1.
ICAO airport code
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The ICAO airport code or location indicator is a four-character alphanumeric code designating aerodromes around the world. ICAO codes are used to identify other aviation facilities such as weather stations, International Flight Service Stations or Area Control Centers. Flight information regions are identified by a unique ICAO-code. Code selections in North America were based on existing radio station identifiers, for example, radio stations in Canada were already starting with C, so it seemed logical to begin Canadian airport identifiers with Cxxx. The United States had many pre-existing airports with established mnemonic codes and their ICAO codes were formed simply by prepending a K to the existing codes, as half the radio station identifiers in the US began with K. Most ICAO codes outside the US and Canada have a geographical structure. Most of the rest of the world was classified in a more planned top-down manner, thus Uxxx referred to the Soviet Union with the second letter denoting the specific region within it, and so forth. Europe had too many locations for one starting letter, so it was split into Exxx for northern Europe. The second letter was more specific, EGxx was the United Kingdom, EDxx was West Germany, ETxx was East Germany, LExx was Spain, LAxx was Albania, France was designated LFxx, as the counterpart EFxx was the unambiguously northern Finland. ICAO codes are separate and different from IATA codes, which are used for airline timetables, reservations. For example, the IATA code for Londons Heathrow Airport is LHR, in general IATA codes are usually derived from the name of the airport or the city it serves, while ICAO codes are distributed by region and country. Far more aerodromes have ICAO codes than IATA codes, and to add to the confusion IATA codes are assigned to railway stations. Unlike the IATA codes, the ICAO codes generally have a structure and are comprehensive. In general, the first letter is allocated by continent and represents a country or group of countries within that continent, the second letter generally represents a country within that region, and the remaining two are used to identify each airport. The exception to rule is larger countries that have single-letter country codes. In either case, ICAO codes generally provide geographical context unlike IATA codes, for example, if one knows that the ICAO code for Heathrow is EGLL, then one can deduce that the airport EGGP is somewhere in the UK. On the other hand, knowing that the IATA code for Heathrow is LHR does not enable one to deduce the location of the airport LHV with any greater certainty, there are a few exceptions to the regional structure of the ICAO code made for political or administrative reasons. Similarly Saint Pierre and Miquelon is controlled by France, and airports there are assigned LFxx as though they were in Europe, further, in region L, all available 2-letter prefixes have been exhausted and thus no additional countries can be added
2.
Canadian Armed Forces
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This unified institution consists of sea, land, and air elements referred to as the Royal Canadian Navy, Canadian Army, and Royal Canadian Air Force. Under the National Defence Act, the Canadian Armed Forces are an entity separate and distinct from the Department of National Defence, the Commander-in-Chief of the Canadian Armed Forces is the reigning Canadian monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, who is represented by the Governor General of Canada. The Canadian Armed Forces is led by the Chief of the Defence Staff, during the Cold War, a principal focus of Canadian defence policy was contributing to the security of Europe in the face of the Soviet military threat. Toward that end, Canadian ground and air forces were based in Europe from the early 1950s until the early 1990s, Canadian defence policy today is based on the Canada First Defence Strategy, introduced in 2008. Based on that strategy, the Canadian military is oriented and being equipped to carry out six core missions within Canada, in North America and globally. Prior to Confederation in 1867, residents of the colonies in what is now Canada served as members of French and British forces. Thereafter, the Royal Canadian Navy was formed, and, with the advent of military aviation and these forces were organised under the Department of Militia and Defence, and split into the Permanent and Non-Permanent Active Militias—frequently shortened to simply The Militia. By 1923, the department was merged into the Department of National Defence, the first overseas deployment of Canadian military forces occurred during the Second Boer War, when several units were raised to serve under British command. Similarly, when the United Kingdom entered into conflict with Germany in the First World War, the Canadian Crown-in-Council then decided to send its forces into the Second World War, as well as the Korean War. Since 1947, Canadian military units have participated in more than 200 operations worldwide, Canada maintained an aircraft carrier from 1957 to 1970 during the Cold War, which never saw combat but participated in patrols during the Cuban Missile Crisis. At the end of the Second World War, Canada possessed the fourth-largest air force and fifth-largest naval surface fleet in the world, conscription for overseas service was introduced only near the end of the war, and only 2,400 conscripts actually made it into battle. Originally, Canada was thought to have had the third-largest navy in the world and its roots, however, lie in colonial militia groups that served alongside garrisons of the French and British armies and navies, a structure that remained in place until the early 20th century. After the 1980s, the use of the Canadian Armed Forces name gave way to Canadian Forces, land Forces during this period also deployed in support of peacekeeping operations within United Nations sanctioned conflicts. The nature of the Canadian Forces has continued to evolve and they have been deployed in Afghanistan until 2011, under the NATO-led United Nations International Security Assistance Force, at the request of the Government of Afghanistan. The Armed Forces are today funded by approximately $20, the number of primary reserve personnel is expected to go up to 30,000 by 2020, and the number of active to at least 70,000. In addition,5000 rangers and 19,000 supplementary personnel will be serving, if this happens the total strength would be around 124,000. These individuals serve on numerous CF bases located in all regions of the country, and are governed by the Queens Regulations and Orders, the 2006 renewal and re-equipment effort has resulted in the acquisition of specific equipment to support the mission in Afghanistan. It has also encompassed initiatives to renew certain so-called core capabilities, in addition, new systems have also been acquired for the Armed Forces
3.
Government of Canada
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The Government of Canada or more formally Her Majestys Government, is the federal government of Canada, a country in North America, composed of 10 provinces, Ottawa, and 3 territories. The head of government is Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, whose party the Liberal Party of Canada won the majority of seats in the Canadian Parliament in the 2015 Canadian federal election, in Canadian English, the term can mean either the collective set of institutions or specifically the Queen-in-Council. Further elements of governance are outlined in the rest of the Canadian constitution, which includes written statutes, court rulings, in Canadian English, the word government is used to refer both to the whole set of institutions that govern the country, and to the current political leadership. In federal department press releases, the government has sometimes referred to by the phrase Government. The same cabinet earlier directed its press department to use the phrase Canadas New Government, as per the Constitution Acts of 1867 and 1982, Canada is a constitutional monarchy, wherein the role of the reigning sovereign is both legal and practical, but not political. The executive is formally called the Queen-in-Council, the legislature the Queen-in-Parliament. The government is defined by the constitution as the Queen acting on the advice of her privy council, however, the Privy Council—consisting mostly of former members of parliament, chief justices of the supreme court, and other elder statesmen—rarely meets in full. This body of ministers of the Crown is the Cabinet, one of the main duties of the Crown is to ensure that a democratic government is always in place, which means appointing a prime minister to thereafter head the Cabinet. The monarch and governor general typically follow the advice of their ministers. The royal and viceroyal figures may unilaterally use these powers in exceptional constitutional crisis situations, politicians can sometimes try to use to their favour the complexity of the relationship between the monarch, viceroy, ministers, and parliament, and the publics general unfamiliarity with it. Per democratic tradition, the House of Commons is the dominant branch of parliament, the Senate, thus, reviews legislation from a less partisan standpoint. The Constitution Act,1867, outlines that the general is responsible for summoning parliament in the Queens name. After a number of sessions, each parliament comes to an end via dissolution. As a general election typically follows, the timing of a dissolution is usually politically motivated, the sovereign is responsible for rendering justice for all her subjects, and is thus traditionally deemed the fount of justice. However, she does not personally rule in cases, instead the judicial functions of the Royal Prerogative are performed in trust. Below this is the Federal Court, which cases arising under certain areas of federal law. It works in conjunction with the Federal Court of Appeal and Tax Court of Canada, in some cases, however, the jurisdictions of the federal and provincial parliaments may be more vague. For instance, the federal parliament regulates marriage and divorce in general, other examples include the powers of both the federal and provincial parliaments to impose taxes, borrow money, punish crimes, and regulate agriculture
4.
Department of National Defence (Canada)
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The Department of National Defence, commonly abbreviated as DND, is a Canadian government department responsible for defending Canadas interests and values at home and abroad. National Defence is the largest department of the Government of Canada in terms of budget as well as staff and it also is the department with the largest number of buildings. The Department is headed by the Deputy Minister of National Defence, who is the Department’s senior civil servant, the Department of National Defence exists to aid the minister in carrying out his responsibilities within the Defence Portfolio, and provides a civilian support system for the Canadian Armed Forces. Under the National Defence Act, the Canadian Armed Forces is a separate and distinct organization from, and is not part of. The Department of National Defence is currently headed by Deputy Minister John Forster, the Department of National Defence was established by the National Defence Act, which merged the Department of Militia and Defence, the Department of Naval Services, and the Air Board. The National Defence Act was passed by the Parliament of Canada on June 28,1922, the Minister of National Defence, as the member of cabinet responsible to Parliament for National Defence, heads the Defence Team. The Department of National Defence is headed by the Deputy Minister of National Defence, under the Deputy Minister are a variety of associate deputy and assistant deputy ministers who are responsible for various aspects of the department. The Deputy Minister is appointed by the Governor General on behalf of the Queen of Canada on the advice of the Prime Minister, there are also a variety of offices and support organizations which report to both the Chief of Defence Staff and the Deputy Minister. The Department is not responsible for all of these organizations itself, the Canadian Forces are a distinct and separate entity from the Department of National Defence
5.
Central Time Zone
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The North American Central Time Zone is a time zone in parts of Canada, the United States, Mexico, Central America, some Caribbean Islands, and part of the Eastern Pacific Ocean. Central Standard Time is six hours behind Coordinated Universal Time, during summer most of the zone uses daylight saving time, and changes to Central Daylight Time which is five hours behind UTC. The province of Manitoba is the province or territory in Canada that observes Central Time in all areas. Also, most of the province of Saskatchewan is on Central Standard Time year-round, major exceptions include Lloydminster, a city situated on the boundary between Alberta and Saskatchewan. The city charter stipulates that it shall observe Mountain Time and DST, putting the community on the time as all of Alberta, including the major cities of Calgary. As a result, during the summer, clocks in the province match those in Alberta. The Central Time Zone is the second most populous in the US after the Eastern Time Zone, lanett and Valley observe Eastern Time historically because they were textile mill towns and the original home office of their mills was in West Point, Georgia. Some eastern counties observe Central Time because they are close to the border of the Middle Tennessee counties surrounding the Nashville metropolitan area. Louisiana Michigan, All of Michigan observes Eastern Time except the four Upper Peninsula counties that border Wisconsin, other westernmost counties from this area such as Ontonagon observe Eastern Time. South Dakota, Eastern half as divided by the Missouri river adjacent to the state capital, note, the metropolitan area of Pierre is Central, including Fort Pierre. Wisconsin Most of Mexico—roughly the eastern three-fourths—lies in the Central Time Zone, except for six northwestern states, the federal entities of Mexico that observe Central Time, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua all use Central Standard Time year-round. The Galápagos Islands in Ecuador uses Central Standard Time all year-round, Daylight saving time is in effect in much of the Central time zone between mid-March and early November. The modified time is called Central Daylight Time and is UTC−5, in Canada, Saskatchewan does not observe a time change. One reason that Saskatchewan does not take part in a change is that, geographically. The province elected to move onto permanent daylight saving by being part of the Central Time Zone, Mexico decided not to go along with this change and observes their horario de verano from the first Sunday in April to the last Sunday in October. In December 2009, the Mexican Congress allowed ten border cities, eight of which are in states that observe Central Time, to adopt the U. S. daylight time schedule effective in 2010
6.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
7.
