Preserving capacity, General Tom Lawson, Chief of the Defence Staff, Keys to Canadian SAR
Issue link: http://vanguardcanada.uberflip.com/i/274231
D DEFENCE 12 FEBRUARY/MARCH 2014 www.vanguardcanada.com MitigatiNg tHreats to tHe CaNadiaN arMed ForCes risK aNd resiLieNCe: Of all organizations in government, the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) is one of the most resilient. Through a century of wars, changes in structure, and new strategic directives, it has delivered world- class capability. But like all organizations, it faces risk. As it makes decisions in one area of capability to deal with decreased budgets, it can o en induce eff ects that ripple across the organization. Nick Martyn is the founder and CEO of Risk- Logik, a small so ware and consultancy company near Ottawa that is working with federal depart- ments, provincial governments and municipalities to understand the risks of cascading eff ects across critical infrastructure and how to introduce greater resilience. The retired army offi cer spent a signifi - cant a portion of his 27 years in service writing doc- trine and training, and working with transformation teams in Canada and Afghanistan to assess and mitigate risk. He spoke with editor Chris Thatcher about operational and organization risk, and some of the CAF's larger challenges. For the full interview, see www.vanguardcanada.com. Q The Canadian Armed Forces are in the process of refreshing the Canada First Defence Strategy. As they rebalance govern- ment ambition with near-term budgets, what are the areas of greatest risk they need to manage? I think in this case there are two broad categories of risk to man- age. The fi rst kind of risk is operational. To address that we have to think about what comprises operational capability. There are several models used to describe it, but essentially it is what ef- fects a force can project into the confl ict space, kinetic or non- kinetic. That is the product of all the doctrine, training, equip- ment, leadership and organizational culture (and much more) that comprises the force. It is far more than the kit. History and experience have shown that forces with very meagre equipment can defeat far superior forces when they are well trained and bril- liantly led. There is no question about the excellence in leadership of to- day's CF, but training, particularly collective training is taking a serious hit. The reduction in the operating budget means that for all intents and purposes meaningful collective training has all but ceased. There are precious few non-operational sea days, fi eld days or fl ying hours available for commanders to weld their teams into confi dent fi ghting units, and even less training fuel and ammunition to train with. It takes 124 training days to take a Battle Group to pre-deployment standard and from what I can gather now few if any units get that. So the fi rst risk is to opera- Photo: Sgt Matthew McGregor Photo: MCpl Patrick Blanchard