Preserving capacity, General Tom Lawson, Chief of the Defence Staff, Keys to Canadian SAR
Issue link: http://vanguardcanada.uberflip.com/i/139409
E Executive Interview ING Robotic Aviation employees Garth Matheson, a field service representative, and Pat Brophy, director of UAV Services, operate the support legs of the ScanEagle recovery system on the flight deck of HMCS Charlottetown. Photo: MCpl Robin Mugridge to place us; with the Toronto, we have our own forward space for accommodation and share the Chiefs and POs mess. And we're well appreciated and a critical part of operations. Q It's still a considerably smaller footprint for the return. This is a low density, high value asset, both in people and technology. When an institution decides to do something, it has to think through what it costs to deliver and maintain. If the sum total you'll need is six guys, how do you create a trade of six? You can't. You look at the challenges of electronic warfare, any of the specialties, there is a ratio that you need to maintain to do this effectively. And then there is the reality of service life with leave, career training, linguistic training, and more. I spend a lot of money internally on currency training, because there is a skill set. I know that's a challenge for the military. One of the disruptive things about this is it doesn't take much to deliver the effect. We replaced 56 folks firing the Sperwer for three hours a day with seven of us on the ground on the civilian side to run three flights simultaneously during the day and two at night, every day. Efficiency stays with a small organization. Q You noted procurement challenges. Are you also able to maintain a smaller logistics tail? I gather there were issues related to spares when the Charlottetown was first deployed. Fundamentally FedEx solves most problems. The whole UAV is 22 kilos with the advanced thermal camera on it. You have to have enough spare parts and the launch and recovery mechanism has some logistics around it, but the starboard torpedo room is a small room. Boeing and Insitu are responsible for the contract, so they worked with the navy on the logistics. The site lead, one of my guys, makes sure he has what he needs. Q Contractors in the U.S. have been preparing for the effects of budget cuts for some time. Have you seen a similar trend in Canada? My cut came at the end of Afghanistan, and even then we weren't big. The army continues to employ us as they train, so we were involved in Maple Resolve and will participate in another exercise this summer. They're managing costs as close as they can. Q Is the value of a contracted service still recognized? The effects of what we do are well above what anyone's expecta32 JUNE/JULY 2013 www.vanguardcanada.com tions were. Now, you could do what I do but it would be very challenging given the way the bureaucracy works to achieve the same effects. I am focused, every day, on service to the customer. That's what small business is. So although I am a commercial entity, our focus as a service delivery company is no fail. We have exceptionally high standards and we're passionate about it. When you leave the Canadian Forces, you don't really leave – the dedication and the ethics remain. We're enabling the armed forces to do things better, faster, cheaper. Could they do it? Absolutely, they could designate a unit. But at what cost? With both the navy and the army, we've removed ourselves from the key operational piece and said, "that's yours, we'll support you around it so you succeed." Q You've spoken publicly on how quickly UAV technology has evolved. Does that pace of change force the military to rely more on industry to integrate technology successfully? Show me an example where government has exceeded or met the same pace of a technological adoption as industry. There isn't one. When I was in ADM Mat, I could never really rationalize how this could succeed. When we first showed up in 2008, we had an un-cooled sensor on the ScanEagle. It had thermal capability but it wasn't great. Meanwhile, the mid wave infrared camera (MWIR) is introduced and the first to use it was us. When we introduced it in theatre during operations, the customer reaction went from "ho hum" to "this is incredible." And now the navy is using MWIR 2.0. I'm not sure it would have been possible so quickly without that contracting arrangement. If the CF had bought the kit in 2008, it would probably be the same kit today. Let's pause here for a second. This is the key point behind contracting. It's about the rapid introduction of an evolving and disruptive technology that continually needs to be shifting technically and operationally. Sure, saving money is important, but not the only thing – and this is a field where costs are going down, not up, as technologies develop. Also, the military could purchase the systems and develop the trades itself, but it would be almost impossible to stay current in a field like robotic aviation. Finally, in our specific context, contracting also allows for the development of a good Canadian industrial and skills basis in the field, as called for in the Jenkins Report. Q How do you see the civ-mil partnership evolving over the next several years? There is a strong impetus at the strategic thought leadership level – captured in the Jenkins report – that says build capacity in Canada. I'm a huge fan of this. I see the partnership continuing to grow, but there are bigger issues at play as Jenkins points out. I see the opportunity for Canada to become an even greater leader in robotic aviation. This is a multi-billion dollar industry and with the right support there is a clear transition path that follows the same path that we saw with GPS, computers, radar and penicillin, where things that were built initially to meet the need of the military transition into the civil market. When I meet with international customers, it's those 33,000 hours of working directly for and with the Canadian military that sells. As we engage with oil and gas, mining, any of these sectors, that military partnership provides our bona fides so that people trust us.