Runway
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According to the International Civil Aviation Organization, a runway is a defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and takeoff of aircraft. Runways may be a surface or a natural surface. Runways are named by a number between 01 and 36, which is generally the magnetic azimuth of the heading in decadegrees. This heading differs from true north by the magnetic declination. A runway numbered 09 points east, runway 18 is south, runway 27 points west, when taking off from or landing on runway 09, a plane would be heading 90°. A runway can normally be used in both directions, and is named for each separately, e. g. runway 33 in one direction is runway 15 when used in the other. The two numbers usually differ by 18, Runway Zero Three Left becomes Runway Two One Right when used in the opposite direction. In some countries, if parallel runways are too close to each other, at large airports with four or more parallel runways some runway identifiers are shifted by 10 degrees to avoid the ambiguity that would result with more than three parallel runways. For example, in Los Angeles, this results in runways 6L, 6R, 7L. At Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, there are five parallel runways, named 17L, 17C, 17R, 18L, for clarity in radio communications, each digit in the runway name is pronounced individually, runway three six, runway one four, etc. A leading zero, for example in runway zero six or runway zero one left, is included for all ICAO, however, most U. S. civil aviation airports drop the leading zero as required by FAA regulation. This also includes some military airfields such as Cairns Army Airfield and this American anomaly may lead to inconsistencies in conversations between American pilots and controllers in other countries. It is very common in a such as Canada for a controller to clear an incoming American aircraft to, for example, runway 04. In flight simulation programs those of American origin might apply U. S. usage to airports around the world, for example, runway 05 at Halifax will appear on the program as the single digit 5 rather than 05. Runway designations change over time because the magnetic poles slowly drift on the Earths surface, depending on the airport location and how much drift takes place, it may be necessary over time to change the runway designation. As runways are designated with headings rounded to the nearest 10 degrees, for example, if the magnetic heading of a runway is 233 degrees, it would be designated Runway 23. If the magnetic heading changed downwards by 5 degrees to 228, if on the other hand the original magnetic heading was 226, and the heading decreased by only 2 degrees to 224, the runway should become Runway 22. Because the drift itself is slow, runway designation changes are uncommon
8.
Canada Flight Supplement
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The Canada Flight Supplement is a joint civil/military publication and is a supplement of the Aeronautical Information Publication. It is the official airport directory. It contains information on all registered Canadian and certain Atlantic aerodromes, the CFS is published, separately in English and French, as a paper book by Nav Canada and is issued once every 56 days on the ICAO AIRAC schedule. The CFS was published by Natural Resources Canada on behalf of Transport Canada, the CFS presents runway data, arrival and departure procedures, air traffic control and other radio frequencies and services such as fuel, hangarage that are available at each listed aerodrome. As well, the CFS contains useful reference pages, including instructions for civil aircraft, chart updating data and search. Most pilots flying in Canada carry a copy of the CFS in case a weather or mechanical diversion to another airport becomes necessary, the Canada Flight Supplement is made up of seven sections, Special Notices — list of new or amended procedures. General Section — glossary, legends, airport code listing, list of abandoned aerodromes, Aerodrome/Facility Directory — list all aerodromes alphabetically by the community in which they are located. A sketch of the airport is included showing runway layout, taxiways, locations of buildings, also included in the sketch is an obstacle clearance circle. Radio Navigation and Communications — listing of radio navigation aids and communication outlets, together all known commercial AM broadcasters and their locations. Military Flight Data and Procedures — military flight and reporting procedures for Canada, emergency — emergency procedures and guidelines for hijacks, fuel dumping, search and rescue, etc. This Canadian Aviation Regulation does not specifically require carriage of a copy of the CFS, because information in the CFS may be out of date, particularly with regard to such issues as runway closures and fuel availability, pilots should check NOTAMs before each flight. NOTAM information in Canada can be obtained from the Nav Canada Aviation Weather Website or by contacting the appropriate regional Nav Canada Flight Information Centre, Nav Canada also publishes the Water Aerodrome Supplement, as a single volume in English and French. This contains information on all Canadian water aerodromes as shown on visual flight rules charts, the WAS is published on an annual basis. Airport/Facility Directory – U. S. publications roughly equivalent to the Aerodrome/Facility and Planning chapters of the CFS, but divided into several volumes covering different regions
9.
Environment and Climate Change Canada
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Its ministerial headquarters is located in les Terrasses de la Chaudière, Gatineau, Quebec. The department is responsible for international environmental issues. CEPA was the piece of Canadas environmental legislation but was replaced when budget implementation bill entered into effect in June 2012. Under the Constitution of Canada, responsibility for management in Canada is a shared responsibility between the federal government and provincial/territorial governments. For example, provincial governments have primary authority for resource management including permitting industrial waste discharges, the federal government is responsible for the management of toxic substances in the country. Environment Canada continues to undergo a transformation to centralize authority and decision-making. In 2003, responsibility for Parks Canada was returned to the Minister of the Environment, Environment Canada Enforcement Branch is responsible for ensuring compliance with several federal statues. The Governor-in-Council appoints enforcement officers and pursuant to section 217 of the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, there are two designations of enforcement officers, Environmental Enforcement and Wildlife Enforcement. The former administers the Canadian Environmental Protection Act and pollution provisions of the Fisheries Act, the latter enforces Migratory Birds Convention Act, Canada Wildlife Act, Species at Risk Act and The Wild Animal and Plant Protection and Regulation of International and Interprovincial Trade Act. All officers wear green uniform with black ties and a badge. Environmental Enforcement Officers only carry baton and OC spray whereas Wildlife Enforcement Officers are also equipped with firearm, on March 4,2009, a bill to increase the enforcement capabilities of Environment Canada was introduced into the House of Commons. The various annexes define hazardous waste in Canada, and also deem any waste that is, the loophole in the regulations that allows tons of e-waste to be exported from Canada is the use of the definition of intact vs functional. A non-functioning electronic device that is intact can be exported under the current legislation, what cant be exported without prior informed consent is a non-functioning but no longer intact electronic device. The principal problem being, the non-functioning but intact electronic device is at risk of being disassembled in some far away e-waste dumping ground. The Canadian governments use of an interpretation of the Basel Convention obligations intact. See Canadian fact sheet and associated links, there have been 19 prosecutions undertaken for non-compliance with the provisions of the EIHWHRMR some of which are still before the courts. Electronic waste by country Bill C-38, replaced the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act with the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act,2012, by placing the emphasis on jobs, growth and prosperity significant changes have been made to the federal environmental assessment regime and environmental regulatory framework. The Durban talks were leading to a new binding treaty with targets for all countries to take effect in 2020, Environment minister Peter Kent argued that, The Kyoto protocol does not cover the worlds largest two emitters, the United States and China, and therefore cannot work
10.
Canadian Forces base
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A Canadian Forces Base or CFB is a military installation of the Canadian Forces. For a facility to qualify as a Canadian Forces Base, it must station one or more major units, minor installations are named Canadian Forces Station or CFS. A Canadian Forces Station could host a single minor unit, many of these facilities are now decommissioned for administrative purposes and function as detachments of a larger Canadian Forces Base nearby. Note, Primary lodger units at Canadian Forces Bases used by the Canadian Army are regiments of the Canadian Army. Hubert, Quebec CFB St. Coinciding with personnel and equipment reductions was the controversial decision to close a number of bases. For example, the CF Leadership and Recruit School at St. Jean, Quebec, is now a unit of CFB Montreal. Other facilities are now used as training grounds for reserve/militia units, List of Royal Canadian Air Force stations List of Royal Canadian Navy stations
11.
Nautical mile
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A nautical mile is a unit of measurement defined as exactly 1852 meters. Historically, it was defined as one minute of latitude, which is equivalent to one sixtieth of a degree of latitude. Today it is an SI derived unit, being rounded to a number of meters. The derived unit of speed is the knot, defined as one mile per hour. The geographical mile is the length of one minute of longitude along the Equator, there is no internationally agreed symbol. M is used as the abbreviation for the mile by the International Hydrographic Organization and by the International Bureau of Weights. NM is used by the International Civil Aviation Organization, nm is used by the U. S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Nmi is used by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the word mile is from the Latin word for a thousand paces, mīlia. In 1617 the Dutch scientist Snell assessed the circumference of the Earth at 24,630 Roman miles, around that time British mathematician Edmund Gunter improved navigational tools including a new quadrant to determine latitude at sea. He reasoned that the lines of latitude could be used as the basis for a unit of measurement for distance, as one degree is 1/360 of a circle, one minute of arc is 1/21600 of a circle. These sexagesimal units originated in Babylonian astronomy, Gunter used Snells circumference to define a nautical mile as 6,080 feet, the length of one minute of arc at 48 degrees latitude.3 metres. Other countries measure the minute of arc at 45 degrees latitude, in 1929, the international nautical mile was defined by the First International Extraordinary Hydrographic Conference in Monaco as 1,852 meters. Imperial units and United States customary units used a definition of the nautical mile based on the Clarke Spheroid, the United States nautical mile was defined as 6,080.20 feet based in the Mendenhall Order foot of 1893. It was abandoned in favour of the nautical mile in 1954.181 meters. It was abandoned in 1970 and, legally, references to the unit are now converted to 1,853 meters. Conversion of units Orders of magnitude
12.
