www.vanguardcanada.com APRIL/MAY 2025 23
S E R V I C E C H I E F S
www.rheinmetall.ca
PROVENPARTNER
RHEINMETALL
A TRUSTED PARTNER FOR CANADA AND ITS ALLIES
Delivering unique capabilities at home and abroad is and
will always remain our top priority.
A0425e0424_Rh Canadian Proven Partner_7x4,625 inch.indd 1 A0425e0424_Rh Canadian Proven Partner_7x4,625 inch.indd 1 01.04.24 21:21 01.04.24 21:21
BGen MASSON:
Thank you. The Chief of Staff Army Strat-
egy and I, in order to be more consistent
with our engagement with this strategy,
have decided that every quarter we're
going to engage army-related industry.
Starting in the next few weeks, with dates
to be confirmed, you will receive an invite
where we're going to ask you to come and
sit down for casual chat. And during that
present everything that we have in mind
for army of today, but also army of the
future.
Brig SANDRY:
Q: General Smyth, you also wanted to
say a few words about working with
industry?
MGen SMYTH:
We need a completely different paradigm
in terms of how we deal with the defense
industry. I've had a lot of conversations
over the last couple of months with various
companies. And the consistent message that
I'm hearing is that we need to talk more of-
ten. The challenge that we have is that our
We have to trust our sailors. They understand
how the technology works, and we need to enable
them to bring that stuff in and study it. They're
doing incredible things on board ships with data
management, siing through the data, using the
different sensors, and then communicating out to our
allies."—
Commodore Jason Armstrong
system says, 'okay, you need to build the
requirements and then you put out an RFI
or an RFP, and then we wait for industry
to scratch their heads and come back with
a solution to that'. What I would rather see
is a dialogue around, 'here's an operational
problem that we're facing. What can we do
together to solve that problem?' And we
need to change that whole procurement
construct. But we must do it collectively be-
cause we can't do it on our own. And indus-
try can't do it on their own. It must be done
together, working as a team.
Sub-Lieutenant Christian McKeage,
a bridge watchkeeper onboard HMCS
MARGARET BROOKE. Photo: Corporal
Connor Bennett, DND
