SAREX25 – CAF EXERCISES
CDR’s Aviation Editor, Joetey Attariwala, recently traveled to 19 Wing at Canadian Forces Base Comox to cover the 2025 National Search and Rescue Exercise (SAREX 2025). SAREX 2025 is a chance for elements of the Search and Rescue (SAR) community, including international partners, to test interoperability between crews and resource types, sharing best practices, and ensuring that processes are in place to provide rapid and effective SAR response.
SAREX 2025 took place from September 22–26, 2025, and included SAR crews from 14 squadrons and units, including the U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Navy. 19 Wing and 442 Transport and Rescue Squadron hosted 100 Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) members, approximately 60 American personnel, and a handful of international participants from Brazil, Chile and Spain. Further personnel from the Civil Aviation Search and Rescue Association also took part in the exercise. Assets from the Royal Canadian Navy, including Orca-class patrol vessels, and Rigid Hull Inflatable Boats (RHIB) from the RCMP also assisted in the exercise. Overall, 18 aircraft participated in the exercise, the furthest of which came from Corpus Christi, Texas, and Kodiak, Alaska.
CFB COMOX
CDR readers will recall that SAREX restarted last year after a hiatus, and we shared that the exercise would be hosted by other SAR bases in Canada on a rotational basis year upon year. However, SAREX returned to CFB Comox in 2025 because it made sense for a number of reasons — CFB Comox is the first operational base for the CC-295 Kingfisher, which officially assumed search and rescue alert on May 1st, 2025. 19 Wing Comox is also the home to 418 Search and Rescue Operational Training Squadron, and the home of SAR Tech training. One can also argue that CFB Comox is the perfect venue to host SAREX because it has ample ramp space, and its geography positions it to deliver diverse SAR training across various types of topography from the water to the peaks of mountains and everything in between. Aircraft taking part in the exercise flew at low altitudes and above mountain ranges, establishing search patterns and conducting parachuting, parachute cargo drops, hoist operations and maritime search and rescue evolutions.
At its core, SAREX is a dynamic competition between fixed-wing and rotary-wing SAR crews, and is designed to test and refine their operational readiness. Crews are tasked with simulated scenarios such as locating lost hikers, responding to downed aircraft, and answering maritime mayday calls. Each scenario lasts nearly four hours and is scored based on performance, time to launch and reach the target, ability to establish communications with the patient, effectiveness in rendering aid, execution of the rescue, and adherence to medical protocols. In addition to mission-based tasks, crews also compete in parachute accuracy, aircraft maintenance challenges, and advanced medical simulations. SAERX 2025 included flying over 100 simulated search and rescue missions, and as a matter of practicality, scenario locations were all within 110 kilometers from CFB Comox, and the exercise had no impact to daily search and rescue operations.
“We’re super proud to host SAREX and welcome our closest allied partner with the United States Coast Guard,” said Lieutenant-Colonel Claude Rivard, Commanding Officer 442 Transport and Rescue Squadron. “That is very important because we share a long border to the south, one to the north, and sometimes we’re tasked on a common mission so we need to be able to integrate different platforms together and the different types of operation that we do.”
CC-295 KINGFISHER
Formally participating in SAREX for the first time was the CC-295 Kingfisher. Canada made 28 major design changes to the platform to improve the Kingfisher’s operational effectiveness in Canada’s unique and vast geography, so SAREX 2025 enabled the RCAF to showcase the CC-295’s adaptability and performance in Canadian SAR conditions.
“The Kingfisher is a game changer,” said LCol Rivard. “It’s meant to operate from here to the Arctic, and it changes the way we do things. It can go on scene before the Cormorant helicopter and find targets or casualties. It provides top cover when we go over the water, but the biggest asset of the Kingfisher is the search capacity. With this aircraft, with the camera system on it, the time to conduct a search is reduced — sometimes a major search can take two to three days to find something, and now we find it just in a couple of hours with the Kingfisher.”
Adding his perspective on the Exercise was Lieutenant-Commander Billy Martin, a U.S. Coast Guard Exchange pilot flying the Kingfisher, and Deputy Exercise Director for SAREX 2025: “All these SAR professionals got to showcase their skills and talk through missions that they’ve had in the Mediterranean Sea, and in the Atlantic and the Pacific. This exercise is great for professional development as it enables participants to talk through some of their more challenging cases when they’re not flying, and then showcase their skills while they are flying.”
INTERNATIONAL PARTICIPATION
International participants that attended SAREX 2025 — Brazil, Chile and Spain — fly either the CN-235 and C-295 for search and rescue missions in their home countries (among other roles like maritime patrol).
“They’re here to see how we do search and rescue because we have such a great reputation on how we conduct SAR operations,” said LCol Rivard. “Hopefully they can draw lessons from what we do, but also, because they fly the 295, hopefully they can see what we do and help us maximize how we use our own 295. All the crews are taking notes so at the end of the day, we’re going to gather lessons learned.”
According to SAREX participants, some of the most valuable insights came from the opportunity to fly in different aircraft to get an appreciation for capabilities, and for tactics, techniques and procedures.
Attending SAREX was Navy Captain Felipe Diaz, Chief of Staff for the Naval Aviation Command of the Chilean Navy who described some key differences in the way SAR is conducted, “This is the first time Chile has been invited to SAREX. The big difference is we don’t have SAR Techs that parachute out of the aircraft for SAR. It’s something that is interesting to us, and it may be something we look to develop. I’ve already spoken with some officers back home about the possibility of building a relationship between the Chilean Navy and the Royal Canadian Air Force for an exchange program.”
SAREX 2025 culminated with a capstone training event consisting of a simulated major fire aboard a ship resulting in injuries — which was facilitated by an Orca class patrol boat of the Royal Canadian Navy. In this case, various fixed wing units launched to locate the ship and then provided top cover to vector rescue aircraft with SAR Techs on board. Some of the rescues happened on the adjacent beach, while other simulated injured persons were hoisted to safety from rescue helicopters. All told, SAREX 2025 was a resounding success and a valuable training exercise for everyone involved.
Joetey Attariwala is CDR’s Aviation Editor
