No GPS Trail at CFB Wainwright: The Fire Investigation Rides on Range Control’s Logs

The army’s laser-and-GPS simulation system wasn’t used on the live-fire range where four soldiers died. That’s normal. It also means the investigation depends on logs, radio records and weather data that DND hasn’t said it preserved.

Kevin J.S. Duska Jr. | The Signal Cage by Prime Rogue Inc | Calgary, AB | October 27, 2026

When four soldiers of C Company, 3rd Battalion, Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry died on a CFB Wainwright range on Oct. 17, no electronic system appears to have been logging where each of them stood.

That is not a scandal in itself. It is the reason the investigation into the deaths of Sgt. Morgan Wong, Pte. Shaun Farrell, Pte. Aidan Goulding and Pte. Hayden Lykkemark will rest on paper and radio: Range Control’s logs, the base fire hall’s dispatch records, the range safety radio net and the base weather station. Eleven days after the fire, the Department of National Defence has not said whether those records were preserved, or when.

This piece is part of Prime Rogue’s ongoing coverage. For the full timeline, see our CFB Wainwright fire live updates.

What Rutland was asked, and what he answered

At the Oct. 22 technical briefing, Prime Rogue asked by phone whether C Company’s training was instrumented through the Canadian Manoeuvre Training Centre’s weapons-effects and position-tracking systems, or any other tracking. We also asked whether that data had been preserved for the investigation.

Maj.-Gen. Wade Rutland, Commander of 1st Canadian Division, answered: “Yeah, the WES system was not being used on this exercise.”

He did not address other tracking. He did not address preservation. The phone line was poor, and Rutland had asked us to repeat the question once already, so the narrow answer may reflect what he heard rather than an intent to dodge.

Why WES wasn’t expected on a pairs range

Rutland’s answer is very likely accurate, and routine. The Weapons Effects Simulation system, built by Cubic, is designed for large force-on-force exercises such as MAPLE RESOLVE at the Canadian Manoeuvre Training Centre in Wainwright. Soldiers and vehicles carry laser projectors and detectors in place of live rounds.

When it runs, it is a recording machine. Digital Journal reported that the system broadcasts the GPS location of every shooter and target to exercise control every 15 to 30 seconds. Canadian Army Today has described exercise control packaging that data into replays for after-action reviews. The army renewed support for the system in 2025, covering Gagetown, Valcartier, Petawawa and Wainwright, according to Halldale.

A pairs range is the opposite case. Two soldiers take turns covering and firing live rounds at targets. Rutland said it is the middle step of a progression: individual requalification, then pairs, then section attack. Prime Rogue found no public source showing WES used on a live-fire range.

So the absence of WES data is what one would expect. But it matters. There is likely no continuous, machine-made track of where C Company’s soldiers were as the fire approached.

What records actually exist

Wainwright’s own 2024 Range Standing Orders describe a paper-and-radio system. As excerpted by Global News, CBC and The Globe and Mail, any grass or brush fire must be reported immediately to Range Control. Range Control then notifies the fire department and the Range Warden. The senior person present must keep reporting the fire’s intensity, direction and speed, and units may not leave a fire until Range Control authorizes it.

Officials have already leaned on those records. At the briefing, Provost Marshal Brig.-Gen. Vanessa Hanrahan said the fire was “monitored throughout the day by both range control and the base fire hall.” She also said the evidence to date indicates communication among everyone in the training area. If documented, each of those statements lives in a log, a radio record or a dispatch sheet.

There may be digital records too. The army’s Integrated Soldier System radios automatically generate position location information, according to Canadian Army Today. But in early 2025 a General Dynamics representative told Canadian Army Today that the army did not have that kind of positional awareness fielded outside Latvia. That is a vendor’s statement and it is dated. 3 PPCLI was preparing to deploy to Latvia. Whether any position-reporting kit was switched on at Wainwright is a question, not a finding.

Precedent suggests investigators will work from the conventional record. Prime Rogue found no published Canadian Board of Inquiry, military police finding or court-martial decision that relied on WES or GPS tracking data. When Cpl. James Choi was killed in a 3 PPCLI live-fire exercise at Wainwright in 2020, a negligence charge was laid and later dropped. Cases like it have turned on witnesses, photos, video and logs.

The preservation question

Investigators are clearly gathering records. Gen. Jennie Carignan told CBC they are reconstructing the scene at different moments. The Board of Inquiry, which Canadian Press reported had not yet been launched as of Oct. 23, will be able to compel evidence once convened.

What no official has said is whether, and when, Range Control logs, radio recordings, fire hall dispatch records, weather station data and any device position data were secured. Timing matters. Radio recordings and device logs on many systems overwrite on a cycle. A dated preservation hold shows someone thought to ask.

DND’s access-to-information office has told Prime Rogue twice in writing that records “forming part of an ongoing investigation may be subject to withholding” until the investigation ends. That is lawful and common. It also means the public may not see the underlying records for a year or more. The CAF told CTV News its Board of Inquiry could take up to a year.

None of that prevents DND from saying now whether the records were kept. Confirming that a log exists and is secured reveals nothing about what it says.

What we asked DND

Prime Rogue’s access request A-2026-01576 seeks Range Control and duty officer logs for Oct. 17, the first significant incident report, fire dispatch logs, range bookings and the fire hazard assessments in force that day. Every release will be published in full in our public archive on GitHub.

We also sent DND Media Relations these questions, with a deadline of 5 p.m. MT on Tuesday, Oct. 27:

1. Apart from WES, were any position-reporting or tracking systems in use by C Company, attached personnel or Range Control on Oct. 17?
2. Was WES or any other CMTC instrumentation active anywhere in the Wainwright training area that day?
3. Have Range Control logs, radio net records, fire hall dispatch records, weather station data and any tracking data been preserved for the military police and the Board of Inquiry? When were holds issued?
4. Did the vehicles used to evacuate casualties carry position-reporting equipment, and have those records been preserved?
5. Will DND publish an official transcript of the Oct. 22 briefing?

DND did not respond by the deadline.

What to watch

• The convening order. Who is named Board of Inquiry president, and whether the terms of reference cover Range Control’s decisions, the day’s fire hazard rating and record preservation.
• A correction to the 4 p.m. account. DND’s first release said a fire ignited around 4 p.m. Officials now say it burned for hours before high winds drove it toward the pairs range just before 4 p.m. The original release has not been corrected.
• The fire index. DND has not explained why an internal memo called the fire risk low when the federal Fire Weather Index was extreme, as Global News reported.
• The ATIP release. Whether A-2026-01576 produces Range Control and dispatch records, or only communications products.

The soldiers on that range were training for a dangerous job. Their families are owed an account built on records that still exist. DND can settle one part of that now without touching the investigation: say whether the logs were kept.

Have records, documents or information about the CFB Wainwright fire? Reach Prime Rogue on Signal (Rubicon49.50) or by Proton Mail. Sources are credited or protected according to their wishes, under the Canadian Association of Journalists’ ethics guidelines.

Prime Rogue’s data, analysis and graphics are licensed CC BY-NC 4.0.