Vanguard Magazine

18 DECEMBER 2023/JANUARY 2024 www.vanguardcanada.com INTERVIEW support our troops in the field. So, I think the role we play is to improve the service delivery to our customers - who are pri- marily the CAF members. MGen Dawe: I'll give a bit of an overview of CCSI for the benefit of your readers. The team is small, 27 people divided up into three directorates: Joint Integration, Military Digital Operations and Opera- tional Sustainment. My predecessor did a terrific job of standing up the team and crafting some important documents, in- cluding the CAF Digital Campaign Plan and the Operational Statement Modern- ization Strategy that will guide us over the coming years. But it was clear to both of us during that handover that we were at a bit of an in- flection point. I went around and engaged with my colleagues across the CAF and the department, and what I heard was a re- sounding demand for direction, coherence and advocacy on the joint and digitaliza- tion fronts. Once I got aboard, our team revisited our mission analysis to make sure that we still had it right. The vision statement now is for a CAF that is relevant to our National Security Partners, abreast of our allies through day zero interoperability with decision advan- tage over our adversaries. The keyword in all of this being interoperability. Our mis- sion statement is to enable the transforma- tion of the CAF, informed by our allies and threats, advocating for joint capabilities and coordinating the development of Pan Domain Command and Control (PDC2) and Operational Sustainment, thus ensur- ing that the CAF remains credible by vir- tue of interoperability. Michael Rouleau: Q The synergy between you is palpable and it's the first year in position for all three of you. What are your main short and longer run objectives? Ross Ermel: One thing that was key as I started in this role was to make sure that there was no space between Raj, Peter and I, because the battleground is not between us. It's out there in terms of getting capa- bility in the hands of those who need it. I think we have achieved just that. Looking at my first year, I wanted to do a needs analysis of where we are in Defence and I've done that, supported by Raj and the CCSI. When I took over the post I saw a congested and contested digital space. There was a lot of pent-up demand and of course our adversaries and allies are moving apace in digital transformation. So, I want- ed to have a digital transformation operat- ing model designed within the first year to address this. I'm on track to do that. Looking into next year, we need to reset what we're doing in terms of data. It is the fuel that will either power our capability, ambitions, and realizations in the future - or not. We must up our game when it comes to data quality, stewardship and governance across the board. We're updating our data strategy, partnering with CCSI on that. My vision is to start getting our data sorted out in terms of vertical pipes, narrow forcing functions that can start to make sure that we can get high-quality data to enable su- perior decision making. Finally, I'm looking at digital initiatives and workplace modernization. I think all of us share an aim to make sure that we take interoperability with our Five Eyes allies and NATO partners extremely se- riously to make sure that we can achieve interoperability enabled by digital trans- formation. Raj Thuppal: We need three outcomes. One is making sure that we provide users with the capabilities they need and making sure that the services they get are solid. Second, we must enable them to achieve their objectives, both from a command, control and intelligence perspective, and on the data side across the enterprise and the CAF. It's also about working with the L1s to make clear what do we do as an en- terprise and what are the L1s are going to do from an ICT perspective. Third is being a leading-edge organiza- tion and protecting Defence from cyber threats. How do we position ourselves to be that leading-edge organization? We are moving from a process-based organiza- tion to a product-based organization, hav- ing clear accountabilities within my own teams for different streams of products and making sure that we have projects, opera- tions, engineering for those products sets aligned under one leadership. That's one big change and phase one is going to roll out starting January 1st. MGen Dawe: I would start by staying on a 12-month horizon and keeping with the theme of delivering tangible results. My sense is that it is difficult to overstate the significance of that (November 2024 multi-national exercise) event that is be- ing referred to as CJADC2 PROJECT OLYMPUS. It's the convergence of Ex Finally, I'm looking at digital initiatives and workplace modernization. I think all of us share an aim to make sure that we take interoperability with our Five Eyes allies and NATO partners extremely seriously to make sure that we can achieve interoperability enabled by digital transformation. — Ross Ermel

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