Vanguard Magazine

C4ISR 2023 22 FEBRUARY/MARCH 2023 www.vanguardcanada.com C4ISR AND BEYOND BY VAdm RON LLOYD (Ret'd) D espite a snowstorm the eve- ning before, it did not deter many from attending and or speaking, other than those who unfortunately had their flights cancelled. The great news was that the conference was designed to be hybrid which meant that for those who were not able to attend in person, their participation was easily enabled by clicking on the link. The opening keynote was provided by the Chief of the Defence Staff, General Wayne Eyre. His participation was a pow- erful message with respect to the impor- tance of C4ISR for the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) and he very much reinforced that narrative during his presentation. He identified a number of themes that would be reinforced throughout the day. Specifi- cally, he noted that the CAF can't lose the innovation race as our adversaries are "in it to win it", the significance of data and the user experience, the criticality of interoper- ability and partnerships and he reinforced the importance of culture, speed of rel- evance and that lethality matters. Following the CDS's address, were two panels that focused on What's changed/ changing in the world of Defence and Security and What's changed/changing in DND/CAF. The perspectives from NORAD, NATO, industry, and CAF ar- ticulated the nature of the threat and the fact that key to deterring the threat was the importance of understanding that people and processes are as important, if not more important, than the capabili- ties themselves. It was also noted that by not accepting risk to "programs" it actu- ON JANUARY 26 TH , VANGUARD SUCCESSFULLY HOSTED THE 9TH ANNUAL C4ISR AND BEYOND CONFERENCE, C4ISR – GETTING IT AND GETTING IT RIGHT! THE CONFERENCE WAS HELD IN PERSON, FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE THE PANDEMIC, AT THE WESTIN CONFERENCE CENTER IN OTTAWA. – GETTING IT AND GETTING IT RIGHT! ally translates to accepting increased risk to mission. Two other themes that were rein- forced were the importance of acting at the speed of relevance and the requirement to have redundancy and layers built into our nation's respective Command and Control architecture. Both panels identified a num- ber of barriers and obstacles that need to be addressed to fully leverage the true poten- tial of "digital". Barriers included a linear approach to digital thinking in Canada, procurement challenges, and a lack of trust in the digital ecosystem. The luncheon keynote presentation was presented by the Ukrainian Deputy Min- ister of Defence on Digital Development, Digital Transformation and Digitalisation, Oleh Haiduk. The Deputy Minister's re- marks very much underpinned the theme of the conference and in particular the im- plications of "getting it right". Key mes- sages were the rapid transformation of the Ukrainian forces with respect to cyber, the importance of training and having suf- ficient access to the appropriate training, and some of the challenges associated with legal frameworks in the cyber domain. On completion of his very powerful presenta- tion, Deputy Minister Haiduk received a standing ovation. The two afternoon panels examined What's changed/changing in delivering and performing in C4ISR from a number of perspectives including allies, industry, gov- ernment and across a number of subject ar- eas such as cloud, talent, and culture. Both of these panels built on themes that were identified in the morning. In particular, it was noted that in Canada there is a lack of a security culture and in many respects, trust is enabled by a number of conditions such as an appropriate security clearance. It was also reinforced that there is currently a gap between the CAF and industry on being able to procure C4ISR services/capabili- ties. Interestingly, the point was raised that industry is leveraging AI/ML to signifi- cant advantage in ways that could enable/ translate to increased lethality/precision in the battlespace and how do we embrace

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