Vanguard Magazine

Opening Keynote: Lieutenant- General Stephen Kelsey, Vice Chief of Defence Staff C4ISR and Beyond 2025 22 FEBRUARY/MARCH 2025 www.vanguardcanada.com B Y S A N D Y S C H W A B O n 28 January 2025, Van- guard held its 11th annual C4ISR and Beyond con- ference in Ottawa with a theme of "Building Trust in Developing Decision Advantage". The day-long conference was hosted live with over 320 people in attendance plus simul- taneously streamed to another 85 virtual attendees from government and industry. The conference opened with LGen (Ret'd) Michael Rouleau. He shared how last year's theme on interoperability and integration would continue, and that this year's conference would focus on geostrate- gic and national developments. Discussions included the Our North Strong and Free (ONSAF) policy, subtle shifts in warfare, and the evolving role of industry in sup- porting CAF/DND through more open and innovative approaches. It also examined strategies for modernizing our partner and threat ecosystems to ensure that the CAF remains strong and increasingly relevant. LGen Stephen Kelsey, the Vice Chief of Defence Staff was opening keynote speak- er. He reflected on 30 years of Managed Readiness as an operating posture and its irrelevance in the current global geopoliti- cal climate, including Ukraine, Taiwan and Moldova. The CAF, and our Allies, must focus on deterrence, he noted. We are in competition with our adversaries, and we need to re-orient immediately. He high- lighted three areas of strategic effort: GDMS Team-Top Row-Le to right: Stephanos Lampsos; Rebecca Neu; Joel Houde; Lorena MacKenzie; Terri Pavelic@Vanguard, Austin Douglas, Vince Tirabasso. Bottom Row-Le to right: Andrew Carryer; Patrick Thauberger; Andrew Shepherd Photos: Elise Kelsey 1. Information advantage leading to war- fighting advantage exemplified by a need for greater Cyber effects. We must change our opponent's calculus on their probabil- ity of success by leveraging our competi- tive warfighting advantage. Joint Fires and their enablers, coupled with information advantage, will deter our adversaries. Ef- ficiently packaged tanks and fighters and Battle Groups will not. We also need a shift in mindset and avoid preoccupation with more defense procurement funding while rapidly adjusting priorities to maxi- mize the short time available. 2. The Defence Services Program (DSP) is what brings the Department and the Government together through a com- mon ambition and builds trust among decision makers. Through a pan-domain approach, the CAF seeks to create infor- mation advantage by building trust and sharing information with Allies and Part- ner – Interoperability. However, we need to understand that this includes not just technical standards but procedural, cul- tural and philosophical shifts to building trust across the institution and our mili- tary enterprise. 3. The CAF needs to get away from a Project Management approach that is lin- ear and binary. We collectively want and need change and acknowledge that great- er risk acceptance is an attractive quality. Leadership needs to move with imagina- tion to close gaps faster, managing risk and moving through the discomfort with

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