Preserving capacity, General Tom Lawson, Chief of the Defence Staff, Keys to Canadian SAR
Issue link: http://vanguardcanada.uberflip.com/i/196923
S Search and rescue Lieutenant-General (Ret'd) James Steve Lucas was Chief of the Air Staff from 2005 to 2007 Capability-based SOR for challenging SAR government of Canada provide Canadian SAR crews with the best possible equipment. So what's the hold up? Capability-based requirements C anada's search and rescue (SAR) region of responsibility is arguably the most challenging in the world. Readers with an interest in Canadian SAR have heard this repeatedly. Why? Because it's true! Canada has 244,000 kilometres of coastline and 9.3 million square kilometres of ocean space under direct Canadian control and jurisdiction. Not only that, but Canada is the world's second largest nation in terms of land mass, with a wide range of geographic regions including mountains, arctic, prairie, forest, coastal and ocean. Climatic conditions can vary greatly from region to region and from season to season and because search and rescue incidents in Canada most often occur in adverse weather, our SAR crews are often forced to work in very difficult conditions. These facts alone suggest it is only fair and right that the Today, almost 10 years after the initial launch of the FWSAR program ... Canada, by all accounts, is confident that they have successfully produced a capability-based SOR, upon which to conduct an open competition. 26 OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2013 www.vanguardcanada.com There are many reasons why the Fixed Wing Search and Rescue (FWSAR) project has seemingly languished since it was initially launched as a fast track program in 2004, but the most likely reasons have to do with differing opinions on the validity of the initial Statement of Requirement (SOR) and the foundation on which it was based. In the absence of a complex mathematical algorithm which would take the thousands of SAR incident points from the statistical SAR database, project them forward based on changes taking place in Canada's North and yield an absolute set of requirements, the 2004 SOR was based upon maintaining the same standard provided by the capabilities of the previous aircraft. Unfortunately, this standard failed to take into account a number of critical factors, including the need for improved search capabilities – something that led Canada's operational and defence acquisition leadership to acknowledge that finding a better way to define the FWSAR requirements in terms of a capability based service was critical. The challenge therein became stating the requirement in such a way that Canada would get the very best value it could for the money available, always predicated on achieving a level of capability that meets or exceeds a carefully defined mandatory requirement. This is far more difficult than it sounds given that the extreme challenges of the mission demand a very capable platform, while the financial climate demands that it be done within an envelope established several years ago. Developing a capability-based requirement is further complicated by the challenges associated with correctly prioritizing and assigning a relative weighting that recognizes the true value of each of the many important requirements. While the majority of interested Canadians understand that search and rescue in Canada is an incredibly demanding task, without first-hand experience it is difficult for many to truly appreciate the real operational and logistical challenges associated with this type of work – and therefore the relative value of the identified requirements. For instance, while many Canadians can easily identify with the criticality of speed and the location of the main operating bases,