Canadian military admits new sleeping bags are not suited to Canadian winters

The Canadian military has admitted that new sleeping bags issued to troops last year were not suited to “typical Canadian winter conditions”.

According to a briefing note obtained by the CBC, the army issued the new sleeping bags in the autumn of last year in Alberta, where several hundred troops were preparing for a joint Canada-US exercise in Alaska.

Soldiers who used the bags reportedly found “several critical issues … related to lack of warmth”, according to the 5 December 2023 note. In temperatures ranging from 5C (41F) to -20C (-4F), troops reported being cold in the sleeping bags overnight, even when they heated their tents with stoves.

The official who authored the note concluded that the bags were “better suited for use in weather conditions that are characteristic of late spring to early fall”. It recommended loaning the troops some of the army’s original Arctic sleeping bags, which were first acquired in 1965.

The defence department spent more than C$34.8m (US$25.6m) on the new sleeping bags to replace those original Arctic bags.

In a statement to the CBC, it declined to answer what cold-weather testing had been done before the purchase, saying only that the bags had been “chosen following a rigorous competitive process” and that the “technical requirements used to make the selection included insulation value, weight of the bags and the packing volume”.

It added that it still considers the new bags suitable for most uses – but now additionally aims to buy new sleeping bags that are adapted for winter in the far north and the Arctic.

“I wonder if they should have just gone to Canadian Tire,” Rob Huebert of the University of Calgary, an expert in Arctic military affairs, told CBC, referencing a popular retail company.