Preserving capacity, General Tom Lawson, Chief of the Defence Staff, Keys to Canadian SAR
Issue link: http://vanguardcanada.uberflip.com/i/274231
C C4ISR AND BEYOND www.vanguardcanada.com FEBRUARY/MARCH 2014 19 NAME: TITLE: ORGANIZATION: ADDRESS: CITY: PROVINCE: POSTAL CODE: COUNTRY: E-MAIL ADDRESS: PHONE: WHICH FORMAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO RECEIVE YOUR COPIES? PRINT DIGITAL SUBSCRIBE TO FREE WEEKLY E-NEWSLETTER? YES, PLEASE NO, THANKS Privacy Policy: we do not share or sell our mailing list ARE YOU MISSING OUT? www.vanguardcanada.com/Subscribe One Year Subscription (6 Issues) Fax: 905-727-4428 Mail: 24-4 Vata Court, Aurora, ON, L4G 4B6 Email: circulation@promotive.net SUBSCRIBE NOW! Canada's premier defence and security magazine for the past 16 years is there with timely articles and insightful coverage of issues and events. Technology and national security issues are an important focus in the magazine suited for today's fast-paced and tech oriented society. THE FORUM FOR CANADA'S SECURITY AND DEFENCE COMMUNITY Anticipating and understanding requires effective communication and information systems – and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems – to connect peo- ple, organizations and information. The second part of the mission state- ment, "prepare for", is all about collabo- rating, relationship building, partnering and planning – building the networks and championing the joint force and joint ca- pabilities that enable preparedness – in advance of a crisis. Relationships with po- tential operational-level partners are most effective if they are established pre-crisis, so that when we reach out to our counter- parts we know that they'll take the call and that we are predisposed to trust each other and work together to our mutual benefit. Preparing for technical interoperabil- ity with potential partners is obviously im- portant, to ensure that our systems can exchange information. Equally important is the establishment of Canada-wide and world-wide command and control and support networks. We have command and control (C2) nodes and support infrastruc- ture distributed across Canada; we are now working to establish the nuclei of C2 nodes and support hubs in areas where we might be called upon to conduct operations glob- ally. These need not be overly significant: agreements for access and basing, a bit of communication and information system in- frastructure, and on-call contracts for logis- tics support would facilitate potential opera- tions in far-flung regions of the world. As some wise man once said, you might be able to surge forces, but you can't surge relationships, networks, access and trust. These need to exist in some form before a crisis response or contingency operation. As the force employer for the Chief of the Defence Staff (CDS), I need to inform and shape the operational requirement for the joint force. The commanders of the Navy, Army and Air Force are the experts in their respective warfare domains and are charged with designing and building their respective capability packages, each joint or joint-enabled in its own way. My focus is on assuring our effectiveness in the global warfare domains – space and cyber in par- ticular – as well as the joint enabling capa- bilities that allow tactical and operational integration of joint forces. Key here is C4ISR. I am joined in those areas by the Chief of Force Development. Notwithstanding how we slice and dice our efforts and focus, it is universally un- derstood that C4ISR is at the heart of the joint agenda. As we enter a period of resource pres- sures, our need to anticipate and prepare for operations is greater than ever. De- tailed, accurate and timely information exchange enables understanding. Under- standing informs where and with whom we plan and prepare for operations, and as- sures that we are ready to conduct the full spectrum of operations – home and away. The Challenges I'll describe two that are front of mind: sharing information and managing huge volumes of data. We command and control the CAF pri- marily in the secret information domain. In the "Home Game," short of a military attack on Canada, we're always support- ing somebody else's operation, be it Pub- lic Safety Canada or provincial authorities. Other government departments and agen- cies typically operate in the unclassified in- formation space. In the "Away Game," we again support somebody else's campaign,