Vanguard Magazine

18 DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020 www.vanguardcanada.com intervieW Certainly, the importance of agile procure- ment has increasingly become the focus of leaders, not just in the Department of Defence and Canadian Armed Forces, but also in the government overall. We also have the new Project Approval Directive, which provides several approaches that can help develop projects in a cyclical fashion. Historically, we have seen success in deliv- ering standard projects, but atypical proj- ects require more agility, experience and co-operation across all organizations to take advantage of these approaches. Strong, Secure, Engaged is our defence policy, providing long term direction and vision to 2037, but we must also be mind- ful that the technology we purchase needs to last beyond. A computer that we buy in 2027 will be obsolete before 2037, so we need to anticipate how we keep this capa- bility alive until there is a future project to deliver an upgraded capability. Do we "re- profile" the projects to spend less money each year for more years? If we do, then we upset the plan for the entire capital program. If we keep the existing spending profile, we will have to spend more for in- service support to lifecycle the equipment. So finding a balance to ensure we utilize money wisely, ensure our capabilities, and work within the plan for the capital pro- gram will continue to be a challenge. Q Are there other countries that you are looking to so as to take lessons learned in short, cyclical procurement cycles to apply in Canada? What are some of the lessons? In speaking with some of our closest allies, it appears that the problem of avoiding fielding yesterday's technology tomorrow is a common one that we all struggle with similarly. Where success seems to be more apparent is when defence, government, and industry can align to mutually support their similar goals. Q One of the benefits for larger capital projects is that they allow large numbers of incremental project management po- sitions that can be paid out of the capital budget. Do you foresee issues with getting people approved and in-place to execute a cyclical program? We are fortunate to have an excellent team of talented and skilled people in Director General Land Equipment Program Man- agement who are currently supporting to- day's command support system, which will form the core of this capability. Moving forward, the team of women and men that needs to be built to execute these high- technology projects will consist of profes- sionals that will broadly remain in high de- mand for the foreseeable future. Getting the right expertise and maintaining it will always be a challenge. However, with cy- clical projects, we will need fewer people, but over a longer period of time. It is more likely that we will be able to avoid a lot of the surging of positions that is needed for standard projects. Q Do you anticipate an institutional reluctance to constrain projects either by funding ceilings or by deliverable timelines in a cyclical evolution, rather than by a larger/longer-term project with a SOR or Statement of Capability deficiency? Cyclical projects still require robust state- ments of requirements, but we can keep our cost estimates and detailed require- ments work for later cycles in the project. The challenge is to accept more project management risk up front in order to re- duce the overall technical risk as the proj- ect progresses. When talking about spend- ing billions of dollars of public money, it is critical that we get this right. Q What are some of the emerging technology requirements that are com- ing into DLR 4? Are these requirements coming directly from the field or the Army's Training and Doctrine process? The Canadian Army Land Warfare Centre has been developing concepts and design for the future of C2IS and we have been watching events in training and operations closely. Also, the Canadian Army Doctrine and Training Centre has recently released the Future Integrated Training Environ- ment (FITE) concept, which lays out how the Army expects to integrate technology into training. Overall, we see the need for headquar- ters to improve our ability to operate more physically dispersed to avoid detection and strike by indirect fire. They will need to be highly mobile and set up and tear down quickly. This suggests the use of mesh networking and wireless technologies for command posts. To communicate using voice and data, the need to operate in a contested electromagnetic spectrum will push us to find ways to make our networks more robust, self-healing, and better pro- tected. It is a busy, but exciting, time to be a part of the Canadian Army. With Strong, Secure, Engaged providing the impetus for so many new projects, we have a real opportunity to provide our Canadian sol- diers the equipment they need to execute our defence missions. The Canadian Army Land Warfare Centre has been developing concepts and design for the future of C2IS and we have been watching events in training and operations closely. Photo: DND

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