Moose Jaw
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Moose Jaw is a city in south-central Saskatchewan, Canada, on the Moose Jaw River. It is situated on the Trans-Canada Highway,77 km west of Regina, residents of Moose Jaw are known as Moose Javians. The city is surrounded by the Rural Municipality of Moose Jaw No.161, Moose Jaw is an industrial centre and important railway junction for the areas agricultural produce. CFB Moose Jaw is a NATO flight training school, and is home to the Snowbirds, Moose Jaw also has a casino and geothermal spa. Cree and Assiniboine people used the Moose Jaw area as a winter encampment, the Missouri Coteau sheltered the valley and gave it warm breezes. The narrow river crossing and abundance of water and game made it a location for settlement. Traditional native fur traders and Métis buffalo hunters created the first permanent settlement at a called the turn. The water supply there was significant for steam locomotives, settlement began there in 1882 and the city was incorporated in 1903. The railways played an important role in the development of Moose Jaw. A dam was built on the river in 1883 to create a water supply. Marked on a map as Moose Jaw Bone Creek in an 1857 survey by surveyor John Palliser, the other is on the map of the city, the Moose Jaw River is shaped like a mooses jaw. The area surrounding Moose Jaw has a number of cloudless days. The Royal Canadian Air Force under the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan established RCAF Station Moose Jaw in 1940, following the war, the RCAF remained in the community and used the facility for training pilots through the Cold War. The facility changed its name to CFB Moose Jaw in 1968 and it is currently Canadas primary military flight training centre, CFB Moose Jaws primary lodger unit is 15 Wing. In the Canadian Forces Air Command, the unit is frequently referred to as 15 Wing Moose Jaw. The base usually holds an Armed Forces Day each year, the Saskatchewan Dragoons are a reserve armoured regiment with an armoury in the citys north end. Moose Jaw has been visited by members of the Royal Family. Edward, Prince of Wales, who owned a ranch in Pekisko, Alberta, visited in 1919,1924, Prince Albert, future king and father of Queen Elizabeth II, paid a visit in 1926
13.
Saskatchewan
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Saskatchewan is a prairie and boreal province in west-central Canada, the only province without natural borders. It has an area of 651,900 square kilometres, nearly 10 percent of which is water, composed mostly of rivers, reservoirs. As of December 2013, Saskatchewans population was estimated at 1,114,170, residents primarily live in the southern prairie half of the province, while the northern boreal half is mostly forested and sparsely populated. Of the total population, roughly half live in the provinces largest city, Saskatoon, or the provincial capital, other notable cities include Prince Albert, Moose Jaw, Yorkton, Swift Current, North Battleford, and the border city Lloydminster. Saskatchewan is a province with large distances to moderating bodies of waters. As a result, its climate is continental, rendering severe winters throughout the province. Southern areas have very warm or hot summers, Midale and Yellow Grass near the U. S. border are tied for the highest ever recorded temperatures in Canada with 45 °C observed at both locations on July 5,1937. In winter, temperatures below −45 °C are possible even in the south during extreme cold snaps, Saskatchewan has been inhabited for thousands of years by various indigenous groups, and first explored by Europeans in 1690 and settled in 1774. It became a province in 1905, carved out from the vast North-West Territories, in the early 20th century the province became known as a stronghold for Canadian social democracy, North Americas first social-democratic government was elected in 1944. The provinces economy is based on agriculture, mining, and energy, Saskatchewans current premier is Brad Wall and its lieutenant-governor is Vaughn Solomon Schofield. In 1992, the federal and provincial governments signed a land claim agreement with First Nations in Saskatchewan. The First Nations received compensation and were permitted to buy land on the market for the tribes, they have acquired about 3,079 square kilometres. Some First Nations have used their settlement to invest in urban areas and its name derived from the Saskatchewan River. The river was known as kisiskāciwani-sīpiy in the Cree language, as Saskatchewans borders largely follow the geographic coordinates of longitude and latitude, the province is roughly a quadrilateral, or a shape with four sides. However the 49th parallel boundary and the 60th northern border appear curved on globes, additionally, the eastern boundary of the province is partially crooked rather than following a line of longitude, as correction lines were devised by surveyors prior to the homestead program. S. States of Montana and North Dakota, Saskatchewan has the distinction of being the only Canadian province for which no borders correspond to physical geographic features. Along with Alberta, Saskatchewan is one of only two land-locked provinces, the overwhelming majority of Saskatchewans population is located in the southern third of the province, south of the 53rd parallel. Saskatchewan contains two natural regions, the Canadian Shield in the north and the Interior Plains in the south
14.
Royal Canadian Air Force
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The Royal Canadian Air Force is the air force of Canada. Its role is to provide the Canadian Forces with relevant, responsive and effective airpower, the RCAF is one of three environmental commands within the unified Canadian Armed Forces. Lieutenant-General Michael J. Hood, CMM CD, is the current Commander of the Royal Canadian Air Force, the RCAF is a partner with the United States Air Force in protecting continental airspace under the North American Aerospace Defense Command. The RCAF also provides all primary air resources to and is responsible for the National Search, the RCAF traces its history to the Canadian Air Force which was formed in 1920. The Canadian Air Force was incorporated in 1923 and granted royal sanction in 1924 by King George V, in 1968 the RCAF was amalgamated with the Royal Canadian Navy, and the Canadian Army, as part of the unification of the Canadian Forces. Air units were split between several different commands, Air Defence Command, Air Transport Command, Mobile Command, Maritime Command, in 1975 some commands were dissolved, and all air units were placed under a new environmental command called simply Air Command. Air Command reverted to its name of the Royal Canadian Air Force in August 2011. The Royal Canadian Air Force has served in the Second World War, the Korean War, as a NATO member, the force maintained a presence in Europe during the second half of the 20th century. The Canadian Air Force was established in 1920 as the successor to a short-lived two-squadron Canadian Air Force formed during the First World War in Europe. John Scott Williams, MC, AFC, was tasked in 1921 with organizing the CAF, the new Canadian Air Force was a branch of the Air Board and was chiefly a training militia that provided refresher training to veteran pilots. Many CAF members also worked with the Air Boards Civil Operations Branch on operations that included forestry, in 1923, the CAF became responsible for all flying operations in Canada, including civil aviation. In 1924, the Canadian Air Force, was granted the royal title, most of its work was civil in nature, however, in the late 1920s the RCAF evolved into more of a military organization. After budget cuts in the early 1930s, the air began to rebuild. By the end of the war, the RCAF had become the fourth largest allied air force, after the war, the RCAF reduced its strength. In 1950, the RCAF became involved with the transport of troops and supplies to the Korean War, however, members of the RCAF served in USAF units as exchange officers and several flew in combat. Both auxiliary and regular air defence squadrons were run by Air Defence Command, at the same time, the Pinetree Line, the Mid-Canada Line and the DEW Line radar stations, largely operated by the RCAF, were built across Canada because of the growing Soviet nuclear threat. In 1957, Canada and the United States created the joint North American Air Defense Command, coastal defence and peacekeeping also became priorities during the 1950s and 1960s. In 1968 the Royal Canadian Navy, Royal Canadian Air Force and this initiative was overseen by then Liberal Defence Minister, Paul Hellyer
15.
Air vice-marshal
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Air vice-marshal is a two-star air officer rank which originated in and continues to be used by the Royal Air Force. Air vice-marshals may be addressed generically as air marshal, Air vice-marshal is a two-star rank and has a NATO ranking code of OF-7. It is equivalent to a rear-admiral in the Royal Navy or a major-general in the British Army or the Royal Marines, in other NATO forces, such as the United States Armed Forces and the Canadian Armed Forces, the equivalent two-star rank is major general. The rank of air vice-marshal is immediately senior to the air commodore. Since before the Second World War it has been common for air officers commanding RAF groups to hold the rank of air vice-marshal. In small air forces such as the Royal New Zealand Air Force and the Ghana Air Force, the equivalent rank in the Womens Auxiliary Air Force, Womens Auxiliary Australian Air Force, Womens Royal Air Force and Princess Marys Royal Air Force Nursing Service was air chief commandant. On 1 April 1918, the newly created RAF adopted its officer rank titles from the British Army, with officers at what is now air vice-marshal level holding the rank of major-general. In response to the proposal that the RAF should use its own titles, it was suggested that the RAF might use the Royal Navys officer ranks. For example, the rank that later became air vice-marshal would have been air rear-admiral, however, air vice-marshal was preferred and was adopted on 1 August 1919. This is worn on both the sleeves of the dress uniform or on the shoulders of the flying suit or working uniform. The command flag of an air vice-marshal has two red bands running through the centre. The vehicle star plate for an air vice-marshal depicts two white stars on an air force blue background, the Australian Air Corps adopted the RAF rank system on 9 November 1920 and this usage was continued by its successor, the Royal Australian Air Force. However, the rank of air vice-marshal was not used by the Australian Armed Forces until 1935 when Richard Williams, margaret Staib of the Royal Australian Air Force served in the rank of air vice-marshal from 2009 to 2012 when she retired from the Australian Defence Force. In India, Subroto Mukerjee was the first Royal Indian Air Force officer to gain the rank of air vice-marshal and he gained an acting promotion to air vice-marshal on 27 September 1948 and a substantive promotion several months later on 1 February 1949. It is also used in the Egyptian Air Force, Hellenic Air Force, Royal Air Force of Oman, in the Indonesian Air Force the equivalent rank is marsekal muda which is usually translated as air vice-marshal in English. Compare this with the rank up which is marsekal madya which is usually translated as air marshal in English. The Royal Canadian Air Force used the rank until the 1968 unification of the Canadian Forces, Canadian air vice-marshals then became major-generals. In official French Canadian usage, the title was vice-maréchal de lair
16.
Aerodrome
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An aerodrome or airdrome is a location from which aircraft flight operations take place, regardless of whether they involve air cargo, passengers, or neither. Aerodromes include small general aviation airfields, large airports. The term airport may imply a certain stature that an aerodrome may not have achieved and that is to say, all airports are aerodromes, but not all aerodromes are airports. Usage of the term aerodrome remains more common in the UK and Commonwealth nations, a water aerodrome is an area of open water used regularly by seaplanes or amphibious aircraft for landing and taking off. The word aerodrome derives from Ancient Greek ἀήρ, air, and δρόμος, road or course, an ancient linguistic parallel is hippodrome, derived from ἵππος, horse, and δρόμος, course. In Canada and Australia, aerodrome is a term of art for any area of land or water used for aircraft operation. International Civil Aviation Organization documents use the aerodrome, for example, in the Annex to the ICAO Convention about aerodromes, their physical characteristics. However, the airfield or airport mostly superseded use of aerodrome after World War II. The city of the first aerodrome in the world is a French commune named Viry-Chatillon, the unimproved airfield remains a phenomenon in military aspects. The DHC-4 Caribou served in the U. S. military in Vietnam, landing on rough, earlier, the Ju-52 and Fieseler Storch could do the same, one example of the latter taking off from the Führerbunker whilst completely surrounded by Russian troops. An airport is an aerodrome certificated for commercial flights, an air base is an aerodrome with significant facilities to support aircraft and crew. The term is reserved for military bases, but also applies to civil seaplane bases. An airstrip is an aerodrome that consists only of a runway with perhaps fueling equipment. They are generally in remote locations, many airstrips were built on the hundreds of islands in the Pacific Ocean during World War II. A few airstrips grew to become full-fledged airbases as strategic or economic importance of a region increased over time. An Advanced Landing Ground was an airstrip used by the Allies in the run-up to and during the invasion of Normandy. A water aerodrome is an area of water used regularly by seaplanes or amphibious aircraft for landing and taking off. It may have a building on land and/or a place where the plane can come to shore
17.
