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.
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”.
