1 Cold Lake is a small city about three hundred kilometers northeast of Edmonton, Alberta. Although relatively small, Cold Lake has Canada's largest air force base. It is called Four Wing or CFB Cold Lake. CFB stands for Canadian Forces Base and could include military, air, or navy bases in Canada. CFB Cold Lake is also the most remote air force base in Canada because it is so far away from other towns and cities. It was opened as an air base in 1954 because of pressures of the Cold War and Canada wanted to increase its air force.
2 Many of the people who are part of the Air Force also live on the air base in barracks. Barracks are like apartments and house many people who live by themselves in a fairly small space. People with families usually live in PMQ's. PMQ's are houses that are on the base. Each house looks very similar to each other. Many other people choose not to live directly on the base, but live within the city of Cold Lake. Many of the people who live in Cold Lake are part of the Canadian Air Force, giving Cold Lake a diverse population, including many French speaking Canadians.
3 CFB Cold Lake has the most CF-18 Hornet fighter jets and many other fighter jets. Pilots are specially trained to fly these super fast fighter jets. They practice and patrol with their planes in the Air Weapons Range. The Air Weapons Range is an area north of Cold Lake that is 11,700 square kilometers. The pilots of these planes practice to patrol and defend the western portion of Canadian air space. The use of cruise missiles is also tested in this space. This air base also helps another large air base in eastern Canada to patrol and defend the Canadian air space in the Arctic regions.
