Preserving capacity, General Tom Lawson, Chief of the Defence Staff, Keys to Canadian SAR
Issue link: http://vanguardcanada.uberflip.com/i/1513648
16 DECEMBER 2023/JANUARY 2024 www.vanguardcanada.com T he 10th annual C4ISR and Beyond conference on 30 January 2024 will be focusing on interop- erability and integration with a view to "getting through the tensions to see interoperability and integration lived" – at scale – across CAF and with interagency and international partners – and at speed – keeping up with allies and getting ahead of our adversaries. The confer- ence will allow us to unpack and understand the tensions and barriers in the way of seeing these achieved. It will expose ways of working through those tensions as experienced by others. And it will focus on the essential elements and conditions that need to be set in order for the CAF and its partners to establish a digital beachhead and capacity to break out and see results delivered – to the pan domain force in the pan domain fight. The urgency to be truly interoperable and integrated is clear. The need to be proficient in seeing this realized at echelon – strategic to tactical is not debatable these days. INTERVIEW C4ISR LGEN (RET'D) MICHAEL ROULEAU – AND AN INTERVIEW WITH: ROSS ERMEL, ASSISTANT DEPUTY MINISTER (DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION), DEPARTMENT OF NATIONAL DEFENCE RAJ THUPPAL, ASSISTANT DEPUTY MINISTER, AND CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER, DEPARTMENT OF NATIONAL DEFENCE MAJOR-GENERAL PETER DAWE, CMM, MSM, CD, CHIEF OF COMBAT SYSTEMS INTEGRATION INTEROPERABILITY AND INTEGRATION IN RESETTING THE CANADIAN ARMED FORCES AND THE DEFENCE ENTERPRISE Ross Ermel became Assistant Deputy Minister Digital Transformation and Raj Thuppal became Assistant Deputy Minis- ter Chief Information Officer at the De- partment of National Defence in April 2023. Major-General Peter Dawe became Chief of Combat Systems Integration in July 2023. This important trio has a vi- sion of how to move the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) and Department of National Defence (DND) forward in setting con- ditions for success – and in delivering on C4ISR integration and interoperability across CAF and the Defence Team. These leaders will be at the next C4ISR and Beyond conference – and participat- ing in the conference's culminating pan- el, moderated by LGen (Ret'd) Michael Rouleau, former VCDS and now Senior Advisor at Accenture. The interview and roundtable discussion transcribed here provides excellent insights into what kind of panel conversation we will see in January.