Vanguard Magazine

www.vanguardcanada.com DECEMBER 2023/JANUARY 2024 17 Although technology is a means to achieve an outcome, to what Ross was saying, the foundational elements are how we manage it, how we evolve, and how we support our troops in the field. So, I think the role we play is to improve the service delivery to our customers - who are primarily the CAF members. — Raj Thuppal INTERVIEW Michael Rouleau: Q To start the discussion: Our world is in flux with several ongoing armed conflicts showing us that the character of warfare is changing, and that adver- saries are showing fast adaptation. More distributed technology is finding itself in the hands of soldiers at lower levels. Technologies like edge computing and autonomous robotic systems are being combined with old paradigms. I'd like to open with this. Ross, I'll turn to you first. Ross Ermel: Thanks Mike. This is a great opportunity to talk about digital transfor- mation in National Defence and in the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF). It's about looking at how we seek to make opera- tional advantage a reality. Technology can enable this, but it's not technology at its core, it's about seeking new ways to evolve the business of defence. Quite honestly, a lot of things that we need to do in Defence in terms of our digital transformation are well-honed and well-proven. We're not talking about leading-edge processes and we remain aligned in that objective. What we do here from an information and com- munication technology (ICT) perspective is very different from what we do in other departments. The core enterprise IT is part of it, but the specialty of this department and CAF includes the C2 systems, the intel- ligence systems, and all the communication systems that the CIO group is responsible for. I'm very fortunate to be part of this team and at this important time as well. Although technology is a means to achieve an outcome, to what Ross was say- ing, the foundational elements are how we manage it, how we evolve, and how we tools here. The problem is one of coher- ence and bringing it from the enterprise to the tactical edge. It's based on leader- ship and culture, but also on our interop- erability. The three of us are seized on making sure that with key allies, NATO, but also importantly our Five Eyes coun- terparts that we're taking that business very seriously in terms of really putting the "I" in interoperability. Raj Thuppal: I would say ditto. There's a lot of synergies between what the three of us do together to provide that for the department and CAF and it's important

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