The military will soon be invading Haines Junction.

Officials and officers with the armed forces began arriving in Whitehorse this week.

A larger bulk of officers from the air force, navy and armed forces is set to arrive in the coming week as part of Operation NANOOK.

Each year, the military carries out a mock scenario in the North under the Operation NANOOK banner.

They have moved among the territories each year and involved additional organizations such as territorial government bodies, RCMP, and officials from the community the scenario is rooted in.

As it was noted in a recent statement detailing the background: “Operation NANOOK is the centrepiece of several sovereignty operations conducted annually by the Canadian

Armed Forces in Canada’s North and is the primary whole of government operation for the region.

“Canada’s Arctic sovereignty is important to the government of Canada and operations such as NANOOK enable the CAF (Canadian Armed Forces) to showcase its ability to operate effectively in the challenging environment of Canada’s North.”

The last time Operation NANOOK took place in the Yukon was 2013. It saw military and government bodies respond to a mock forest fire situation.

Last year’s operation out of the Northwest Territories was also based around a wildfire scenario.

This time around, a situation involving an earthquake in Haines Junction will play itself out over the operation, which will run until Sept. 2.

Beyond that, military officials are not providing many details.

Maj. Josee Bilodeau said in an interview Wednesday afternoon the operation is designed to test emergency responses to changing situations.

Giving away too many details would take away from that.

“We want to be prepared for anything,” she said.

Bilodeau is among a number of military officials who arrived in Whitehorse ahead of the scenario to get things set up.

Inside the Takhini Arena, which is serving as headquarters for Operation NANOOK, Bilodeau and a few other officers in military uniforms quietly worked from laptops set up in the rink.

Approximately 50 work stations, each including a phone and computer, have been set on tables lining the cement floor of the arena.

Other officers are stationed at the Erik Nielsen Whitehorse International Airport for the operation.

The bulk of the 650 officers who will come from the Canadian military’s armed forces, navy, air force and special operations forces will arrive in the coming week. A number of regions of the country, as well as rankings and professions, are represented in the mock scenario response.

While the 650 in the Yukon for Operation NANOOK will deal with a natural disaster, another 200 personal will be in Rankin Inlet, Nunavut, handling a mock scenario of a more defensive nature.

“Operation NANOOK typically involves simultaneous activities at sea, on land and in the air, and all force-generators may be tasked to deploy personnel, capital equipment and other resources,” states a backgrounder on NANOOK.

Past operations, it notes, have seen the involvement of anywhere from 650 to more than 1,250 soldiers, sailors and air men and women.

As the operation ramps up, Bilodeau said, residents in Whitehorse and Haines Junction will notice the heightened military presence with both air and ground traffic as personnel and equipment are transported as part of the exercise.

“Every effort will be made to minimize disruption to local residents,” noted an earlier statement.