New Brunswick·NewSoldiers from Canada and allied nations are at CFB Gagetown this month for Ardent Defender, a multinational competition to detect and neutralize explosive devices. The event, running until Oct. 29, focuses on evolving threats like IEDs and drones, and uses advanced technology like 3D printers.Ardent Defender is a multinational training exercise taking place until Oct. 29Isabelle Leger · CBC News · Posted: Oct 22, 2025 5:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 1 hour agoArdent Defender, hosted by the Canadian Armed Forces Explosive Ordnance Disposal Organization, is welcoming soldiers from across Canada and from allied nations to learn how to detect and detain explosive devices. (Michael Heenan/CBC)Soldiers from across Canada and some allied nations are competing at Base Gagetown this month, demonstrating their skills detecting and defeating explosive threats. Ardent Defender, hosted by the Canadian Armed Forces Explosive Ordnance Disposal Organization, welcomed soldiers from around the world, including Australia, Austria, Belgium, Czechia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Germany, Sweden, Slovakia and the United Kingdom. The multinational competition began Oct. 16 and runs until Oct. 29. “It is very much an integrated allied activity, where we’re learning how to deal with threats in current and other battle spaces we may go to to keep apprised of what’s going on,” said Brig.-Gen. Paul Lockhart, chief of staff operations for the Canadian Army. The annual event has been hosted in Gagetown for the last couple of years. “CFB Gagetown offers a wide and vast training area, allowing us to bring multiple nations, multiple teams to train in a joint environment,” said Maj. Vincent Dupont, this year’s Ardent Defender exercise director. “It really is one of the premier bases to do so.” Maj. Vincent Dupont, this year’s Ardent Defender exercise director, said CFB Gagetown is an ideal location for the training event due to its ‘wide and vast’ training area. (Michael Heenan/CBC)Participating soldiers will learn how to deactivate explosives and learn about how they have advanced. “There are a lot of different threats in the battle space, in even what would be considered a conventional linear conflict,” said Lockhart. And, those threats might be different than they were just a decade ago. WATCH | ‘Threat evolves rapidly. Technology advances even faster’:How the military is using drones, 3D printers to counter improvised explosive threatsSoldiers from 11 countries participate in “Ardent Defender” at Base Gagetown, southeast of Fredericton — an opportunity to showcase new technology seen on battlefields around the world. Lockhart said the war in Ukraine, for example, is seeing many improvised explosive devices. “It is something that is modified in a way to function, not in the way it came off the assembly line,” said Lockhart.“There’s been a trick to it and there might be multiple tricks to it to harm anybody trying to deal with it.” Lockhart said drones are a threat on modern battlefields because they are inexpensive and can be equipped with explosives. Brig.-Gen. Paul Lockhart, chief of staff operations for the Canadian Army, said explosive devices on the battlefield are evolving and keeping up with those changes is important. (Michael Heenan/CBC)Exercises during Ardent Defender will focus on explosive devices found on the ground and those that have fallen from a drone or are attached to a fallen drone. Soldiers will also learn what to do to get rid of those explosive devices properly. “You need to be able to deal with the threat while it lays, because we don’t decide what threatens us, we decide how we deal with it,” said Lockhart. He said a 3D printer will be used in partnership with Defence Research and Development Canada to construct tools that can be used to “render safe” explosive devices. Ardent Defender is partnering with Defence Research and Development Canada to integrate 3D printing into the event’s training, in order to replicate tools that could be used to detain explosives. (Michael Heenan/CBC)Dupont said technology being used as part of Ardent Defender exercises is more advanced than they were in previous years of the event. “This challenges the operators, but also prepares them in a relevant way for the threats that we’re facing right now,” he said. “The threat evolves rapidly and technology advances even faster.” Dupont said Ardent Defender is integrated with the intelligence community in order to replicate real-life scenarios that could happen on the battlefield. ABOUT THE AUTHORIsabelle Leger is a reporter based in Fredericton. You can reach her at isabelle.leger@cbc.caWith files from Michael Heenan
International soldiers tackle evolving explosive threats during training exercise at Gagetown
