Speeches

September 24, 2003

Speaking Notes for
General Ray Henault
Chief of the Defence Staff
On the Occasion of
The Canadian Club Luncheon

Ottawa, Ontario
24 September 2003

Mr. Johnston, [Derek Johnston, President of the Canadian Club of Ottawa]
Members of the Executive Committee,
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a pleasure for me to be here with you today.

Tout d'abord, permettez-moi de remercier le Cercle Canadien de cette invitation. Votre organisation repose sur une longue et illustre tradition en tant qu'élément influent de la société canadienne, et je suis particulièrement fier de m'adresser à vous à l'occasion de votre centième anniversaire de service au Canada. Nous pouvons faire un grand parallèle entre le Cercle Canadien et les Forces canadiennes, car nos deux organisations ont su relever les défis du siècle dernier et contribuent à façonner le Canada d'aujourd'hui.

The advertised topic of my speech today is "Canadian Forces: Current and Future Operations." Now, while I can easily speak to you about current operations, my crystal ball is no clearer than anyone else's, so discussing the future will be a challenge.

What I intend to do is describe for you our most significant current operation - Operation Athena - our deployment to Afghanistan, and link it to the fundamental and profound requirement we face to transform the Canadian Forces into the type of fighting force we will need for whatever the future holds in store. And the link is direct because we are - to a degree - seeing the future of Canadian Forces operations being played out on the ground in Afghanistan today.

Même si un nombre important d'opérations militaires se déroulent en ce moment partout dans le monde, notamment en Bosnie, en Afrique, au Moyen-Orient et, jusqu'à la fin de la semaine dernière, dans les régions intérieures de la Colombie-Britannique, j'aimerais m'attarder à une seule d'entre elles, de façon à illustrer la nature de notre travail.

Le plus gros de nos déploiements se situe en Afghanistan, où près de 2 000 soldats canadiens servent dans le cadre de la Force internationale d'assistance à la sécurité, ou FIAS.

La FIAS a été mandatée par les Nations Unies, mais relève de l'OTAN (Organization du Traité de l'Atlantique du Nord.) C'est un parfait exemple de l'utilité du multilatéralisme, et un élément important des mesures déployées par la communauté internationale en vue de stabiliser et de reconstruire l'Afghanistan, pour que ce pays ne retombe plus jamais dans l'état chaotique qui en a fait un refuge de terroristes.

Nos soldats en poste dans la capitale de Kaboul effectuent des patrouilles de sécurité, prêtent assistance aux forces armées et policières locales et favorisent des opérations humanitaires indispensables.

This is a mission that I have committed our forces to support for one year. Doing so is based on a balance between stepping up to the plate to help people in need, and taking into account the health and welfare of our men and women in uniform. It is a mission that is stretching the Canadian Forces, and as I have stated publicly elsewhere, it is one that will likely preclude any significant overseas deployment of land forces for up to 18 months following the end of Operation Athena.

But, it is an important mission and a transformational mission. I will explain what I mean by a transformational mission shortly.

For the moment I want to stress that no matter how professionally and successfully Canadian troops carry out this mission, we need to have realistic expectations about what we can accomplish in one year in a country that has known war and misery for generations.

Working with other nations, our key short term goals for Afghanistan are modest and realistic: support the Afghan Transitional Authority, improve people's lives through enhanced security and aid, and deny the resurgence of terrorist conditions that could give rise to another September 11th. To do so, the Canadian Forces are pursuing a closely coordinated Government of Canada strategy with the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Canadian International Development Agency. We are united on diplomatic, development, and military fronts to help foster security, self-sufficiency and pluralism in a troubled nation.

J'ai rendu visite à nos soldats à Kaboul, j'ai rencontré leurs commandants de l'OTAN et je me suis entretenu avec les autorités afghanes.

