commanding officer, theatre opening team, has spent two months building facilities on the NATO base. (Corinne Seminoff\/CBC)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Lt.-Col Hugo Delisle, commanding officer of the theatre opening team, has had up to 185 personnel preparing the site to get ready, which he says has gone well.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n “The soldiers right now have only had two days off in the last 45 days. They’re working 10 hours a day to arrive at this point, ” said Delisle as he took CBC News on a tour of the Canadian compound.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The troops will be sleeping in tent-like temporary shelters until August when new, permanent barracks are completed.<\/p>\n Canadian troops will be staying in temporary shelters until permanent barracks are complete in August. (Corinne Seminoff\/CBC)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Plans also call for sports facilities including a gym and track, as well as restaurants and social areas.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n In a heavily protected parking lot a short distance from the living area, crews have parked several dozen nearly new LAV6 armored personnel carriers for the battle group.<\/p>\n Other countries, such as Poland and Italy, are providing tanks.<\/p>\n The Canadian soldiers who arrived Saturday will likely stay until Christmas when they’ll be rotated out.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The Trudeau government expects the mission will cost over $260 million over the next three years.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n NATO is beefing up its presence in the Baltic by sending a total of 4,000 troops to other countries in the region.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n That number pales in comparison to the estimated 50,000 to 70,000 troops on the other side of the border that are part of Russia’s western force.<\/p>\n Tactical simulations have suggested the tiny Baltic country of two million people could be completely overrun by Russian troops within two or three days.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Hagemeyer says those odds don’t bother him.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n “That’s not our concern,” he said. \u00a0“We are fully prepared for the highest levels of threat.”<\/p><\/p>\n Article source: http:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/world\/canadian-military-latvia-1.4155341?cmp=rss<\/a>\r\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Canada’s newest overseas military mission got underway Saturday as the first plane load of soldiers arrived at their new home near the Latvian capital of Riga. For their commander, Canadian Lt-Col. Wade Rutland, success at his high-profile military assignment to deter Russian aggression in the region will be relatively straightforward to measure. Lt.-Col. Wade Rutland […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":78997,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[84],"class_list":["post-78992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-political","tag-political"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78992"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78992\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}New home a fixer-upper<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
![\"Lt.-Col.](\"https:\/\/i.cbc.ca\/1.4155356.1497131764!\/fileImage\/httpImage\/image.jpg_gen\/derivatives\/original_620\/lt-col-hugo-delisle.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Latvia](\"https:\/\/i.cbc.ca\/1.4155362.1497131780!\/fileImage\/httpImage\/image.jpg_gen\/derivatives\/original_620\/latvia-temporary-shelters.jpg\")
<\/p>\nMission to cost more than $260M<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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