SETTING THE CONTEXT

Expectations for Science and Technology in Defence

The Defence S&T; Strategy is intended to ensure that the departmental S&T; investment is appropriately positioned so that S&T; informs, enables and responds to Canada's defence and security priorities through the support it provides to the Canadian Forces and the Department of National Defence.

Specifically, this investment is expected to:

• Bring S&T; to bear on supporting decision making and resolving important problems across the defence institution;
• Anticipate, assess and advise on the implications of emerging and potentially disruptive S&T; and
• Assess, mature, position and transition technologies with the potential to meet identified capability goals for the Canadian Forces and the department.

These expectations are managed and S&T; services are provided through elements of many organizations within the department and the Canadian Forces and under the direction of various line and functional authorities.

When viewed through the lens of the core departmental processes, the expectations for S&T; in defence define the "full-service" capability enabled by the departmental S&T; investment, as summarized below.

Strategy and Policy and Force Development

S&T; contributes to the Canadian Forces' and the department's understanding of the emerging strategic environment to which defence and security capabilities will likely need to respond. Outlooks for emerging and potentially disruptive S&T;, and the assessment of their defence and security implications, are integrated with broader analysis of the social, political, security and economic factors that shape this environment.

S&T; supports the formulation and validation of the Canadian Forces strategic operating concept through its contribution to the exploration of emerging approaches such as effects-based and network-enabled operations, and the juxtaposition of joint, interagency, multinational and public perspectives, and to the validation of the benefits of such approaches through robust, credible experimentation.

S&T; provides the underpinning methodologies and tools by which the department and the Canadian Forces identify and select the appropriate mix of defence capabilities that best support the vision for the Canadian Forces within available resources. At the same time, it provides informed choices for new or improved, yet affordable, solutions to capability objectives that take advantage of new S&T; opportunities.

Capability Production

S&T; contributes to the reduction of risk in the production and fielding of new or improved defence capabilities. It helps in improving the understanding of the interplay among the multiple perspectives that contribute to a capability. This includes both the relation among a capability's operational systems and technical viewpoints and the interdependence of a capability's materiel, personnel and infrastructure requirements.

For reasons of interoperability, economy of scale and affordability, Canada emphasizes non-developmental procurement. Through the provision of smart buyer and smart user advice, S&T; can directly support this approach. The department's strong but selective defence S&T; capability to support acquisition helps in: shaping performance specifications, informing decision makers on acquisition options, sharing the burden of technology development with our allies in order to gain access to their knowledge base and pursuing investments in technology development that will position credible, affordable acquisition options, where non-developmental options are not available. Where development is pursued, the defence S&T; capability approach to engaging industry and managing its intellectual property will be carefully positioned so as to enable future exploitation of successful developments.

With the rapid pace of technological advancement, and by consequence technological obsolescence, the Canadian Forces and the Department of National Defence are adopting the concept of incremental technology refresh for its equipment and information assets. This is intended to maintain higher levels of operational effectiveness and mission relevance over a platform's or system's lifetime at no more cost than the current approach based on major, but less frequent, upgrades. This technology insertion approach provides considerable opportunities for S&T; to contribute solutions to the challenges of performance upgrades. However, it also requires well coordinated exploitation strategies that are enabled by government procurement practices.

Force Generation and Force Employment

S&T; supports the Canadian Forces' ability to generate mission-tailored forces, and to build and sustain readiness across the suite of military capabilities. It supports the diverse challenges of managing the life-cycle of complex military equipment, of recruiting and training Canadian Forces personnel and of sustaining and regenerating its human capacity in face of high operational tempo.

S&T; helps in identifying and assessing technologies held by adversaries and in understanding their vulnerabilities. It contributes to the development of mitigating tactics and countermeasures. It provides tools and knowledge to red-teaming exercises and proposes practical, rapidly-fielded improvements in Canadian Forces capabilities.

Finally, S&T; provides time-sensitive and practical advice and solutions to support the resolution of issues that occur during operations, whether derived from adversary action, from unpredicted operational requirements or from the fielding of new capabilities.

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