Preserving capacity, General Tom Lawson, Chief of the Defence Staff, Keys to Canadian SAR
Issue link: http://vanguardcanada.uberflip.com/i/507045
J JOINTEX 12 aPRIL/May 2015 www.vanguardcanada.com TRAINING DECISION-mAKING AND C2 IN A COmPLEX NATO SCENARIO "This is nothing like we have done before and we are learning as we go," Colonel Brian McPherson admits. "We have never integrated with NATO like this. We are build- ing the plane as it fl ies, so to speak, so every day is an adventure." McPherson is the exercise direc- tor for JOINTEX 15, a bi-annual exercise that blends live, virtual and constructive elements to exercise both the people and the connectiv- ity required to deploy and command in large, complex and often multinational operations. As the Branch head for joint training at Canadian Joint Opera- tions Command (CJOC), he is leading a three-phase exercise that for the fi rst time will combine a Canadian joint exercise with the largest NATO exercise since the Cold War. Every deployment by the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) pres- ents some distinct challenges, whether it is one offi cer to the 50-year-old United Nations operation in Cyprus or 600 personnel to an Air Task Force in Kuwait. While the CAF each year conducts a range of air, land, and maritime high-readiness exercises to un- derstand, prepare for, and overcome those challenges, fewer op- portunities exist to stress and test the systems within headquarters that allow those forces to be deployed, sustained and connected. With 19 missions globally – from Air Task Forces in Kuwait and Lithuania, to ground troops on exercises and training missions in Poland and the Ukraine, to special operations forces trainers in Iraq, and a frigate serving with Standing NATO Maritime Forces – exer- cising command and control (C2) among and between headquar- ters at all levels has never been more important – or more complex. For Lieutenant-General Jonathan Vance, commander of CJOC, JOINTEX is one of four premier exercises for joint operational training (RIMPAC, Op Nanook and Determined Dragon are the other three) that can stress the CAF's strategic and operational ability to manage a theatre or mission while exercising critical decision-making capabilities. This year, the event is also an opportunity to improve and evalu- ate the CAF's ability to plug its C2 and information systems into a NATO coalition headquarters and contribute to a richer common operating picture. "The institution creates superb tactical forces, but as a na- tion that contributes tactical forces with national objectives met through coalition ambition, the biggest challenges to operations is getting them there, keeping them there, and being able to deal with the various headquarters in the coalition to understand and measure what is going on, and be able to participate actively in the targeting cycle," Vance says. "You need to practice all that." While the C4ISR requirements are specifi c to every mission, Vance says one of the critical measures of effectiveness is whether Canadian headquarters can connect and exchange information with alliance or coalition partners. "In combat operations like the air operations over Iraq and Syria, we are directly involved on a near daily basis in the targeting approval stage. And we are far more engaged on a daily basis with all matters of sustainment and maintaining situational awareness of the campaign...[W]e have learned through the Afghanistan experience to bring allies onto a common secret network." He notes that on Op Impact, the Air Task Force was stood up and aircraft were fl ying within three weeks of the government's approval of the mission. "That decision-making has to have a pro- "This is nothing like we have done "This is nothing like we have done before and we are learning as we go," Colonel Brian McPherson admits. "We have never integrated with NATO like this. We are build- ing the plane as it fl ies, so to speak, so every day is an adventure." tor for JOINTEX 15, a bi-annual exercise that blends live, virtual and constructive elements to exercise both the people and the connectiv- ity required to deploy and command in large, complex and often TacTicaL To sTraTeGic by Chris Thatcher Photo : MCpl Marc-André Gaudreault Colonel Brian McPherson