CFB Cold Lake
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Canadian Forces Base Cold Lake, commonly referred to as CFB Cold Lake, is a Canadian Forces Base located in the City of Cold Lake, Alberta. It is operated as an air base by the Royal Canadian Air Force and is one of two bases in the country using the CF-18 Hornet fighter/interceptor, the other being CFB Bagotville. Its primary RCAF lodger unit is 4 Wing, commonly referred to as 4 Wing Cold Lake, civilian passenger service was available through the Medley passenger terminal on the periphery of the air base. The regularly scheduled air service between Calgary and the terminal was cancelled in June 2011. Unscheduled civilian air traffic is directed to the Cold Lake Regional Airport. The facility is named Cold Lake/Group Captain R. W. McNair Airport and it is one of only three military aerodromes in Canada to be named after an individual, Valcartier Heliport and Moose Jaw/Air Vice Marshal C. M. The airport is classified as an airport of entry by Nav Canada and is staffed by the Canada Border Services Agency, the use of the airport by international flights is currently restricted to military aircraft and personnel only. Personnel arrived at Cold Lake on March 31,1954, with operations at RCAF Station Cold Lake beginning that day and this became known as the Cold Lake Air Weapons Range and is the raison dêtre for the location of the base. Operations in the 1950s and early 1960s centered around training crews destined for the CF-100 Canuck all weather interceptor which was in use in Canada. From then through the present, the base is the focal point for this aircraft. On February 1,1968, the RCAF was merged with the Royal Canadian Navy, RCAF Station Cold Lake saw its name changed to CFB Cold Lake and became the responsibility of Air Defence Command. ADC and several other CF commands transformed in 1975 to become Air Command, in 1990,18 sounding rockets were launched. In 2007, this was the setting for Jetstream, a TV series depicting eight pilots training under the 410 Tactical Fighter Training Squadron to fly a CF-18 and they are operationally controlled by NORAD from CFB North Bay and Cheyenne Mountain Operations Centre in Colorado Springs. Cold Lake aircraft forward deploy to airfields throughout western and Arctic Canada as operational requirements dictate, Cold Lake also hosts NATO flight training operating from 15 Wing Moose Jaw, as well as 5 Wing Goose Bay. MAPLE FLAG is an international air weapons training competition hosted annually by CFB Cold Lake in May–June. The name is derived from the USAFs famous Red Flag training exercises at the Nellis Air Force Range in Nevada, NASA and ESA astronauts use Cold Lake for winter survival training. Cold Lake Cadet Training Centre is located at 4 Wing Cold Lake, the primary goal at CLCTC is the provision of a safe and challenging national summer training program. The Senior Leaders Course moved to CFB Cold Lake in 1973, from 1973 to 1987, SLC was the only course offered at Cold Lake until the Survival School relocated there in 1988
18.
Port of entry
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In general, a port of entry is a place where one may lawfully enter a country. It typically has a staff of people who check passports and visas, International airports are usually ports of entry, as are road and rail crossings on a land border. Seaports can be used as ports of entry only if a dedicated customs presence is posted there, the choice of whether to become a port of entry is up to the civil authority controlling the port. An airport of entry is an airport that provides customs and immigration services for incoming flights and these services allow the airport to serve as an initial port of entry for foreign visitors arriving in a country. The word international in a name usually means that it is an airport of entry. Airports of entry can range from large urban airports with scheduled passenger service, like John F. Kennedy International Airport. Often, smaller airports of entry are located near a port of entry such as a bridge or seaport. On the other hand, however, some former airports of entry chose to leave their name with the word international in it, one example is Osaka International Airport. Many airports in the region have the same situation, like Taipei Songshan Airport. Songshan retained its official Chinese name, Taipei International Airport, after Chiang Kai-shek International Airport opened, similar cases of transitions of international airports such as Seoul, Tokyo, Nagoya, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Tehran, etc. For the European Union, flights between countries in the Schengen Area are considered domestic regarding passport and immigration check, several international airports have only intra Schengen-flights. Several of these have occasional charter flights to foreign countries, some cases of statelessness have occurred in airports of entry, forcing people to stay there for an extended period. A famous case was of Mehran Karimi Nasseri, an expelled Iranian who lived in the Charles de Gaulle Airport in France for approximately eighteen years after being denied entry to the country, there are two films about his story, Tombés du ciel and The Terminal. Another case is Zahra Kamalfar who lived in the Sheremetyevo International Airport for many months before getting refugee status in Canada, the formal definition of a port of entry in the United States is something entirely different. According to the Code of Federal Regulations, the port and port of entry incorporate the geographical area under the jurisdiction of a port director. In other words, a port of entry may encompass an area that includes several border crossings, as well as some air and this also means that not every border crossing is a port of entry. There are two reasons for this, Every port of entry must have a Port Director, which is a pay grade than a typical border inspector. The U. S. government has determined that some small border crossings do not need their own Port Directors, as a result, border stations like Churubusco, Chateaugay and Fort Covington, New York are considered stations within the Trout River Port of Entry
19.
Nav Canada
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Nav Canada is a privately run, not-for-profit corporation that owns and operates Canadas civil air navigation system. It was established in accordance with the Civil Air Navigation Services Commercialization Act, the company employs approximately 1,900 air traffic controllers,650 flight service specialists and 700 technologists. As part of the transfer, or privatization, Nav Canada paid the government CA$1.5 billion, Nav Canada, which operates independently of any government funding, is headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario. It is only allowed to be funded by publicly traded debt, Nav Canadas operations consist of various sites across the country. The company is governed by a 15-member board of representing the four stakeholder groups that founded Nav Canada. The four stakeholders elect 10 members as follows, These 10 directors then elect four independent directors and those 14 directors then appoint the president and chief executive officer who becomes the 15th board member. This structure ensures that the interests of individual stakeholders do not predominate, to further ensure that the interests of Nav Canada are served, these board members cannot be active employees or members of airlines, unions, or government. The company was formed on November 1,1996 when the government sold the air navigation services from Transport Canada to the new not-for-profit private entity for CAD$1.5 billion. The company was formed in response to a number of issues with Transport Canadas operation of air traffic control, while TCs safety record and operational staff were rated highly, its infrastructure was old and in need of serious updating at a time of government restraint. This resulted in delays for airlines and costs that were exceeding the airline ticket tax. The climate of government wage freezes resulted in shortages of air traffic controllers that were hard to address within a government department. Having TC as the provider, the regulator and inspector was a conflict of interest. Pressure from the airlines on the government mounted for a solution to the problem that was hurting the air industrys bottom line, the companys revenue is predominately from service fees charged to aircraft operators which amount to about CAD$1. 2B annually. Nav Canada also raises revenues from developing and selling technology and related services to air navigation service providers around the world. It also has some sources of income, such as conducting maintenance work for other ANS providers and rentals from the Nav Centre in Cornwall. In the summer of 2007 the company held $368 million in ABCP which had become illiquid, on 12 January 2009 final Ontario Superior Court of Justice approval was granted to restructure the third party ABCP notes. The company expects that the non-credit related fair value variances from face value on restructured and non-restructured ABCP will be recovered by the time the notes mature in fiscal year 2017. By fiscal year end 2013, the company’s revenues reached $1,231 million, during the period 2005-15 the company held service charge rates steady
20.
Canada Border Services Agency
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The Canada Border Services Agency is a federal agency that is responsible for border enforcement, immigration enforcement and customs services. The Agencys creation was formalized by the Canada Border Services Agency Act, since the September 11 attacks against the United States, Canadas border operations have placed an enhanced emphasis on national security and public safety. The CBSA oversees approximately 1,200 service locations across Canada and it employs over 12,000 public servants, and offers around-the-clock service at 119 land border crossings and thirteen international airports. The Agency oversees operations at three major sea ports and three centres, and operates detention facilities in Laval, Toronto, Kingston and Vancouver. The CBSA operates an Inland Enforcement branch, which tracks down, Inland Enforcement Officers are plain-clothes units, and are armed with the same sidearm pistol as port of entry Border Services Officers. The coat of arms was granted on June 15,2010 and presented by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on July 6,2010, also in attendance were Governor General Michaëlle Jean and Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Use of the coat of arms is reserved for special occasions, the Heraldic Badge was approved for use at the same time as the coat of arms. It portrays a gold tressure which symbolizes the agencys security focus, the portcullis represents Her Majesty’s agents responsible for border services. The motto Protectio, Servitium, Integritas, translates “Protection, Service, the badge figures prominently in the television series Border Security, Canadas Front Line. A flag was approved for use on December 20,2012 and it is meant to resemble Canadas Blue Ensign, which was flown on government vessels prior to 1965. Not only has the structure of the organization changed, but the range of duties, substantial changes began before the 2001 terrorist attacks in the US. These new responsibilities led to the implementation of use of force policies, Border Services Officers across Canada started to carry collapsible batons, OC spray and handcuffs. The 2006 Canadian federal budget introduced $101 million to equip CBSA officers with side arms, in August 2006, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced that arming BSOs would begin in early 2007 and would continue through 2016. Some of the first officers to be armed were those working at the Windsor, Ontario port of entry, arming at the other Ports of Entry across Canada is being conducted systematically with those Ports considered the busiest and/or most dangerous to be completed first. Ports of Entry for all modes now have armed officers, including those at airports, Border Services Officers are equipped with handcuffs, oleoresin capsicum spray, batons, and are currently armed with Beretta PX4 Storm pistols. The arming initiative began in 2007 and officially concluded in 2016, Border Services Officers are trained at the CBSA College, located in Rigaud, Quebec. The attacker was an American man who shot the CBSA officer then killed himself, the CBSA officer, Lori Bowcock, was shot in the neck but she survived. This is the first time since CBSAs inception that an officer was shot on duty, in March 2015, Alain Philippon, a man from Ste-Anne-des-Plaines, Quebec, was referred to secondary inspection after returning from a trip to the Dominican Republic
21.
World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
22.
