Preserving capacity, General Tom Lawson, Chief of the Defence Staff, Keys to Canadian SAR
Issue link: http://vanguardcanada.uberflip.com/i/337874
ing us a hammer, we are going to make us more like a scalpel at times." FOOs and FACs (also known as joint terminal attack controllers) – the former controls terminal effects of artillery while the latter controls munitions from air- borne platforms – advise and provide so- lutions on fires support to combat arms commanders. Vaughan says that while Canadian capability was very effective in Afghanistan – the DAGR, or defence ad- vanced GPS receiver, and laser range finder worked well together to provide a soldier's grid, orientation and accurate target loca- tion – the digital architecture now unfold- ing across the army offers the opportunity to create a much more effective system. "The problem inherent at the time was the human factor. We needed to take that grid out and verbally communicate it to the platform. But when you are on opera- tions and you haven't slept for 72 hours, D DIGITAL ARMY C alling in fire support has always been subject to the frailties of human error. The deaths of five U.S. special operations forces members engaged in a fire fight in the Ar- ghandab district of southern Zabul prov- ince in Afghanistan this month was a tragic reminder that even the best can make mistakes when calling for or delivering air strikes. The deaths from friendly fire, which oc- curred during a joint operation of Afghan and NATO forces, reinforce once again the multitude of challenges associated with accurately transmitting and receiving that vital 10-digit target grid. Major Jason Vaughan is all too familiar with the pressures of such situations. He served in Afghanistan in 2008 as a forward observation officer and forward air con- troller and speaks with a palpable passion about the role they play and the effort re- quired to ensure mistakes are avoided or at least minimized. "One of the big lessons we got out of Afghanistan was the strong desire to have machine-to-machine interface," he says. "Human error is a given, it is going to happen. People make mistakes when they are tired, when they are under pressure. Training will help. Operational experience helps. But lessons learned and incidents with our allies have taught us that even the best of us can make mistakes under pres- sure. These are our brothers and sisters. We have to be able to look somebody's wife or husband in the eye and, hand on heart, say we did everything possible, we did our best." Vaughan is leading a Canadian Army initiative to modernize the Forward Ob- servation Officer/Forward Air Controller (FOO/FAC) capability, a 10- to 12-year project that will not only help minimize the chance of human error, but also make air and artillery strikes more surgical. "We want to use the right tool in the tool box. And to do that in today's com- plex battlefield we want to ensure we have crossed the T's and dotted the I's as much as possible to ensure the effect is the mini- mal effect required for that target. That is really what the next step for the FOO/ FAC on the battlefield is. Instead of mak- by Chris Thatcher 28 JUNE/JULY 2014 www.vanguardcanada.com DIGITIZING THE CALL THE INTERIM STEPS TO MORE ACCURATE AIR AND ARTILLERY STRIKES