Vanguard Magazine

C4ISR and Beyond Conference www.vanguardcanada.com FEBRUARY/MARCH 2024 19 C 4 I S R A N D B E Y O N D B Y R O N L LO Y D, VA D M ( R E T ' D ) T his year's theme was particu- larly welcome and timely: Interoperability and Integra- tion – getting through the tensions to see these lived at scale and speed. The conference was ex- ceptionally well supported and attended, with around 450 participants, in-person and virtual, including senior leaders across the CAF, DND, Industry, and in- ternational partners. As MC for the fourth consecutive year, I was truly fortunate to share some in- troductory thoughts for participants to reflect on throughout the day, specifi- cally to challenge some of our orthodox- ies on security and risk. Orthodoxies that are hurting our efforts to perform in this space. On security, I noted that despite recent amendments to TBS Security poli- cies, Defence's underlying security clas- sification framework has not changed in the last 40 years. As such, it is no longer fit for purpose and is out of step with our Five-Eyes Partners, as is our defined level of injury for individual security classifica- VANGUARD AND CONFERENCE ATTENDEES CELEBRATED A TREMENDOUS MILESTONE TOGETHER ON 30 JANUARY THIS YEAR - AND TACKLED AN IMPORTANT, TIMELY TOPIC REFLECTIONS ON THE 10TH ANNUAL tions. The net result is a culture of over- classification that is further exacerbated by Canada's simplistic approach to data ag- gregation. On risk, I also introduced the concept of an aggregate risk profile which senior executives intuitively seek to ap- ply to decrease capability and mission risk over time. Seeing risk only through silos is hurting us too. Overcoming these will remove and mitigate some significant bar- riers to progress. VAdm Bob Auchterlonie, Commander Canadian Joint Operations Command and MGen Mike Wright, Commander of Canadian Forces Intelligence Command, provided us with an exceptional take on Canada's and the CAF's current and near- term operating environment – our Mis- sion Charter for the day. They objectively and compellingly framed the risks of our current state – including jeopardy to con- tributing meaningfully to coalition opera- tions, our relevance and effectiveness in the digital age, and being left farther be- hind our allies and adversaries. Their can- did observations of current Defence chal- lenges in the broader context of the five transnational trends and five geopolitical pressure points underscored the sense of urgency for Canadian Defence to get through the tensions to deliver C4ISR at scale and speed. Lt Gen (Ret'd) Clint Hinote, the former Deputy COS USAF and the first leader of Air Force Futures delivered a compel- ling keynote. We heard his thoughts on answering the question, how do we de- fend democracy in our time? He noted that strategically the world is transition- ing from an era of Western democracies with decisively offensive capabilities to a world where defence is becoming more predominant and at significantly less cost. In deterrence terms, he noted that when, not if, aggression comes the first priority will be to help those attacked by inflicting massive attrition on the attacker, and to preclude or delay their ability to establish a Defensive posture. The importance of the digital backbone to enabling an un- derstanding of "what is going on" and 'how to integrate and deliver decisive ef- Photo: Summer Fuller

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