CFB North Bay

CFB North Bay

22 Wing/Canadian Forces Base North Bay is the most important military base in the country with respect to the continental air defence of North America and the air sovereignty of Canada. It is also home to one of the most unique military installations in North America, the NORAD Underground Complex, a bunker the size of a shopping centre, 60 storeys beneath the surface of the Earth.

Canadian Forces Base North Bay, also CFB North Bay, is an air force base located at the City of North Bay, Ontario about 350 km (220 mi) north of Toronto. The base is subordinate to 1 Canadian Air Division, Winnipeg, Manitoba, and is the centre for North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) operations in Canada, under the Canadian NORAD Region Headquarters, also in Winnipeg. It is also home to the 1 Air Force, Detachment 2 of the United States Air Force

On 1 April 1993, all air bases in Canada were redesignated as wings; the base was renamed 22 Wing/Canadian Forces Base North Bay. This is abbreviated as 22 Wing/CFB North Bay. Today, although this designation still stands, the base is often referred to simply as "22 Wing", and the Base Commander as the "Wing Commander".

North Bay's air force base is the centre for the air defence of the entire country, and works in concert with the United States via NORAD for the air defence of Canada-U.S. portion of the North American continent. Activities are wide ranging, from identifying and monitoring all aircraft entering Canada from overseas, to guarding VIPs flying in the country (e.g., the Pope), to assisting aircraft suffering airborne emergencies, to aiding law enforcement versus smugglers, to participating in NORAD's Christmas Eve Tracking of Santa Claus for children. From the mid-1970s to the mid-1990s it took in Unidentified Flying Object reports from across the country on behalf of the National Research Council of Canada, relaying the reports to a study at the Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics, British Columbia. In 2000, it resumed UFO reporting, provided to an individual at the University of Manitoba. The history and particulars of North Bay's air defence activities are described below.

Note: "air defence" refers strictly to aviation activities within the atmosphere of the Earth, such as those of helicopters and airplanes. "Aerospace defence" covers these activities as well as those in space, such as monitoring satellites and tracking space junk. In 2010 North Bay's air defence centre took the first steps towards transitioning to aerospace defence.

22 Wing/CFB North Bay has two unique properties among air bases in Canada. It is the only Canadian air base that does not have flying units (as of August 1992, when the last flying squadron departed), and the only air base in the country that does not have an airfield (base assets such as control tower, fuel depot and hangars were demolished or sold following the 1992 departure).

Read more about CFB North Bay:  RCAF Station North Bay, NORAD and The Underground Complex, BOMARC, Canadian Forces Base North Bay, Re-Shaping of 22 Wing/Canadian Forces Base North Bay & The 21st Century

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