British Commonwealth Air Training Plan
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Under a parallel agreement, the Joint Air Training Scheme, South Africa trained 33,347 aircrew for the South African Air Force and other Allied air forces. This number was exceeded only by Canada, which trained 131,500 personnel, negotiations regarding joint training, between the four governments concerned, took place in Ottawa during the first few months of the war. On 17 December 1939, they signed the Air Training Agreement – often referred to as the Riverdale Agreement, after the UK representative at the negotiations, the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan was viewed as an incredibly ambitious programme. Under the agreement, air crews received training in various Commonwealth countries before travelling to Canada for advanced courses. Training costs were to be divided between the four governments and these units later became known as Article XV squadrons. Articles XVI and XVII stipulated that the UK government would be responsible for the pay and entitlements of graduates. On 29 April 1940, the first Canadian training course commenced, with 221 recruits, at No.1 Initial Training School RCAF, located initially at the Eglinton Hunt Club. From this intake,39 received their wings as aircrew on 30 September 1940, all of these graduates, however, were retained by the BCATP in Canada, as instructors, staff pilots or in similar flying assignments. The first BCATP personnel sent to the UK were 37 Canadian observers, the first BCATP-trained pilots posted to Europe as a group were 37 RAAF personnel who graduated in November 1941, from No.2 Service Flying Training School, RCAF Uplands, Ottawa. Prior to the inception of the Empire Air Training Scheme, the RAAF trained only about 50 pilots per year, under the Air Training Agreement, Australia undertook to provide 28,000 aircrew over three years, representing 36% of the total number trained by the BCATP. By 1945, more than 37,500 Australian aircrew had been trained in Australia, the first flying course started on 29 April 1940. Keith Chisholm was the first Australian to be trained under EATS, for a period, most RAAF aircrews received advanced training in Canada. During mid-1940, however, some RAAF trainees began to advanced training at RAF facilities in Southern Rhodesia. In addition, a number of Australian personnel were transferred from Europe. Some Article XV squadrons were transferred to RAAF or RAF formations involved in the Pacific War. Nevertheless, a significant proportion of RAAF personnel remained in Europe, by early 1944, the flow of RAAF replacement personnel to Europe had begun to outstrip demand and – following a request by British government – was wound back significantly. Australian involvement was terminated in October 1944. The government agreed in December 1939 to join the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, operate its bases in Canada, and pick up a large proportion of the costs
23.
Royal Air Force
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The Royal Air Force is the United Kingdoms aerial warfare force. Formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, following victory over the Central Powers in 1918 the RAF emerged as, at the time, the largest air force in the world. The RAF describe its mission statement as, an agile, adaptable and capable Air Force that, person for person, is second to none, and that makes a decisive air power contribution in support of the UK Defence Mission. The mission statement is supported by the RAFs definition of air power, Air power is defined as the ability to project power from the air and space to influence the behaviour of people or the course of events. Today the Royal Air Force maintains a fleet of various types of aircraft. The majority of the RAFs rotary-wing aircraft form part of the tri-service Joint Helicopter Command in support of ground forces, most of the RAFs aircraft and personnel are based in the UK, with many others serving on operations or at long-established overseas bases. It was founded on 1 April 1918, with headquarters located in the former Hotel Cecil, during the First World War, by the amalgamation of the Royal Flying Corps, at that time it was the largest air force in the world. The RAFs naval aviation branch, the Fleet Air Arm, was founded in 1924, the RAF developed the doctrine of strategic bombing which led to the construction of long-range bombers and became its main bombing strategy in the Second World War. The RAF underwent rapid expansion prior to and during the Second World War, under the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan of December 1939, the air forces of British Commonwealth countries trained and formed Article XV squadrons for service with RAF formations. Many individual personnel from countries, and exiles from occupied Europe. By the end of the war the Royal Canadian Air Force had contributed more than 30 squadrons to serve in RAF formations, additionally, the Royal Australian Air Force represented around nine percent of all RAF personnel who served in the European and Mediterranean theatres. In the Battle of Britain in 1940, the RAF defended the skies over Britain against the numerically superior German Luftwaffe, the largest RAF effort during the war was the strategic bombing campaign against Germany by Bomber Command. Following victory in the Second World War, the RAF underwent significant re-organisation, during the early stages of the Cold War, one of the first major operations undertaken by the Royal Air Force was in 1948 and the Berlin Airlift, codenamed Operation Plainfire. Before Britain developed its own nuclear weapons the RAF was provided with American nuclear weapons under Project E and these were initially armed with nuclear gravity bombs, later being equipped with the Blue Steel missile. Following the development of the Royal Navys Polaris submarines, the nuclear deterrent passed to the navys submarines on 30 June 1969. With the introduction of Polaris, the RAFs strategic nuclear role was reduced to a tactical one and this tactical role was continued by the V bombers into the 1980s and until 1998 by Tornado GR1s. For much of the Cold War the primary role of the RAF was the defence of Western Europe against potential attack by the Soviet Union, with many squadrons based in West Germany. With the decline of the British Empire, global operations were scaled back, despite this, the RAF fought in many battles in the Cold War period
24.
North American T-6 Texan
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Designed by North American Aviation, the T-6 is known by a variety of designations depending on the model and operating air force. Starting in 1948, the new United States Air Force designated it the T-6 and it remains a popular warbird aircraft used for airshow demonstrations and static displays. It has also used many times to simulate various Japanese aircraft. The Texan originated from the North American NA-16 prototype which, modified as the NA-26, was submitted as an entry for a USAAC Basic Combat aircraft competition in March,1937. The first model went into production and 180 were supplied to the USAAC as the BC-1 and 400 to the RAF as the Harvard I, the US Navy received 16 modified aircraft, designated the SNJ-1, and a further 61 as the SNJ-2 with a different engine. Three BC-2 aircraft were built before the shift to the advanced trainer designation, AT-6, the differences between the AT-6 and the BC-1 were new outer wing panels with a swept-forward trailing edge, squared-off wingtips, and a triangular rudder, producing the canonical Texan silhouette. Next came the AT-6A which was based on the NA-77 design and was powered by the Pratt & Whitney R-1340-49 Wasp radial engine, the USAAF received 1,549 and the US Navy 270. The AT-6B was built for training and could mount a.30 in machine gun on the forward fuselage. It used the R-1340-AN-1 engine, which was to become the standard for the remaining T-6 production, in late 1937, Mitsubushi purchased two NA-16s as technology demonstrators and possibly a licence to build more. However, the aircraft developed by Watanabe/Kyushu as the K10W1 bore no more than a superficial resemblance to the North American design and it was used in very small numbers by the Imperial Japanese Navy from 1942 onwards. After the war, the Japanese Air Self Defense Force operated Texans, the NA-88 design resulted in 2,970 AT-6C Texans and 2,400 as the SNJ-4. The RAF received 726 of the AT-6C as the Harvard IIA, modifications to the electrical system produced the AT-6D and SNJ-5. The AT-6D, redesignated the Harvard III, was supplied to the RAF, the AT-6G involved major advancements including a full-time hydraulic system and a steerable tailwheel and persisted into the 1950s as the USAF advanced trainer. Subsequently, the NA-121 design with a completely clear rearmost section on the canopy, gave rise to 25 AT-6F Texans for the USAAF and 931, as the SNJ-6 for the US Navy. The ultimate version, the Harvard 4, was produced by Canada Car and Foundry during the 1950s, a total of 15,495 T-6s of all variants were built. They also engaged in combat on a number of occasions. The Israeli Air Force bought 17 Harvards, and operated nine of them in the stages of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, against the Egyptian ground forces. In the Sinai Campaign, IAF Harvards attacked Egyptian ground forces in Sinai Peninsula with two losses, communist guerillas called these aircraft O Galatas, because they saw them flying very early in the morning
25.
Airspeed Oxford
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The Airspeed AS.10 Oxford is a twin-engine aircraft used for training British Commonwealth aircrews in navigation, radio-operating, bombing and gunnery during the Second World War. With the expansion of the Royal Air Force in the 1930s the service had a requirement for an advanced training aircraft. The Oxford, built to Specification T. 23/36, was based on Airspeeds commercial 8-seater aircraft, the Oxford was a low-wing cantilever monoplane, with a semi-monocoque constructed fuselage and wooden tail unit. Its main landing gear retracted into the engine nacelles. It used conventional landing gear configuration, with a normal crew of three, the seating could be changed to suit the training role. The cockpit had dual controls and two seats for a pilot and either a navigator or second pilot, when used for bomb aimer training, the second set of controls was removed and the space was used for a prone bomb-aimer. When used as a trainer, the second seat was pushed back to line up with the chart table. Aft of the cockpit was an operator station, facing aft on the starboard side of the fuselage. In the Oxford I a dorsal turret was located amidships, the aircraft could be used for training navigators, bomb-aimers, wireless operators, air gunners and camera operators. The Oxford could also be used as an air ambulance, orders were placed for a first batch of 136 aircraft, to allow a more economical flow-line production at the Portsmouth factory. The first prototype aircraft L4534 first flew at Portsmouth on 19 June 1937, two variants were planned, the Mark I as a general-purpose training aircraft with a dorsal gun turret and the Mark II without a turret but fitted with dual-controls. As further large contracts for the aircraft were placed with Airspeed, it was arranged that de Havilland Aircraft would build them at Hatfield later, other companies also built the aircraft. The Oxford was used to prepare complete aircrews for RAF Bomber Command and could simultaneously train pilots, navigators, bomb aimers, gunners, in addition to training duties, Oxfords were used in communications and anti-submarine roles and as ambulances in the Middle East. The Oxford was the trainer for the Empire Air Training Scheme and British Commonwealth Air Training Plan. In 1941, the aviator Amy Johnson went missing in an Airspeed Oxford, after the war,152 surplus Oxfords were converted into small 6-seat commercial airliners called the AS.65 Consul. A few Oxfords were acquired by the Hellenic Air Force and used during the Greek Civil War by No.355 Squadron RHAF. Although the Oxford was equipped with wooden or Fairey-Reed metal propellers, the cockpit contained a propeller pitch lever. This was to reinforce this important step for trainee pilots, Oxfords continued to serve the Royal Air Force as trainers and light transports until the last was withdrawn from service in 1956
26.
Canada
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Canada is a country in the northern half of North America. Canadas border with the United States is the worlds longest binational land border, the majority of the country has a cold or severely cold winter climate, but southerly areas are warm in summer. Canada is sparsely populated, the majority of its territory being dominated by forest and tundra. It is highly urbanized with 82 per cent of the 35.15 million people concentrated in large and medium-sized cities, One third of the population lives in the three largest cities, Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. Its capital is Ottawa, and other urban areas include Calgary, Edmonton, Quebec City, Winnipeg. Various aboriginal peoples had inhabited what is now Canada for thousands of years prior to European colonization. Pursuant to the British North America Act, on July 1,1867, the colonies of Canada, New Brunswick and this began an accretion of provinces and territories to the mostly self-governing Dominion to the present ten provinces and three territories forming modern Canada. With the Constitution Act 1982, Canada took over authority, removing the last remaining ties of legal dependence on the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Canada is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy, with Queen Elizabeth II being the head of state. The country is officially bilingual at the federal level and it is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many other countries. Its advanced economy is the eleventh largest in the world, relying chiefly upon its abundant natural resources, Canadas long and complex relationship with the United States has had a significant impact on its economy and culture. Canada is a country and has the tenth highest nominal per capita income globally as well as the ninth highest ranking in the Human Development Index. It ranks among the highest in international measurements of government transparency, civil liberties, quality of life, economic freedom, Canada is an influential nation in the world, primarily due to its inclusive values, years of prosperity and stability, stable economy, and efficient military. While a variety of theories have been postulated for the origins of Canada. In 1535, indigenous inhabitants of the present-day Quebec City region used the word to direct French explorer Jacques Cartier to the village of Stadacona, from the 16th to the early 18th century Canada referred to the part of New France that lay along the St. Lawrence River. In 1791, the area became two British colonies called Upper Canada and Lower Canada collectively named The Canadas, until their union as the British Province of Canada in 1841. Upon Confederation in 1867, Canada was adopted as the name for the new country at the London Conference. The transition away from the use of Dominion was formally reflected in 1982 with the passage of the Canada Act, later that year, the name of national holiday was changed from Dominion Day to Canada Day
27.
