Vanguard Magazine

B Y VA N G U A R D S TA F F Major-General Timothy Arsenault, Dep- uty Commander of Canadian Joint Opera- tions Command, opened the day by putting training at the centre of the CAF's modern- ization agenda. In his view, the training en- terprise must keep pace with the platforms Canada is acquiring, and getting there will require deliberate investment and integra- tion. "If we fail to evolve, if we allow frag- mentation to persist, if we lag behind the pace of technological change, then it will be- come a vulnerability, one that our adversaries will exploit, and one that will ultimately be paid for by our people on operations." That framing was held for the rest of the day. Taking Stock of Canada's Training and Simulation Enterprise Opening Keynote: Major-General Timothy Arsenault, Deputy Commander, Canadian Joint Operations Command Master of Ceremonies, Colonel Andre Dupuis (Ret'd), President SSCL Luncheon Keynote, Shelly Blake-Plock, President of I2IDL and co-founder of Yet Analytics Photos: Summer Fuller What the People Doing the Work Actually Said Two serving officers, Major Jake Balfe, Chief Training Officer at 436 Tactical Air Transport Squadron, and Lieutenant- Commander Nicholas Culhane, Opera- tions Room Officer Course Officer, Na- val Fleet School (Pacific), were given the stage with no moderator and no prepared remarks. The format was called the Coal Face. Both officers spoke plainly about what is working, what is not, and what they need. Balfe described an Air Force in expan- sion, making forward-looking investments and asking the right questions of the right Sovereign Strength or Strategic Vulnerability? C anada is spending money on defence at a pace not seen in a generation. New jet fighters, new surface combatants, new ground systems. The question is whether the training enterprise can keep pace. The Simulation and Training Forum put that question on the table on April 28 in Ottawa and drew more than 180 partic- ipants from across government, the Cana- dian Armed Forces, and industry. It spent a full day examining it with the people who do this work, the industry partners build- ing the systems that support it, and the scientists who study how people actually learn complex skills under pressure. At the inaugural Simulation and Training Forum in Ottawa, the question on the table was whether Canada's training enterprise can keep pace with the force it is being asked to build. Simulation & Training FORUM 2026 28 JUNE/JULY 2026 www.vanguardcanada.com

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