Vanguard Magazine

April/May 2014

Preserving capacity, General Tom Lawson, Chief of the Defence Staff, Keys to Canadian SAR

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S SYSTEMS INTEGRATION SolviNg the ModerN platForM pUZZle System of systems integra- tion might be an overused term as we enter the age of the Internet of Things, where your fridge, toaster and coff ee maker will regu- larly provide each other with status updates. But it remains the most accurate way to think about the multifaceted integration of the o en intricate systems that comprise a modern military platform. And as General Motors and other auto manufactures have re- cently shown, the complexity of working with multiple suppliers can expose tremendous risk. Chris Pogue is vice president of strategy and busi- ness development for General Dynamics C4 Systems International, a company with decades of experience developing projects for the Canadian army, navy and air force, as well as for public safety and emergency management. As Canada prepares for some of its largest systems integration projects in recent memory under the National Shipbuilding Procurement Strat- egy, he spoke with editor Chris Thatcher about some of the challenges. 16 APRIL/MAY 2014 www.vanguardcanada.com Q There was a time when many systems, even in a military aircra or vehicle, were fairly straightforward. Today, it's not just the sophistication of each system that makes integration complex, but almost everything is also networked. How do you view system of systems integration (SoS)? When you think of a large scale defence or public safety procure- ments, it's no longer a system, it's a system of systems which be- comes very complex because you have multiple interfaces. Maier in the 1990s provided a unique framework that describes a SoS as having fi ve fundamental characteristics: operational independence (the individual components have some operational capability by and of themselves); managerial independence (the components might be operated by different entities); evolutionary develop- ment (SoS will change over time but not all the parts will change at the same pace); geographical distribution (in other words, the bits and pieces of a SoS could be geographically distributed); and then the fun one, emergent behaviour – something that cannot be attributed to any single subcomponent but is created by a unique combination of systems. Maier didn't say emergent behaviour is good or bad, he just said, "emergent behaviour." In good SoS design, we want to deal with the managerial in- dependence, and a lot of that can be contractual; deal with the geographic distribution – the Internet is a good example of that; deal with the operational independence by virtue of having a well understood concept of operations; deal with evolutionary devel- opment by having a very clear operational architecture that shows a natural development over time; and then have positive emergent behaviour – unique new things that will make a valid operational difference. For a company like General Dynamics, because we have been dealing for decades with this increasing complexity and the dynamics of system of systems, experience lends itself well to fi nding ways to create the emergent behaviour that is desirable to achieve the operational mission. Why militaries exist hasn't changed a lot in the past couple thou- sand years: if you think of the Roman Legions and our militaries of today, what they do and why they do it is still pretty much the same; how they do it is a whole lot different. The breadth and range of programs we do – land, naval, air, even public safety programs with other government departments – means the "hows" are better understood. You couple that with tools like robust operational ar- chitecture and a sound understanding of the concept of operations and the way end users want to operate, that lends itself to generat- ing system of systems confi gurations that can deal with those fi ve characteristics and deliver benefi cial emergent behaviour. Q Does the fact that almost every component will have to operate in a Joint environment, that it must communicate and interoperate with everything else, aff ect how you approach a project for a specifi c service? An Integrated Tactical Network Demonstration at GD Canada, showcasing capabilities such as next generation vehicle networks.

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