Vanguard Magazine

Dec/Jan 2015

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

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T Training 28 DECEMBER 2014/JANUARY 2015 www.vanguardcanada.com TraNSFOrMiNG THe NavaL TraiNiNG SYSTeM CBRN decontamination capability from Valcartier, Quebec. "It was an eye opener for us," Newton said. "We were shocked by the scale of de- contamination capability and the security enterprise that comes with it. And under- standing how much of the provincial and federal government is activated in a chemi- cal or biological scenario was a big lesson." Central to all of these exercises is the importance of personal relationships and a fi rm understanding of each organization's capability. As he described the details of each exercise, Newton emphasized the need to know what others "can bring to the fi ght," whether it is the navy working with the army or with other government agencies. "You have to see it, experience it and build relationships with those who op- erate in it so that when a crisis does occur, you know how to coordinate and cooper- ate. You can practice this until the cows come home in scenarios, but the future never pans out the way you exercise, so it defaults to person-to-person relationships and knowing each others' capabilities." As an example, he noted that many in the army perceive Trinity, the JTFA intelligence and data fusion centre, as solely a naval re- source and fail to capitalize on its strengths. "It's all about understanding who the op- erators are and the type of information they are used to dealing with. If you don't know what they can deal with, you don't know what to ask for. So a lot of this was relation- ship building, but some of it was real capabil- ity demonstration." Generating a land-sea effect does not nec- essarily require permanent army-navy teams, but Newton notes that the shared experience of, for example, army counter-IED engi- neers and navy UXO (unexploded ordnance Q Do new ships mean re-examining competencies and skill sets, especially as the environment becomes increasingly digital? As we see future ships coming off the slips, we need to understand that the structure of our navy today, the occupations if you will, may not necessarily be those occupations that we need on the new ships. we learned this when we stepped up from steamers to frig- ates. Those that walked on the frigates on their fi rst days will opine now, years later, that maybe we missed a step in that we took a construct from a steamer and we made it work in a frigate. [So] as we see these future platforms coming, what do we need to do to restructure our occupations that makes sense when [sailors] walk aboard those fi rst ships on the fi rst day? Q What then are the priorities of NTS 2.0? As we move through this next spiral of naval training system trans- formation, in many ways it is about catching up with where many other academic and training institutes are already and moving to concepts like a campus model, moving to greater use of technol- ogy. For example, we now have a universal classroom that allows me to have students in Halifax and Victoria sitting together virtu- ally, with an instructor on one coast teaching them all in an interac- tive mechanism. And then exploring more the concepts of quantity control – how many people do we need in the system, and when, to get the right outputs? – and quality control – how much is enough to allow them to eff ectively carry out the duties they need to carry out? Those are two concepts we continue to work down as we look at the fi ve schools and all the supporting pieces. Is this the right construct as we look ahead 10-15 years? when Vice-Admiral Mark Norman released his Execu- tive Plan for the Royal Canadi- an Navy in late 2013, it laid out specifi c divisions of labour for the commanders of Maritime Forces Atlantic (MARLANT) and Pacifi c (MARPAC). MARLANT assumed respon- sibility for fl eet readiness and warfare policy while MARPAC now oversees individual, collective and operational training for force generation, as well as the force em- ployment elements of operational planning. For rear-admiral bill Truelove, the change has meant a transformation of the entire naval training system, what is being called NTS 2.0. Not only is the commander of MARPAC overseeing the amalgama- tion of fi ve independent schoolhouses into one uni- fi ed command – what he called a system of systems – he also has responsibility for the Naval Reserves and four Personnel Coordination Centres. During an interview at Maritime Security Challeng- es 2014 in Victoria this fall, he explained how that change has allowed him to look at the competencies and skill sets required for tomorrow's fl eets; at bet- ter training and integration of the Reserves and how they can augment the crews of all ships in the con- duct of operations; and at how sailors are deployed across the country to ensure "all personnel are in the right place at the right time for the right length of time to continue their progression while still ensuring the operational output for the mission sets." when Vice-Admiral Mark Norman released his Execu- tive Plan for the Royal Canadi- an Navy in late 2013, it laid out specifi c divisions of labour for the commanders of Maritime Forces Atlantic (MARLANT) and Pacifi c (MARPAC). MARLANT assumed respon- sibility for fl eet readiness and warfare policy while MARPAC

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