Vanguard Magazine

Vanguard June/July 2021

Preserving capacity, General Tom Lawson, Chief of the Defence Staff, Keys to Canadian SAR

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T his article, which formed the basis for a brief presentation to the Strategic Army Leader- ship Symposium in September 2020, reflects on three points: 1. where the Army fits in North American defence and NORAD modernization; 2. why destabilizing issues such as cli- mate change, political and social polar- ization, and extremism mean that the Army must be adaptable and respon- sive to emerging threats to and within our continent; and 3. how/why to pursue ideas for en- hanced, constructive engagement with Indigenous peoples 12 JUNE/JULY 2021 www.vanguardcanada.com ARMY BY P. WHITNEY LACKENBAUER THE CANADIAN ARMY IN A CHANGING NOR TH AMERICAN DEFENCE AND SECURITY ENVIRONMENT The discussions about North American defence modernization to date strike me as heavily focused on NORAD mod- ernization (and the future of the North Warning System in particular), and typi- cally emphasize how we must better in- tegrate technology to detect, deter, and defeat threats in the space, cyber, air, mar- itime, and cognitive domains. We might note that the Army is conspicuously side- lined in most of these public discussions. The emerging architecture for North American defence – like US NORTH- COM and NORAD's SHIELD (the Stra- tegic Homeland Integrated Ecosystem for Layered Defense) – is all-domain, span- ning "sea floor to orbit," and is at its core about using the latest advances in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to ana- lyze patterns, anticipate moves, and enable decision-making superiority. Many aspects of JADC2 (Joint All-Domain Command and Control) and other systems also have direct applications and implications for the Canadian Army – obviously in terms of command, control, and communications, and connecting sensors to shooters. There are interesting opportunities to conceptual- ize how land forces (Army systems, vehicle fleets, and even individual soldiers) will fit within the broader networked and integrat- ed layered defence ecosystem of sensors, fu-

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