Preserving capacity, General Tom Lawson, Chief of the Defence Staff, Keys to Canadian SAR
Issue link: http://vanguardcanada.uberflip.com/i/476674
C C4iSR www.vanguardcanada.com FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015 13 The "wow" factor is a great question because while we in the CAF are now moving to a period of greater interaction with indus- try with the Defence Procurement Strategy, the "wow" factor is something we need to be really cautious of. We need those newer technologies that give us a technological and operational advan- tage, but we need to apply them judiciously. We need to look at technologies that will solve operational problems, and just solve the problems that the government has told us to solve. So from my perspective, I'm giving guidance to my team to look for ways that technologies can help us advance our operational objectives, while not going overboard in the quest for technology. We all want the biggest, newest, and best and the "wow" factor is great, but the "can-do" is essential – we have to balance those. Q At the 2104 Outlooks, the air force in particular stressed the importance of functionality and ease of use in C4ISR. Is that a key driver? I think there is a signifi cant amount of truth in that. We need to remain fi rmly focused on how the technologies we fi eld allow us to address the goals of the Canada First Defence Strategy. There are lots of checks and balances in place to ensure that we do. Q Have budget restraints forced you to say no or delay newer applications? We have a fi xed pool of resources and we need to deliver key operational requirements within those available resources. That will inevitably lead to tough decisions in prioritizing effort and resources, and sometimes the decisions will be "no." The track record of the CAF in operations speaks for itself, so I think we have shown very good stewardship. Q What then is your greatest challenge at the moment to deliver joint C4ISR? We are a relatively small force compared to some of our partners, so there is always a struggle for resources and it is not just dol- lars, it's people. We have some of the best trained people but we are asking a lot of them, everyday. So I think the struggle is to be able to utilize our people in a way that is responsive to the opera- tional need and still save that little bit that we need in the Force Development community to look ahead – we need to be looking to the future and to future technologies. There is a very healthy tension between the day-to-day requirements and the future re- quirements, and that's our struggle. Q How signifi cant a concern are standards and commonality of systems? Some don't integrate well now, sometimes for logical security reasons, but surely that has to change as you introduce new capability. I agree completely. For me, data types and the way we communi- cate within the CAF to other government departments, to coali- tion partners, and up to operational commanders need to become standardized. I think we are moving to an era of open-source data types with services-oriented architecture, and I get every in- dication from coalition partners that they are moving in a similar direction. It is not just having the data in the same format, it's how you use the data and how you move the data. We are often part of international coalitions and we have exchange offi cers with other militaries, so we need to have common methods of moving information from the tactical to the strategic. We are doing well but there is still a lot of work to be done. Most of our allies are going through the same sorts of issues and concerns. At any of the professional development gatherings we have where we get a chance to discuss our approaches, we're all providing each other with the same sorts of challenges. However, just as we faced common challenges in the battle space, we will overcome them in the technical space. Q The volume of data is not going to get any smaller as sensors proliferate. What is your requirement for data management? The volume of information is increasing exponentially from one day to the next and I think the great challenge for C4ISR organi- zations in the future – I'm looking 20 years ahead now – is going to be deciding when we can automate data analysis and when we need the human in the loop; reserving that space for the human to make those decisions that only a human can do by being able to triage the voluminous amounts of information that are collected into a format that is distilled down into those key bits that the decision maker needs. And doing that in near-real time. That is no small task but that is where we are going with C4ISR: take a large amount of information, analyze it automatically, distill out the key pieces where human involvement is required, decide what those key pieces are, present those to the commander, and do it quickly. Q The procurement system as it stands now is not well set up for the agility required to keep pace with technology, so how are you managing the demand from commanders for enhanced capability? I think that is situational-dependent to a large extent, but the CAF has made some great strides toward streamlining the procurement process. But you bring up an interesting point: some technologi- cal capability advances much more quickly than others. So we are constantly asking ourselves, how do we remain agile enough to respond to changes in technology while still respecting the proce- dural requirements that are very necessary? We are looking at ways to streamline technical solutions for the future. It is premature to comment on any specifi c avenue, but we are looking for enterprise solutions – information management, information technology so- lutions which we can deliver in a more time sensitive way. Some of the joint capabilities that we are currently working on in- clude identity management solutions. We are looking at extra ways of verifying identity on top of a user name and password. We are also looking at solutions that will secure the data within the network. In the past we've secured the perimeter around the network, but once you are inside the network, it has been relatively easy to access in- formation. We are now looking at combining identity management and credentialing in ways that will allow us to secure individual