Hundreds of British soldiers to start drone and electronic warfare training at vast Canadian site

Hundreds of British soldiers will start drone and electronic warfare training at a vast facility in Canada - several years after the UK scrapped major tank and artillery exercises at the site.

In a sign of the changing character of conflict, Lieutenant-General Michael Wright, commander of the Canadian army, told Sky News that he was looking forward to welcoming the troops to the British Army Training Unit Suffield (BATUS) in July.

"Canada and the United Kingdom, together, are working to reinvigorate Suffield," he said in an interview during a visit to London this week.

"It's less about large-scale training, and it's much more about using what is a fantastic training area in Southern Alberta to test the types of capabilities that both of our armies know that we need."

Uncrewed systems are in increased focus as Western armies attempt to learn lessons from Russia's war in Ukraine, which has seen expensive tanks destroyed by cheap drones.

Around 350 troops from 2nd Battalion the Parachute Regiment are set to take part in the training in Canada, according to a UK defence source.

The soldiers will have the chance to fight with one-way attack drones across a sprawling expanse of land that is at least four times the size of Salisbury Plain.

To make the exercise - dubbed Rhino Biz - as realistic as possible, electronic jamming will be used to try to disable the uncrewed systems, the source said.

It is the kind of warfare that is being waged between Russia and Ukraine.

However, peacetime civil aviation regulations and other restrictions in the UK mean it is difficult for the British Army to train at home on the kind of drones and counter-drone technologies that they would use for real in a war.

The Canadian site - because of its size - is more suited to operating this kit, the UK defence source said.

Asked whether it is permitted to fly drones at BATUS, Lieutenant-General Wright said: "We are looking to do everything we can to ensure that we have the ability to use the systems we know in the battlefield."

A number of drone and counter-drone companies will also take part in the training with the British soldiers.

It is evidence of the need for the army to work ever closer with industry to test and adapt to the latest technologies.

Embracing uncrewed systems is a challenge that the Canadian army is focused on as well.

Lieutenant-General Wright said he would like his soldiers to be as familiar with drones as they are with rifles.

He described a new, 22-day course called the Canadian Army Soldier First Course, which requires every service person to "learn how to shoot, move, communicate, but also how to operate a drone, and how to protect themselves against surveillance or a threat of ordnance being dropped from a drone".

He said: "It's really making sure that the use of uncrewed systems, both from an offensive and defensive perspective, are one of the core skills of our soldiers."

This shift will require an urgent increase in the number of drones in the Canadian army's arsenal.

Today, it only has about 1,000 - a woefully inadequate figure.

In Ukraine, opposing troops deploy many thousands of drones a day against each other.

"We're not there yet in terms of the numbers, but we are moving very aggressively to get as many uncrewed systems into the hands of our soldiers so they can start getting used to operating with them," Lieutenant-General Wright said.

The British Army has used the BATUS training ground in Canada since 1972.

Read more on Sky News:
UK military to be given powers to shoot down threatening drones
'We have to get ready for large-scale conflicts,' says Canada's military chief

Over the decades, it provided the most realistic large-scale, warfighting training that British soldiers could receive, using live rounds.

In 2017, though, budget cuts put the vital training in jeopardy.

Back then, four battle groups, each of about 1,200 soldiers, used to train for a month at a time at the facility every year, deploying tanks, artillery and helicopters.

The number of battle groups was reduced before all large-scale training was halted during COVID in 2020.

It was never fully resumed, with some of the training moved to Oman instead.

If the new drone warfare exercise is a success, it is likely the Canada site will once again become a more regular fixture for British Army training.

(c) Sky News 2026: Hundreds of British soldiers to start drone and electronic warfare training at vast Canadian