Preserving capacity, General Tom Lawson, Chief of the Defence Staff, Keys to Canadian SAR
Issue link: http://vanguardcanada.uberflip.com/i/111458
Land Force L I brought the army out of combat and I positioned it for success with Force 2013. And now we are aligning ourselves with Force 2016 to transition to Force 2021, which is that adaptive dispersed operations. And we have advanced the Future Land Combat Systems, our family of land combat vehicles. What's my legacy? I brought the army out of combat and I positioned it for success with Force 2013. And now we are aligning ourselves with Force 2016 to transition to Force 2021, which is that adaptive dispersed operations. This positioning has us just scratching the surface. I think you will see more of a move towards asymmetry, you'll see an amendment to our manage readiness plan that has us go in three 12-month cycles, so a 36-month managed readiness plan. And Force 2016 will be the timeframe when we receive our new fleets of vehicles. Q What does ADO ultimately give you as an army? It's grounded in manoeuvre warfare. It has been around for a while, but I think there is great strength to it because you manoeuvre to positions of strength. You manoeuvre so that you can destroy the threat, with both lethal and non-lethal means. You are in a position of advantage and you select the time in which you engage the threat. It's based on the core functions of find, fix and strike. And it supports a comprehensive approach. One of the important lessons out of Afghanistan has been a wholeof-government approach where you bring all of the elements of national power to deal with a particular issue or theat. ADO also supports the comprehensive approach. It is networked-enabled, which is the glue that allows us to realize its full potential. Shared awareness of the battle space is how we harness the potential of information and understanding, allowing commanders to make decisions. I would also emphasize precision: our weapons, whether they be a text message, a flyer or a bullet, are delivered exactly at the time and place you need. Precision is a really important point of ADO and Force 2021. Q You've begun the process of institutionalizing many of the enablers you mentioned. Are there others required for 2021 that you need to prepare for now? Yes. The most important is the network – a Canadian Forces network, not just an army network. And I think we need to invest a bit more time and energy and make tough calls over what system will be the backbone for our joint approach to operations. I'm a bit biased, but right now we have the Land Command and Control System that we'll use in May-June for JOINTEX for the division headquarters, which is really the Combined Joint Inter- agency Task Force HQ. That will be the backbone on which a networked, bright, confident, skilled soldier shares and receives an awareness of the battle space, makes decisions and unleashes lethal and non-lethal force. Q Does that mean the integrated soldier system project (ISSP) – the piece that soldier ultimately plugs into the joint network – is more important than the new vehicles to you? There are many parts of the network and the integrated soldier system is an important element. It's how people share and are aware – imagine the soldier of tomorrow with a screen not unlike game consoles where you have a rich understanding of blue, red and white situational awareness; where you're able to take the lay of the ground to map your routes; where you can share a picture of what you are seeing through your gun sight with someone else. There is such great potential. The vehicles become the brains and the mechanism by which you allow that transfer of information. Q Given the timeframe you are working toward, are delays in programs like the ISSP, the Close Combat Vehicle (CCV) just bumps in the road then? They are bumps. ISSP is a bump. Some of our vehicles such as MSVS (Medium Support Vehicle System) are bumps. But we are aligning now to be transformed in 2021 as part of ADO, which is respectful of how complex that environment will be. Think about the force that will deploy: in the past we have taken a unit and said, you are heading off to this brigade. I envision a battle space in which we might simultaneously need a light element, perhaps one delivered by helicopter or parachute, and a well protected force dealing with a particular threat, perhaps with the LAV-up (up-armoured Light Armoured Vehicle) or CCV. We have the means to force generate that, put a command and control element on top of it, be able to sustain it; it's a very flexible approach that could be dealing with stability in one area and combat in another, while all part of joint force. Q This suggests the need for adaptive leaders. You've reinvested a lot in training, in areas like desert, jungle, Arctic and mountain warfare, which gives them the tactical skills. Are you also investing in making them better adaptive, strategic thinkers? www.vanguardcanada.com FEBRUARY/MARCH 2013 13