Vanguard Magazine

tally transformed, modern Canadian Army capable of offering agile and scalable op- tions here in Canada or anywhere around the world. The number one priority I've been fo- cused on is modernization. And I divided that into two parts. First are major capi- tal projects. We have around 50 national capital projects and of those we have pri- oritized four with a backbone. The first priority of the projects are about a capabil- ity we've never had, long range precision strike. The second priority is a wholesale modernization of all our indirect fire assets from mortars up to artillery. Third is up- dating the Arctic mobility capability we've had since the 1970s and which is being held together by shoestrings. And fourth is ground-based air defense which, again, we've already got some capability forward in Latvia, and we're going to be trying to accelerate that. That's one part of modern- ization. 18 APRIL/MAY 2025 www.vanguardcanada.com S E R V I C E C H I E F S B Y VA N G U A R D S TA F F INSIDE THE CAF'S MODERNIZATION PUSH: STRUCTURE, STRATEGY, AND NEW THINKING S E R V I C E C Brigadier Edward Sandry UK Defence Advisor to Canada Major-General Dave Yarker Commander, Canadian Armed Forces Cyber Command Lieutenant-General Michael Wright Commander, Canadian Army A t the C4ISR and Beyond event, held in Ottawa this past January, senior leaders from the Canadian Army, Royal Canadian Air Force, Royal Canadian Navy, and Canadian Armed Forces Cyber Command came to- gether for a candid discussion on the future of Canada's defense. What emerged was a clear-eyed assessment of the challenges facing the Canadian Armed Forces and a shared commitment to transformation. From force structure and talent retention to integrated air and missile defense, cyber operations, and Arctic readiness, the panel offered insights into how these leaders are rethinking modernization, interoperabil- ity, and engagement with industry. Brig SANDRY: Q: Welcome, everyone, and thank you for joining me for today's important discus- sion. To kick things off, I'd like to invite each of you to briefly share what you're most interested in talking about today. Aer that, we'll move into the Q&A. LGen WRIGHT: Thanks very much, Ed. You asked us to talk about our challenges. I'll sum up my challenge in one sentence: the Canadian Army we have today is not the Canadian Army we need for the future. Coming in, I understood that the focus of the Cana- dian Army over the last couple of years had been in setting the conditions to grow from the enhanced forward presence battle group up to the brigade level. And I also understood that we had done a lot of great things in terms of accelerating some of the projects we need. But we need to make sure we are modernizing those capabilities for the entire Canadian Army, not just for the couple of thousand soldiers we have in Latvia. We are not currently, but we need to become, a credible, interoperable, digi-

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