United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government
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Norway
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The Antarctic Peter I Island and the sub-Antarctic Bouvet Island are dependent territories and thus not considered part of the Kingdom. Norway also lays claim to a section of Antarctica known as Queen Maud Land, until 1814, the kingdom included the Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Iceland. It also included Isle of Man until 1266, Shetland and Orkney until 1468, Norway has a total area of 385,252 square kilometres and a population of 5,258,317. The country shares a long border with Sweden. Norway is bordered by Finland and Russia to the north-east, Norway has an extensive coastline, facing the North Atlantic Ocean and the Barents Sea. King Harald V of the Dano-German House of Glücksburg is the current King of Norway, erna Solberg became Prime Minister in 2013, replacing Jens Stoltenberg. A constitutional monarchy, Norway divides state power between the Parliament, the Cabinet and the Supreme Court, as determined by the 1814 Constitution, the kingdom is established as a merger of several petty kingdoms. By the traditional count from the year 872, the kingdom has existed continuously for 1,144 years, Norway has both administrative and political subdivisions on two levels, counties and municipalities. The Sámi people have an amount of self-determination and influence over traditional territories through the Sámi Parliament. Norway maintains close ties with the European Union and the United States, the country maintains a combination of market economy and a Nordic welfare model with universal health care and a comprehensive social security system. Norway has extensive reserves of petroleum, natural gas, minerals, lumber, seafood, the petroleum industry accounts for around a quarter of the countrys gross domestic product. On a per-capita basis, Norway is the worlds largest producer of oil, the country has the fourth-highest per capita income in the world on the World Bank and IMF lists. On the CIAs GDP per capita list which includes territories and some regions, from 2001 to 2006, and then again from 2009 to 2017, Norway had the highest Human Development Index ranking in the world. It also has the highest inequality-adjusted ranking, Norway ranks first on the World Happiness Report, the OECD Better Life Index, the Index of Public Integrity and the Democracy Index. Norway has two names, Noreg in Nynorsk and Norge in Bokmål. The name Norway comes from the Old English word Norðrveg mentioned in 880, meaning way or way leading to the north. In contrasting with suðrvegar southern way for Germany, and austrvegr eastern way for the Baltic, the Anglo-Saxon of Britain also referred to the kingdom of Norway in 880 as Norðmanna land. This was the area of Harald Fairhair, the first king of Norway, and because of him
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New Zealand
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New Zealand /njuːˈziːlənd/ is an island nation in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. The country geographically comprises two main landmasses—the North Island, or Te Ika-a-Māui, and the South Island, or Te Waipounamu—and around 600 smaller islands. New Zealand is situated some 1,500 kilometres east of Australia across the Tasman Sea and roughly 1,000 kilometres south of the Pacific island areas of New Caledonia, Fiji, because of its remoteness, it was one of the last lands to be settled by humans. During its long period of isolation, New Zealand developed a distinct biodiversity of animal, fungal, the countrys varied topography and its sharp mountain peaks, such as the Southern Alps, owe much to the tectonic uplift of land and volcanic eruptions. New Zealands capital city is Wellington, while its most populous city is Auckland, sometime between 1250 and 1300 CE, Polynesians settled in the islands that later were named New Zealand and developed a distinctive Māori culture. In 1642, Dutch explorer Abel Tasman became the first European to sight New Zealand, in 1840, representatives of Britain and Māori chiefs signed the Treaty of Waitangi, which declared British sovereignty over the islands. In 1841, New Zealand became a colony within the British Empire, today, the majority of New Zealands population of 4.7 million is of European descent, the indigenous Māori are the largest minority, followed by Asians and Pacific Islanders. Reflecting this, New Zealands culture is derived from Māori and early British settlers. The official languages are English, Māori and New Zealand Sign Language, New Zealand is a developed country and ranks highly in international comparisons of national performance, such as health, education, economic freedom and quality of life. Since the 1980s, New Zealand has transformed from an agrarian, Queen Elizabeth II is the countrys head of state and is represented by a governor-general. In addition, New Zealand is organised into 11 regional councils and 67 territorial authorities for local government purposes, the Realm of New Zealand also includes Tokelau, the Cook Islands and Niue, and the Ross Dependency, which is New Zealands territorial claim in Antarctica. New Zealand is a member of the United Nations, Commonwealth of Nations, ANZUS, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Pacific Islands Forum, and Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation. Dutch explorer Abel Tasman sighted New Zealand in 1642 and called it Staten Landt, in 1645, Dutch cartographers renamed the land Nova Zeelandia after the Dutch province of Zeeland. British explorer James Cook subsequently anglicised the name to New Zealand, Aotearoa is the current Māori name for New Zealand. It is unknown whether Māori had a name for the country before the arrival of Europeans. Māori had several names for the two main islands, including Te Ika-a-Māui for the North Island and Te Waipounamu or Te Waka o Aoraki for the South Island. Early European maps labelled the islands North, Middle and South, in 1830, maps began to use North and South to distinguish the two largest islands and by 1907, this was the accepted norm. The New Zealand Geographic Board discovered in 2009 that the names of the North Island and South Island had never been formalised and this set the names as North Island or Te Ika-a-Māui, and South Island or Te Waipounamu
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Poland
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Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe, situated between the Baltic Sea in the north and two mountain ranges in the south. Bordered by Germany to the west, the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south, Ukraine and Belarus to the east, the total area of Poland is 312,679 square kilometres, making it the 69th largest country in the world and the 9th largest in Europe. With a population of over 38.5 million people, Poland is the 34th most populous country in the world, the 8th most populous country in Europe, Poland is a unitary state divided into 16 administrative subdivisions, and its capital and largest city is Warsaw. Other metropolises include Kraków, Wrocław, Poznań, Gdańsk and Szczecin, the establishment of a Polish state can be traced back to 966, when Mieszko I, ruler of a territory roughly coextensive with that of present-day Poland, converted to Christianity. The Kingdom of Poland was founded in 1025, and in 1569 it cemented a political association with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania by signing the Union of Lublin. This union formed the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, one of the largest and most populous countries of 16th and 17th century Europe, Poland regained its independence in 1918 at the end of World War I, reconstituting much of its historical territory as the Second Polish Republic. In September 1939, World War II started with the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, followed thereafter by invasion by the Soviet Union. More than six million Polish citizens died in the war, after the war, Polands borders were shifted westwards under the terms of the Potsdam Conference. With the backing of the Soviet Union, a communist puppet government was formed, and after a referendum in 1946. During the Revolutions of 1989 Polands Communist government was overthrown and Poland adopted a new constitution establishing itself as a democracy, informally called the Third Polish Republic. Since the early 1990s, when the transition to a primarily market-based economy began, Poland has achieved a high ranking on the Human Development Index. Poland is a country, which was categorised by the World Bank as having a high-income economy. Furthermore, it is visited by approximately 16 million tourists every year, Poland is the eighth largest economy in the European Union and was the 6th fastest growing economy on the continent between 2010 and 2015. According to the Global Peace Index for 2014, Poland is ranked 19th in the list of the safest countries in the world to live in. The origin of the name Poland derives from a West Slavic tribe of Polans that inhabited the Warta River basin of the historic Greater Poland region in the 8th century, the origin of the name Polanie itself derives from the western Slavic word pole. In some foreign languages such as Hungarian, Lithuanian, Persian and Turkish the exonym for Poland is Lechites, historians have postulated that throughout Late Antiquity, many distinct ethnic groups populated the regions of what is now Poland. The most famous archaeological find from the prehistory and protohistory of Poland is the Biskupin fortified settlement, dating from the Lusatian culture of the early Iron Age, the Slavic groups who would form Poland migrated to these areas in the second half of the 5th century AD. With the Baptism of Poland the Polish rulers accepted Christianity and the authority of the Roman Church
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France
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France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks
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Czechoslovakia
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From 1939 to 1945, following its forced division and partial incorporation into Nazi Germany, the state did not de facto exist but its government-in-exile continued to operate. From 1948 to 1990, Czechoslovakia was part of the Soviet bloc with a command economy and its economic status was formalized in membership of Comecon from 1949, and its defense status in the Warsaw Pact of May 1955. A period of liberalization in 1968, known as the Prague Spring, was forcibly ended when the Soviet Union, assisted by several other Warsaw Pact countries. In 1993, Czechoslovakia split into the two states of the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Form of state 1918–1938, A democratic republic, 1938–1939, After annexation of Sudetenland by Nazi Germany in 1938, the region gradually turned into a state with loosened connections among the Czech, Slovak, and Ruthenian parts. A large strip of southern Slovakia and Carpatho-Ukraine was annexed by Hungary, 1939–1945, The region was split into the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and the Slovak Republic. A government-in-exile continued to exist in London, supported by the United Kingdom, United States and its Allies, after the German invasion of Russia, Czechoslovakia adhered to the Declaration by United Nations and was a founding member of the United Nations. 1946–1948, The country was governed by a government with communist ministers, including the prime minister. Carpathian Ruthenia was ceded to the Soviet Union, 1948–1989, The country became a socialist state under Soviet domination with a centrally planned economy. In 1960, the country became a socialist republic, the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. It was a state of the Soviet Union. 1989–1990, The federal republic consisted of the Czech Socialist Republic, 1990–1992, Following the Velvet Revolution, the state was renamed the Czech and Slovak Federal Republic, consisting of the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic. Neighbours Austria 1918–1938, 1945–1992 Germany Hungary Poland Romania 1918–1938 Soviet Union 1945–1991 Ukraine 1991–1992 Topography The country was of irregular terrain. The western area was part of the north-central European uplands, the eastern region was composed of the northern reaches of the Carpathian Mountains and lands of the Danube River basin. Climate The weather is mild winters and mild summers, influenced by the Atlantic Ocean from the west, Baltic Sea from the north, and Mediterranean Sea from the south. The area was long a part of the Austro Hungarian Empire until the Empire collapsed at the end of World War I, the new state was founded by Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, who served as its first president from 14 November 1918 to 14 December 1935. He was succeeded by his ally, Edvard Beneš. The roots of Czech nationalism go back to the 19th century, nationalism became a mass movement in the last half of the 19th century
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Belgium