Je peux vous assurer que les membres des Forces canadiennes sont extrêmement motivés, qu'ils sont tenus en haute estime par leurs homologues et qu'ils suscitent de plus en plus l'admiration de la population locale. Chaque jour, les médias font état des liens que les Canadiens tissent avec les Afghans, des gestes qu'ils posent pour gagner leur confiance et des petits et grands moyens qu'ils prennent pour leur être utiles. Ce travail est à la fois important et valorisant.

But Afghanistan is a dangerous place, and this is a potentially treacherous mission, as we saw two weeks ago when two ISAF camps, including the Canadian Camp Julien, came under rocket attack.

Mercifully, no one was seriously injured, but it reinforces the point that we have an obligation - one that I take very seriously - to make every effort to ensure the safety of our men and women and the success of their mission. We have given them the best available equipment, the best training and the best leadership possible. And on top of that, our soldiers are some of the most dedicated, professional and experienced soldiers in the world.

But you know, the battlefields of the 21st century are no longer the exclusive domains of soldiers. Today, Canadian Forces personnel work alongside civilian colleagues from other Canadian government departments, aid workers, media, non-governmental organizations, contractors, and large, international agencies such as the Red Cross.

These groups were in theatre before the CF showed up, and they will remain long after we have returned home. Understanding this reality and functioning effectively within it requires new and flexible skill sets for CF members. In the course of any one day, their work can range from combat to diplomacy to assessing community needs; and that calls for a radical transformation in the way our troops perceive and think.

That is why we are giving our members the necessary intellectual tools to be efficient in a military organization that is both modern and in constant evolution. That is why we place great importance on education and professional development. And that is why we are increasing the number of university-educated Canadian Forces members, and have significantly reformed our professional development system to allow our personnel to continue their education while serving.

In addition to these investments in our men and women, I have a number of other important priorities, each of which would make for a speech in itself. But I want to focus on the need to transform the Canadian Forces.

I mentioned earlier that I believe Operation Athena is a transformational deployment. In fact, the need for our men and women to transform the way they think on this mission and elsewhere is only the tip of the iceberg. As we have seen during operations around the world in the last 15 years, the security environment has changed dramatically. Most of the threats and challenges we face today were unimaginable twenty or even ten years ago. Security is no longer expressed in purely military terms. It now encompasses economic, ethnic, demographic, health, and environmental factors.

À l'échelle planétaire, les pays doivent affronter de nouveaux types de menaces, qu'il s'agisse de terrorisme, de cyberguerre ou d'attaques perpétrées contre des infrastructures essentielles, comme des lignes de transmission ou des réseaux électriques.

La panne de courant qui a frappé tout récemment l'Ontario et le nord-est des États-Unis a clairement démontré que nos systèmes essentiels deviennent de plus en plus interdépendants, et qu'ils présentent de grandes vulnérabilités; des vulnérabilités qui sont parfois imprévisibles.

Mais les inconnus font partie intégrale des systèmes complexes, comme l'a si bien dit le professeur Homer Dixon. Voilà une autre raison pour laquelle il nous faut accroître nos capacités et notre souplesse intellectuelles, car personne ne peut assurer des prévisions très sûres de nos jours. Il faut faire preuve d'une grande faculté d'adaptation.

Information technology and computers also play an increasingly important role in countless sectors of daily life. The military is no exception.

If we want the Canadian Forces to remain relevant and effective in this new environment, we need to transform them. We need to acquire new capabilities and processes that enable us to be more effective. To do that, we need to change not only the way we do business, but also the tools we use to conduct that business.

To be efficient in this evolving security environment, the Canadian Forces will need to be at the cutting edge of technology, which demands a stronger emphasis on research and development.

We will need to be able to rapidly deploy to any part of the world and once there, we will require the equipment and knowledge that will allow us to fulfill our mission, whatever it may be.

