Vanguard Magazine

18 APRIL/MAY 2024 www.vanguardcanada.com There's a lot of things we can learn from this conflict. We're talking technology, sensors and autonomous platforms. We're seeing AI being used in space and cyber, and you're seeing all this evolve very rapidly on the battle space. It's showing us that digital transformation is crucial. I N T E R V I E W I realize this may sound scattered and all over the map, but there's a whole bunch of things that are really, really interesting. We looked at Ukraine as a backdrop at all the lessons coming out of that. And specifically, you see how high end and low end are being used and how mass is still necessary. We've seen military forces evolve over the decades to be smaller. But now we're seeing on the battlefield there are hundreds of thousands of folks en- gaged. We're seeing mass armies are now engaged, something we haven't seen in a long time. So, we've gone to precision is key, but mass is also important. So, it's really a bit of a dichotomy. This makes it tough for planners. Q What I found fascinating in your C4ISR and Beyond conference address last January, is that everyone thought this conflict was going to finish very quickly. But both sides have been hang- ing on and have been able to gain allies along the way to help them with their efforts. As you know, this is a blatant, brutal and illegal Russian aggression into Ukraine. That's what the conflict is. That said, Rus- sia and Ukraine are being supported by allies on both sides. We are certainly sup- porting Ukraine. We've committed to that by announcing our bilateral security ar- rangement, and most of the West has as well, broadly speaking. Russia looked like they would be unable to sustain. Now they are drawing from North Korea and Iran, drawing from partners that aren't necessar- ily their partners. Q Is this an anomaly or is this a new way of warfare? That's a good question. Nobody had the stockpiles or the ammunition require- ments necessary. You're seeing that on the West side, now folks are struggling to bring production up. They're lowering their stockpiles to support Ukraine. At the same time, where you may have thought Russia had these stockpiles, they've gone through them and they're now looking for ammunition and short-range ballistic mis- siles from other countries. So that that's certainly a key lesson, and it comes back to the second point about industry, how important it is to have that ability to surge industry and increase production. Q In terms of the symposium, are there any takeaways from the Ukraine war that resonate with you as it relates to Operation REASSURANCE? Yes, absolutely. It's not only the Canadian Armed Forces, but the whole entire secu- rity apparatus that are looking at the lessons drawn from the Ukraine conflict in terms of scale, in terms of technology, in terms of defence-industrial base. And at the tactical level as well.

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