Operation AEGIS

Operation AEGIS - Canadian Armed Forces

Operation AEGIS is the Canadian Armed Forces’ (CAF) contribution to the Government of Canada’s effort to evacuate Afghans with significant and/or enduring relationship with the Government of Canada, along with their accompanying family members. 

The CAF is supporting Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) and Global Affairs Canada (GAC) by providing strategic airlift capabilities to assist in evacuations alongside IRCC-chartered flights.

Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) CC-130 J Hercules, CC-150 Polaris, and CC-177 Globemaster aircraft, aircrew, and support staff have been utilized to transport the evacuees.

Update

• On July 30th, the CAF was approved to support the Government of Canada’s evacuation of designated Afghan personnel and their families from Kabul, Afghanistan.
• Beginning on August 4th, CAF military aircraft and civilian chartered flights by the Government of Canada started transporting evacuees out of Afghanistan.
• On August 19th, the CAF began supporting the United States (US) led coalition air bridge to help with the evacuation of at-risk Afghans from Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul.
  • An air bridge operation is used when land and sea options are not available due to conflict, blockade, or other emergency. In an air bridge, all transport to and from a location is conducted via aircraft.
  • There are 13 nations including Canada participating in the US-led air bridge in Kabul.
• On October 4th, the CAF has provided three translators to NATO’s Operation ALLIED SOLACE based in Kosovo. The CAF members will be assisting NATO’s temporary accommodation of evacuees from Afghanistan.

As of August 26, we safely evacuated approximately 3, 700 persons from the Kabul airport in a matter of weeks.