Vanguard Magazine

their use cases, and iterate until we get it right," said Shepherd. The Battle Lab does not seek to simply deliver demonstrations for experimenta- tion's sake, but rather to facilitate a continu- ous feedback loop with the Canadian Army. It also exists to showcase emerging capabili- ties which, through agile development, can be rapidly scaled to transform C4ISR capa- bilities across the front line command. General Dynamics is currently support- ing the rapid deployment and innovation efforts of C4 capabilities for the Canadi- an Army to support the evolution of the Dispersed Brigade Command Post for Op REASSURANCE in Latvia. By working side by side with soldiers, the company's Mission Specialists and engineering ex- perts – many of which are CAF veterans – are able to observe the operational use of the network while mentoring users and understanding their unique experiences and interaction with the technology dur- ing real time operations. From this posi- tion the team can take those in situ learn- ings and any observations, consolidate them and send them back to Canada for quick iteration before the next release. "We are now in a position where there is an urgent need for the rapid delivery of technology with accelerated timelines www.vanguardcanada.com DECEMBER 2024/JANUARY 2025 11 Sponsored Content to provide and maintain enhanced capa- bility in weeks and months, rather than years and decades," said Shepherd. "What we've been able to offer in Latvia to date – and the lessons we are learning from the real-time feedback we've received – can be taken into the Battle Lab and enhanced to continue to provide the Canadian Army with operational advantage in theatre." The work being done within the Battle Lab is also being used to augment Gen- eral Dynamics' DIGITALspine taking into consideration the changing operational context and the need for integrated tactical networks to be adaptable and interoper- able, easy to integrate with, and able to op- timize to work in denied, disrupted, inter- mittent, and low-bandwidth environments. "It's the ability to ideate, design, develop, and test in this digital incubator that un- locks so much value for the Canadian Army. We're able to show them how the imple- mentation of new technology will unfold; to quickly enable and disable features; to allow them to pick and choose the capabilities that work best for them; and to optimize those solutions in real-time. It is this close collab- oration and agility that allows us to ensure the real-life applications are understood well before a solution is fielded and in the hands of Canadian soldiers," said Shepherd. Using DIGITALspine as a data-centricity enabler, the Canadian Army will realize game changing gains in decision-making power and operational effectiveness. Joint demonstration of integrated tactical network capabilities at General Dynamics Mission Systems–Canada Headquarters in Ottawa in January 2024. Photos: General Dynamics Mission Systems–Canada General Dynamics' Victor Khoo, Chief Engineer, LC4ISR Programs on the ground in Latvia with members of the Canadian Army in November 2024. sensors, radars – into a single ecosystem providing a common operating picture. It offers the flexibility for the Canadian Army to plug and play choosing the so- lutions they like from across industry to effectively meet their operational needs. "General Dynamics is committed to ecosystem collaboration and working with industry to leverage each other's ex- perience and technologies to ensure our nation's deployed forces have the systems and capabilities they need to deter and defeat adversaries. We are demonstrating how the use of AI, machine learning, and cloud computing technologies can solve the challenges being faced in modern con- flicts," said Shepherd. And the company has put that commit- ment into practice with its recently opened Battle Lab. As part of the Land Com- mand Support System contracts awarded in 2023, General Dynamics has opened an incubator for its engineers, industry col- laborators, and Army customer to come together, experiment, and innovate. "Within the Battle Lab, we take feed- back and quickly implement, test, and either succeed or fail in a controlled and safe environment. This space is one where we work side by side with our customer to look at specific capabilities, determine

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