Nous devons aussi maintenir notre capacité d'opération inter-alliés, surtout avec les États-Unis. Cela signifie le besoin de maîtriser les nouvelles technologies qui transformeront complètement les doctrines et les opérations militaires, particulièrement dans les domaines du commandement, du contrôle, des communications et de renseignement.

The Canadian Forces have to integrate these new technologies and ways of thinking; otherwise we risk being outdistanced by the militaries of our allies, thereby losing our ability to operate alongside them.

We would then lose a big part of our ability to make a difference on the international scene, as well as our capacity to perform the responsibilities given to us by Canadians. Don't get me wrong, I don't want to compete with the US or any other military, but my soldiers, sailors, airmen and airwomen need to be able to work in sync with the best of them.

Since the rise of industrial age armies, western militaries have emphasized tonnage and mass as the most important elements of a modern, military force. Generally speaking, the industrial age logic was often, "the bigger, the better." This logic produced bigger and heavier guns, artillery, tanks and ships, and faster and more agile fighter aircraft.

While the capabilities provided by these platforms remain relevant, the logic is obsolete. We are moving from an age of achieving military objectives through massed, heavy, forces, to an age of applying lethal force as precisely as possible through the use of nimble, mobile, and smarter forces.

At the dawn of the information age, it is already clear that the scalpel is better than the bludgeon, quality is more important than quantity, fast is better than slow, and lethality is more important than tonnage.

In short, transformation is absolutely essential. It will allow the Canadian Forces to remain relevant and to become smarter, more modern, more precise and more efficient.

Today in Afghanistan, Canadian Forces members are operating state-of-the-art technology and equipment. Most of you will have heard of the LAV III and Coyote armoured vehicles. After a few years of operating them, we tend to accept this type of equipment as rather ordinary. But let me assure you, there is nothing run-of-the-mill about our vehicles' capabilities.

In terms of speed, mobility, accurate firepower, sensors, and protection - the LAV III dominates in its class and the Coyote gives our commanders unprecedented levels of tactical battlefield information, to help them carry out their mission and keep their personnel safe. We are also including unmanned aerial vehicles in our equipment mix. They will dramatically increase the situational awareness (or picture) of the commanders, while at the same time reduce the risk to personnel.

The list of other new equipment goes on:

• An artillery radar detection system to track incoming projectiles;
• The most current generation of night vision goggles;
• personal protective gear and new combat clothing;
• laser sights and laser target designators; and
• the introduction of new ISTAR capability, on Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition and Recognition Company in Kabul.

Is everything perfect? No, of course not. You will have heard about some of the problems being experienced with some equipment, including the Iltis jeep in theatre. The issue is the reliability of the Iltis in the harsh climate of Kabul. We have a project underway to replace the Iltis with a modern and rugged new vehicle, although it is unlikely to be on hand soon enough to enter service in Kabul. In the meantime, steps have been taken to address this problem, notably, the provision of additional vehicles and the impressive efforts of mechanics who are keeping the vehicles on the road.

All of this new equipment, and the experience our troops are gaining on the ground, working with a huge variety of actors, illustrates that the Canadian Forces are not waiting for some perfect time in the future to launch the process of transformation. We are putting it into practice now, and we will be building on what will undoubtedly be many lessons learned from our time with ISAF. There will be a huge amount to integrate, which is the real meaning of transformation.

En conclusion les efforts que nous déployons nous permettront de maintenir nos fonctions indispensables dans le contexte changeant de la sécurité nationale et internationale. Ils nous permettront également de continuer de protéger le Canada contre les nouveaux dangers qui menaceront la nation et ses citoyens. Enfin, nous serons encore mieux placés pour contribuer à la maintenance de la paix et de la sécurité dans le monde.

This is definitely a time of profound change and opportunity for the Canadian Forces.

At the same time as we are making many changes internally, we have witnessed an increase in the interest of Canadians for defence matters as well as in popular support for the work we do. We appreciate your support. It certainly makes our job easier.

Because after all, we are here to serve when called by Canada.

Thank you.