Vanguard Magazine

I N T E R V I E W www.vanguardcanada.com JUNE/JULY 2026 15 Q Where can Canadian industry be most useful in supporting RCAF modern- ization and readiness? For starters, delivering on time and on (or under) budget. We have too many projects where optimism runs afoul of reality. De- spite the increase in funding, our appetite to do more is still greater than our budget. That means we must be very disciplined in prioritizing where we'll spend our next dollar. In some of these massive proj- ects, any delay can mean increased costs for both taxpayers and industry, and the threat demands that we deliver capability on schedule. We can't afford years of delay, in both the literal and figurative senses. We're also looking for opportunities to leapfrog into the next generation of ca- pabilities with Canadian industry. For ex- ample, we need affordable mass in addition to traditional things like fighter jets, so in- novative solutions to operational problems are welcome. We can't guarantee that ev- ery good idea will get funding, so we're happy to work with industry to better de- fine some of those operational problems and focus on the most important ones. Another key thing industry can do to help is improving security. It's a difficult challenge, especially for small and me- dium enterprises, but frankly, given the threats we're seeing through our intelli- gence, we need to have classified discus- sions around our operational problems. I can't have an unclassified conversation about a classified problem in most cases. We need industry to invest in the secure facilities to design and fabricate a capabil- ity. It's one thing to have a conversation in a secure facility about a problem, but the IT systems and Intellectual Property that engineers are working on also need to be secured. The security culture and ecosystem in the defence industry needs to increase across the board, and compa- nies that invest in those basics are going to be more valuable to us. We used to feel protected by our oceans to a much greater extent than we do today. CP-140 Aurora. Photo: DND It's not just an industry problem; there's a lot we need to improve on the govern- ment side as well, in terms of policies, se- curity clearances, etc. But ultimately, we need to work together to up our collective game and protect our critical information. I'll leave you with a final thought. I like to use the analogy of the CAF as a dry, brown lawn that's had a long-term drought. If money equals water, you can lay down a whole lot of water on that brown lawn on the first day, and it looks like nothing is happening. You put more on the lawn the next day, and the next, and the next, and eventually things start to turn green. That greening takes time. The CAF has been in a drought for a very long time, but we've had a lot of 'rain' lately, to extend the analogy. Things are starting to turn green. It will be a few years yet until everything is as green as we would like it to be. We are well on our way, and these are exciting times for the RCAF and the CAF as a whole.

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