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Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a sovereign state in Western Europe bordered by France, the Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg, and the North Sea. It is a small, densely populated country which covers an area of 30,528 square kilometres and has a population of about 11 million people. Additionally, there is a group of German-speakers who live in the East Cantons located around the High Fens area. Historically, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg were known as the Low Countries, the region was called Belgica in Latin, after the Roman province of Gallia Belgica. From the end of the Middle Ages until the 17th century, today, Belgium is a federal constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. It is divided into three regions and three communities, that exist next to each other and its two largest regions are the Dutch-speaking region of Flanders in the north and the French-speaking southern region of Wallonia. The Brussels-Capital Region is a bilingual enclave within the Flemish Region. A German-speaking Community exists in eastern Wallonia, Belgiums linguistic diversity and related political conflicts are reflected in its political history and complex system of governance, made up of six different governments. Upon its independence, declared in 1830, Belgium participated in the Industrial Revolution and, during the course of the 20th century, possessed a number of colonies in Africa. This continuing antagonism has led to several far-reaching reforms, resulting in a transition from a unitary to a federal arrangement during the period from 1970 to 1993. Belgium is also a member of the Eurozone, NATO, OECD and WTO. Its capital, Brussels, hosts several of the EUs official seats as well as the headquarters of major international organizations such as NATO. Belgium is also a part of the Schengen Area, Belgium is a developed country, with an advanced high-income economy and is categorized as very high in the Human Development Index. A gradual immigration by Germanic Frankish tribes during the 5th century brought the area under the rule of the Merovingian kings, a gradual shift of power during the 8th century led the kingdom of the Franks to evolve into the Carolingian Empire. Many of these fiefdoms were united in the Burgundian Netherlands of the 14th and 15th centuries, the Eighty Years War divided the Low Countries into the northern United Provinces and the Southern Netherlands. The latter were ruled successively by the Spanish and the Austrian Habsburgs and this was the theatre of most Franco-Spanish and Franco-Austrian wars during the 17th and 18th centuries. The reunification of the Low Countries as the United Kingdom of the Netherlands occurred at the dissolution of the First French Empire in 1815, although the franchise was initially restricted, universal suffrage for men was introduced after the general strike of 1893 and for women in 1949. The main political parties of the 19th century were the Catholic Party, French was originally the single official language adopted by the nobility and the bourgeoisie
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United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
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Netherlands
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The Netherlands, also informally known as Holland is the main constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a densely populated country located in Western Europe with three territories in the Caribbean. The European part of the Netherlands borders Germany to the east, Belgium to the south, and the North Sea to the northwest, sharing borders with Belgium, the United Kingdom. The three largest cities in the Netherlands are Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague, Amsterdam is the countrys capital, while The Hague holds the Dutch seat of parliament and government. The port of Rotterdam is the worlds largest port outside East-Asia, the name Holland is used informally to refer to the whole of the country of the Netherlands. Netherlands literally means lower countries, influenced by its low land and flat geography, most of the areas below sea level are artificial. Since the late 16th century, large areas have been reclaimed from the sea and lakes, with a population density of 412 people per km2 –507 if water is excluded – the Netherlands is classified as a very densely populated country. Only Bangladesh, South Korea, and Taiwan have both a population and higher population density. Nevertheless, the Netherlands is the worlds second-largest exporter of food and agricultural products and this is partly due to the fertility of the soil and the mild climate. In 2001, it became the worlds first country to legalise same-sex marriage, the Netherlands is a founding member of the EU, Eurozone, G-10, NATO, OECD and WTO, as well as being a part of the Schengen Area and the trilateral Benelux Union. The first four are situated in The Hague, as is the EUs criminal intelligence agency Europol and this has led to the city being dubbed the worlds legal capital. The country also ranks second highest in the worlds 2016 Press Freedom Index, the Netherlands has a market-based mixed economy, ranking 17th of 177 countries according to the Index of Economic Freedom. It had the thirteenth-highest per capita income in the world in 2013 according to the International Monetary Fund, in 2013, the United Nations World Happiness Report ranked the Netherlands as the seventh-happiest country in the world, reflecting its high quality of life. The Netherlands also ranks joint second highest in the Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index, the region called Low Countries and the country of the Netherlands have the same toponymy. Place names with Neder, Nieder, Nether and Nedre and Bas or Inferior are in use in all over Europe. They are sometimes used in a relation to a higher ground that consecutively is indicated as Upper, Boven, Oben. In the case of the Low Countries / the Netherlands the geographical location of the region has been more or less downstream. The geographical location of the region, however, changed over time tremendously
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Cold War
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The Cold War was a state of geopolitical tension after World War II between powers in the Eastern Bloc and powers in the Western Bloc. Historians do not fully agree on the dates, but a common timeframe is the period between 1947, the year the Truman Doctrine was announced, and 1991, the year the Soviet Union collapsed. The term cold is used there was no large-scale fighting directly between the two sides, although there were major regional wars, known as proxy wars, supported by the two sides. The Cold War split the temporary alliance against Nazi Germany, leaving the Soviet Union. The USSR was a Marxist–Leninist state ruled by its Communist Party and secret police, the Party controlled the press, the military, the economy and all organizations. In opposition stood the West, dominantly democratic and capitalist with a free press, a small neutral bloc arose with the Non-Aligned Movement, it sought good relations with both sides. The two superpowers never engaged directly in full-scale armed combat, but they were armed in preparation for a possible all-out nuclear world war. The first phase of the Cold War began in the first two years after the end of the Second World War in 1945, the Berlin Blockade was the first major crisis of the Cold War. With the victory of the communist side in the Chinese Civil War and the outbreak of the Korean War, the USSR and USA competed for influence in Latin America, and the decolonizing states of Africa and Asia. Meanwhile, the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 was stopped by the Soviets, the expansion and escalation sparked more crises, such as the Suez Crisis, the Berlin Crisis of 1961, and the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. The USSR crushed the 1968 Prague Spring liberalization program in Czechoslovakia, détente collapsed at the end of the decade with the beginning of the Soviet–Afghan War in 1979. The early 1980s were another period of elevated tension, with the Soviet downing of Korean Air Lines Flight 007, the United States increased diplomatic, military, and economic pressures on the Soviet Union, at a time when the communist state was already suffering from economic stagnation. In the mid-1980s, the new Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev introduced the reforms of perestroika and glasnost. Pressures for national independence grew stronger in Eastern Europe, especially Poland, Gorbachev meanwhile refused to use Soviet troops to bolster the faltering Warsaw Pact regimes as had occurred in the past. The result in 1989 was a wave of revolutions that peacefully overthrew all of the communist regimes of Central, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union itself lost control and was banned following an abortive coup attempt in August 1991. This in turn led to the dissolution of the USSR in December 1991. The United States remained as the only superpower. The Cold War and its events have left a significant legacy and it is often referred to in popular culture, especially in media featuring themes of espionage and the threat of nuclear warfare
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NATO
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The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance based on the North Atlantic Treaty which was signed on 4 April 1949. The organization constitutes a system of collective defence whereby its member states agree to mutual defence in response to an attack by any external party, three NATO members are permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and are officially nuclear-weapon states. NATOs headquarters are located in Haren, Brussels, Belgium, while the headquarters of Allied Command Operations is near Mons. NATO is an Alliance that consists of 28 independent member countries across North America and Europe, an additional 22 countries participate in NATOs Partnership for Peace program, with 15 other countries involved in institutionalized dialogue programmes. The combined military spending of all NATO members constitutes over 70% of the global total, Members defence spending is supposed to amount to 2% of GDP. The course of the Cold War led to a rivalry with nations of the Warsaw Pact, politically, the organization sought better relations with former Warsaw Pact countries, several of which joined the alliance in 1999 and 2004. N. The Treaty of Brussels, signed on 17 March 1948 by Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, France, the treaty and the Soviet Berlin Blockade led to the creation of the Western European Unions Defence Organization in September 1948. However, participation of the United States was thought necessary both to counter the power of the USSR and to prevent the revival of nationalist militarism. He got a hearing, especially considering American anxiety over Italy. In 1948 European leaders met with U. S. defense, military and diplomatic officials at the Pentagon, marshalls orders, exploring a framework for a new and unprecedented association. Talks for a new military alliance resulted in the North Atlantic Treaty and it included the five Treaty of Brussels states plus the United States, Canada, Portugal, Italy, Norway, Denmark and Iceland. The first NATO Secretary General, Lord Ismay, stated in 1949 that the goal was to keep the Russians out, the Americans in. Popular support for the Treaty was not unanimous, and some Icelanders participated in a pro-neutrality, the creation of NATO can be seen as the primary institutional consequence of a school of thought called Atlanticism which stressed the importance of trans-Atlantic cooperation. The members agreed that an attack against any one of them in Europe or North America would be considered an attack against them all. The treaty does not require members to respond with military action against an aggressor, although obliged to respond, they maintain the freedom to choose the method by which they do so. This differs from Article IV of the Treaty of Brussels, which states that the response will be military in nature. It is nonetheless assumed that NATO members will aid the attacked member militarily, the treaty was later clarified to include both the members territory and their vessels, forces or aircraft above the Tropic of Cancer, including some Overseas departments of France. The creation of NATO brought about some standardization of allied military terminology, procedures, and technology, the roughly 1300 Standardization Agreements codified many of the common practices that NATO has achieved
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Canadair CT-133 Silver Star
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The Canadair CT-133 Silver Star was the Canadian license-built version of the Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star jet trainer aircraft, in service from the 1950s to 2005. The Canadian version was powered by the Rolls-Royce Nene 10 turbojet, the Canadair CT-133 was the result of a 1951 contract to build T-33 Shooting Star Trainers for the Royal Canadian Air Force. The powerplant is a Rolls-Royce Nene 10 turbojet instead of the Allison J33 used by Lockheed in the production of the original T-33, a project designation of CL-30 was given by Canadair and the name was changed to Silver Star. The appearance of the CT-133 is very distinctive due to the fuel tanks usually carried on each wingtip. A total of 656 CT-133 aircraft were built by Canadair, the CT-133 entered service in the RCAF as its primary training aircraft for fighter/interceptors. The RCAF named it the Silver Star in honour of Canadas first flight of a heavier-than-air craft, the designation of the Silver Star in the Canadian Forces was CT-133. The CT-133 was reliable and had forgiving flight properties and its service life in the RCAF was extremely long. One of the more unusual roles it played was as a demonstration aircraft. Although the aircraft stopped being used as a trainer in 1976, the youngest of these airframes was then 37 years old and had exceeded its expected life by a factor of 2.5. During this period, the Canadair T-33 was employed in communication, target towing, CT-133 number 133648 was delivered to CFD Mountain View on 26 April 2005. Having been built in March 1959 as a CT-133 with original RCAF serial number 21648 and it has been sold on the civil market, along with fifteen other CT-133s. These aircraft will join the fifty others on the United States Civil Register, t-33A Silver Star Mk 1, Two-seat jet training aircraft for the RCAF. Built by Lockheed in the United States,30 on loan to the RCAF, cT-133ANX Silver Star Mk 2, The first Canadian prototype. Silver Star Mk 3, Two-seat jet training aircraft for the RCAF, Silver Star Mk 3PT, Unarmed version. Silver Star Mk 3AT, Armed version, Silver Star Mk 3PR, Photo-reconnaissance version. CE-133, Upgraded electronic warfare training aircraft, tE-133, Anti-ship threat simulator aircraft.48 m Wingspan,12.93 m Height,3.55 m Empty weight,3830 kg Max
