Canada hopes to rebuild and reset after leaving Afghanistan in 2011

When Canada withdraws its combat forces from Afghanistan in 2011, the army is hoping for an "operational pause" in order to rebuild its depleted and exhausted forces.

By 2011, the army will have been in Afghanistan continuously since 2003 (as well as for a six-month combat deployment in 2002), rotating 38,500 Regular and Reserve Force personnel through the six-month tours of duty - a significant undertaking for a total force of 40,000. A shortage of technicians and mechanics has meant soldiers in these trades are deploying for a second, third and even fourth tour of duty.

The army's equipment, especially its armoured vehicles, is breaking at a high rate, with an off-the-road rate of more than 70 per cent for some fleets. As a result, the army is working with industry to keep them serviceable for the next two and a half years and to restore the equipment so that it will be ready for future missions.

Dan Ross, Assistant Deputy Minister (Materiel), told Jane's that approximately every "second rotation, we rotate large numbers of vehicles for major R&O [repair and overhaul] work by air to our staging base in Dubai, and then back by ship to Montreal." The vehicles are stripped down by the army's '202 Workshop' and the components sent out for repair to the various suppliers.