Vanguard Magazine

www.vanguardcanada.com JUNE/JULY 2021 21 INTERVIEW less visible with important capabilities such as power generation, simulators for train- ing, or modernization of night vision sys- tems. Others are more high profile with the return of Ground Based Air Defence, or the modernization of our land based command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance systems through a series of projects. As we look beyond the current defence policy timelines, we are determin- ing what comes next and the moderniza- tion work will help refine this need further. Q How does the Canadian Army plan to manage and mitigate risk as part of this Strategy? Although the strategy addresses risk, it also acknowledges this is an area that is dynamic and requires constant attention to do our best to mitigate as much as possible. Ad- ditionally, there are different types of risks when you are modernizing an organization as large as the Canadian Army so this is an area that relies on good strategic direction supported by continuous communication to ensure all of the experts understand the risk in their domain and have a voice to de- cision makers. We have made this a pillar of our planning efforts. Q How does the Canadian Army plan to implement this Strategy over the next five to 10 years and what role do you see industry playing in helping to achieve the initiatives outlined therein? Although we are in the early stages of our planning for the implementation of our first major change which will be to re- structure the Army with the Force 2025 initiative to ensure we are organized properly for our modernization objec- tives. We know there are several things that must happen for this to be success- ful. We will need to make tough choices in what capabilities the Army will have in the future. We cannot do everything we were doing and everything we want to do. Once these choices are made, we need to be disciplined to commit to these choices unless there is a significant reason to change the decision. We are not able to do everything in the Army, but that doesn't mean that Canada's needs can't be met from some other part of the CAF, so integration and interoperability are paramount. Finally, in order to field the right capa- bilities, we need to increase our partner- ships with industry. Unlike an era where technologies would start in the military or government and then migrate later to society, industry now leads technological advances on many fronts. In some cases, industry is better able to communicate the challenges of the future security en- vironment because they are developing the leading-edge technologies. We need to build a relationship that is not simply transactional with individual projects, but one of idea sharing and mutual under- standing.

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