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Canadair CT-114 Tutor
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The Canadair CT-114 Tutor was the Royal Canadian Air Force, and later Canadian Forces, standard jet trainer, between the early 1960s and 2000. Designed and built by Canadair, it was ordered in September 1961, the Tutor served as the Canadian Forces primary jet trainer until it was replaced by the CT-155 Hawk and CT-156 Harvard II in 2000. The CL-41G model supplied to Malaysia was built as a ground-attack aircraft, the Tutor is currently still used by the Snowbirds aerobatics team. The CL-41 design was the product of the Canadair Preliminary Design department, the design incorporated a turbojet-powered, low-wing aircraft with a tricycle undercarriage and a T-type tail assembly. The flying controls are manual with spring tabs, the cabin, fitted with a rear-hinged canopy for both crew members, can be pressurized to a differential of 3 psi, the equivalent of about 2,000 m of altitude. It was designed to be a trainer for providing elementary jet flight training. The prototype first flew on 13 January 1960, One critical area of design was the positioning of the vertical stabilizer. The CL-41 was intended to demonstrate spin recovery, if the fin is too far forward, a spin cannot be initiated, but if it is too far aft, recovery becomes impossible. Model tests were done to find the optimum position, the original Tutor wind-tunnel model had a cruciform tail, which was revised to the T-tail design by removing the portion above the horizontal stabilizer. In September 1961 the Canadian government ordered 190 examples of the production variant, the Tutor served for over thirty years as a primary trainer. In 1976, the Canadian Forces modified 113 remaining aircraft with upgraded avionics, Canadair also developed an armament training and light attack variant, the CL-41G, with an uprated engine and underwing hard points to allow the carriage of external stores and drop tanks. In March 1966, the Royal Malaysian Air Force ordered twenty examples of the CL-41G-5 Tebuan aircraft as counterinsurgency aircraft, the Tebuan entered service in Malaysia in 1967, serving for over twenty years, before being phased out in June 1986 and replaced by the Aermacchi MB-339A. One other variant was developed, the CL-41R which was fitted with an F-104 Starfighter nose as an electronic systems trainer for future RCAF CF-104 pilots. A single airframe was built but the R model never went into production, in 1967, ten Tutors were modified for use as a formation aerobatic aircraft by the RCAF display team, the Golden Centennaires to celebrate Canadas centennial year. The display team was disbanded after the 1967 season, in 1971 a formation team was formed at 2CFFTS at CFB Moose Jaw. Modifications for the Snowbirds include, a generating system, a unique paint scheme for added crowd appeal. CL-41 Two prototypes, CF-LTW-X and CF-LTX-X used for engineering and testing program CL-41A A total of 190 trainers produced for RCAF. A number were modified with smoke generating systems and other modifications for the Snowbirds aerobatic team CL-41G Unique version for the Royal Malayan Air Force, a total of 20 ground-attack variants, known as the Tebuan in service with RMAF
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Canadian Army
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The Canadian Army is one of three environmental commands within the unified Canadian Armed Forces. As of September 2013 the Army has 21,600 regular soldiers, about 24,000 reserve soldiers, the Army is supported by 5,600 civilian employees. It maintains regular forces units at bases across Canada, and is responsible for the Army Reserve. The Commander of the Canadian Army and Chief of the Army Staff is Lieutenant-General Paul Wynnyk, the name Canadian Army only came into official use beginning in 1940, from before Confederation until the Second World War the official designation was Canadian Militia. On 1 April 1966, as a precursor to the unification of Canadas armed services, Mobile Command was renamed Land Force Command in the 1993 reorganization of the Canadian Armed Forces. In August 2011, Land Force Command reverted to the title of the Canadian Army. Some current regiments of the Canadian Army trace their origins to these pre-Confederation militia, Regular Canadian troops participated in the North West Rebellion in 1885, the South African War in 1899, and, in much larger numbers, constituted the Canadian Expeditionary Force in First World War. In 1940, during Second World War, the Permanent Active Militia was renamed the Canadian Army, supplemented by the non-permanent militia, the Army participated in the Korean War and formed part of the NATO presence in West Germany during the Cold War. Despite Canadas usual support of British and American initiatives, Canadas land forces did not directly participate in the Vietnam War or the Iraq War, Command of the Army is exercised by the Commander of the Canadian Army within National Defence Headquarters located in Ottawa. It serves as a headquarters to command a divisional-level deployment of Canadian or allied forces on operations. It includes a number of schools and training organizations, such as the Combat Training Centre at CFB Gagetown, New Brunswick, the position was renamed Chief of the Land Staff in 1993. Following the reversion of Land Forces to the Canadian Army in 2011, officers are selected in several ways, The Regular Officer Training Plan, where candidates are educated at the Royal Military College of Canada or at civilian Canadian universities. Direct Entry officer Plan, for those who hold a university degree or technology diploma. Candidates complete their degrees while serving in the Army, university Training Plan, designed to develop selected serving non-commissioned members for service as career officers in the Regular Force. Normally, candidates selected for this plan will attend RMC or a university in Canada. Special Requirements Commissioning Plan, is designed to meet the needs of the officer occupations, subsidized special education, which includes the Medical Officer Training Plan or Dental Officer Training Plan. In addition there were other commissioning plans such as the Officer Candidate Training Plan, 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, other regiments developed independently, resulting in a mixture of both colourful and historically familiar names
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Royal Canadian Navy
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The Royal Canadian Navy is the naval force of Canada. The RCN is one of three environmental commands within the unified Canadian Armed Forces, as of 2017 Canadas navy operates 12 frigates,4 patrol submarines,12 coastal defence vessels and 8 unarmed patrol/training vessels, as well as several auxiliary vessels. The Royal Canadian Navy consists of 8,500 Regular Force and 5,100 Primary Reserve sailors, vice-Admiral Ron Lloyd is the current Commander of the Royal Canadian Navy and Chief of the Naval Staff. In 2011, its title of Royal Canadian Navy was restored. The bill received assent on 4 May 1910. Initially equipped with two former Royal Navy vessels, HMCS Niobe and HMCS Rainbow, the service was renamed Royal Canadian Navy by King George V on 29 August 1911. At the outbreak of the Second World War, the Navy had 11 combat vessels,145 officers and 1,674 men, during the Second World War, the Royal Canadian Navy expanded significantly, ultimately gaining responsibility for the entire Northwest Atlantic theatre of war. During the Battle of the Atlantic, the RCN sank 31 U-boats and sank or captured 42 enemy surface vessels, the Navy lost 24 ships and 1,797 sailors in the war. In 1940–41, the Royal Canadian Navy Reserves scheme for training yacht club members developed the first central registry system, from 1950 to 1955, during the Korean War, Canadian destroyers maintained a presence off the Korean peninsula, engaging in shore bombardments and maritime interdiction. During the Cold War, the Navy developed a capability to counter the growing Soviet naval threat. At that time, Canada was also operating a carrier, HMCS Bonaventure, flying the McDonnell F2H Banshee fighter jet until 1962. In 1968, under the Liberal government of Lester B, pearson, the Royal Canadian Navy, Royal Canadian Air Force and Canadian Army were amalgamated to form the unified Canadian Forces. This process was overseen by then–Defence Minister Paul Hellyer, the controversial merger resulted in the abolition of the Royal Canadian Navy as a separate legal entity. All personnel, ships, and aircraft became part of Maritime Command, ship-borne aircraft continued to be under the command of MARCOM, while shore-based patrol aircraft of the former Royal Canadian Air Force were transferred to MARCOM. In 1975 Air Command was formed and all aircraft were transferred to Air Commands Maritime Air Group. The unification of the Canadian Forces in 1968 was the first time that a nation with a military combined its formerly separate naval, land. In 1990, Canada deployed three warships to support the Operation Friction, later in the decade, ships were deployed to patrol the Adriatic Sea during the Yugoslav Wars and the Kosovo War. More recently, Maritime Command provided vessels to serve as a part of Operation Apollo, the Royal Canadian Navy is headquartered at National Defence Headquarters in Ottawa, Ontario
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Denmark
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The term Danish Realm refers to the relationship between Denmark proper, the Faroe Islands and Greenland—three countries constituting the Kingdom of Denmark. The legal nature of the Kingdom of Denmark is fundamentally one of a sovereign state. The Faroe Islands and Greenland have been part of the Crown of Denmark since 1397 when the Kalmar Union was ratified, legal matters in The Danish Realm are subject to the Danish Constitution. Beginning in 1953, state law issues within The Danish Realm has been governed by The Unity of the Realm, a less formal name for The Unity of the Realm is the Commonwealth of the Realm. In 1978, The Unity of The Realm was for the first time referred to as rigsfællesskabet. The name caught on and since the 1990s, both The Unity of The Realm and The Danish Realm itself has increasingly been referred to as simply rigsfællesskabet in daily parlance. The Danish Constitution stipulates that the foreign and security interests for all parts of the Danish Realm are the responsibility of the Danish government, the Faroes received home rule in 1948 and Greenland did so in 1979. In 2005, the Faroes received a self-government arrangement, and in 2009 Greenland received self rule, the Danish Realms unique state of internal affairs is acted out in the principle of The Unity of the Realm. This principle is derived from Article 1 of the Danish Constitution which specifies that constitutional law applies equally to all areas of the Danish Realm, the Constitutional Act specifies that sovereignty is to continue to be exclusively with the authorities of the Realm. The language of Denmark is Danish, and the Danish state authorities are based in Denmark, the Kingdom of Denmarks parliament, with its 179 members, is located in the capital, Copenhagen. Two of the members are elected in each of Greenland and the Faroe Islands. The Government ministries are located in Copenhagen, as is the highest court, in principle, the Danish Realm constitutes a unified sovereign state, with equal status between its constituent parts. Devolution differs from federalism in that the powers of the subnational authority ultimately reside in central government. The Self-Government Arrangements devolves political competence and responsibility from the Danish political authorities to the Faroese, the Faroese and Greenlandic authorities administer the tasks taken over from the state, enact legislation in these specific fields and have the economic responsibility for solving these tasks. The Danish government provides a grant to the Faroese and the Greenlandic authorities to cover the costs of these devolved areas. The 1948 Home Rule Act of the Faroe Islands sets out the terms of Faroese home rule, the Act states. the Faroe Islands shall constitute a self-governing community within the State of Denmark. It establishes the government of the Faroe Islands and the Faroese parliament. The Faroe Islands were previously administered as a Danish county, the Home Rule Act abolished the post of Amtmand and these powers were expanded in a 2005 Act, which named the Faroese home government as an equal partner with the Danish government
