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CJADC2


In a statement, Cohere co-founder Ivan Zhang said its AI system with Thales will “analyze complex naval environments in real time” and “deliver actionable intelligence at operational speed.” The two firms also plan to conduct joint research and development on other defence applications of AI agents.

Thales has contracts to maintain and provide engineering and technical help for the Canadian Armed Forces’ Arctic patrol ships, coastal defence vessels and auxiliary ships like tugboats—more than 100 craft in all. It’s already using digital technologies like AI to “optimize fleet support,” said Jennifer Tumminio, director of media relations for Thales North America. She added that the firm plans to use Cohere’s AI agents to “further enhance operational efficiency and readiness.”

Zhang is building a new team in Toronto to develop “agentic capabilities for cybersecurity,” he said in a LinkedIn post last month. Technical staff on the public sector team will build technology for “mission-critical use cases,” according to a job posting for members of the team. They must also be Canadian citizens and ideally have top-secret clearance.
 
To my mind the simple solution is to stand up our own MDTF under our own joint command. We can call it the Canadian Pan Domain Task Force (CPDTF) if we like.
Just a point of order, Mr Chairman. Here's the broad definition of an MDTF.

The Army's Chief of Staff Paper #1: Army Multi-Domain Transformation Ready to Win in Competition and Conflict dated March 16, 2021, describes the Multi-Domain Task Force (MDTF) as "theater-level maneuver elements designed to synchronize precision effects and precision fires in all domains against adversary anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) networks in all domains, enabling joint forces to execute their operational plan (OPLAN)-directed roles."
See also: Congress document - The Significance of the Army's Multi-Domain Task Force.

In short an MDTF is part of an offensive strategy to punch through A2/AD networks.

To my way of thinking, we do not need an MDTF. What we need are a series of A2/AD networks to shield our real estate from malevolent actors. I do see an army role, as part of the Homeland division, in a comprehensive A2/AD network in conjunction with NORAD and our naval forces.

To a great extent the component parts of an army A2/AD brigade, does mot look much different from an MDTF albeit that its tactical role is oriented to the defence rather than enabling offensive operations.

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Just a point of order, Mr Chairman. Here's the broad definition of an MDTF.


See also: Congress document - The Significance of the Army's Multi-Domain Task Force.

In short an MDTF is part of an offensive strategy to punch through A2/AD networks.

To my way of thinking, we do not need an MDTF. What we need are a series of A2/AD networks to shield our real estate from malevolent actors. I do see an army role, as part of the Homeland division, in a comprehensive A2/AD network in conjunction with NORAD and our navel forces.

To a great extent the component parts of an army A2/AD brigade, does mot look much different from an MDTF albeit that its tactical role is oriented to the defence rather than enabling offensive operations.

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Is an artillery brigade oriented to the offence or the defence? How about an infantry brigade?

If both formations cover the same turf and use the same tools need we get bothered by semantics?
 
Is an artillery brigade oriented to the offence or the defence? How about an infantry brigade?

If both formations cover the same turf and use the same tools need we get bothered by semantics?
Yes if there is specific doctrine written for it.

More importantly are the details of what its component parts are and how they are configured, deployed and used. While each of these systems, in my mind at least, have the same basic systems - a signals, EW, MI, ISTAR based targeting and effects battalion, an anti-ship rocket and missile battalion, an air defence battalion, a possible a local defence battalion, a service battalion, the actual weapon systems and doctrine may will vary.

I think what we are both talking about for Canada are uniquely continental A2/AD systems. Let's call a spade a spade.

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I do see an army role, as part of the Homeland division, in a comprehensive A2/AD network in conjunction with NORAD and our navel forces.
Is this some new weapon we've developed?
doughy get a life GIF

;)
 
Yes if there is specific doctrine written for it.

More importantly are the details of what its component parts are and how they are configured, deployed and used. While each of these systems, in my mind at least, have the same basic systems - a signals, EW, MI, ISTAR based targeting and effects battalion, an anti-ship rocket and missile battalion, an air defence battalion, a possible a local defence battalion, a service battalion, the actual weapon systems and doctrine may will vary.

I think what we are both talking about for Canada are uniquely continental A2/AD systems. Let's call a spade a spade.

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Fine, a spade then.

A Canadian Pan Domain A2/AD Task Force or Command or what have you.

What colour uniform is the boss wearing?
 
Right now - with reluctance, light blue. Once the new destroyers and subs are in place, dark blue.

;)

I would have thought you would have gone with Royal Blue from the get go. Ordnance on battlements or ordnance on decks are still ordnance.
 
I would have thought you would have gone with Royal Blue from the get go. Ordnance on battlements or ordnance on decks are still ordnance.
Nope. I think A2/AD brigades need to be Sheldrake with a heavy mix of Pronto, Acorn, Conrod, Cracker, and some Foxhound.

A2/AD in general, for a country like Canada, is a role for navy with air and army support and a healthy dose of EW/cyber.

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Nope. I think A2/AD brigades need to be Sheldrake with a heavy mix of Pronto, Acorn, Conrod, Cracker, and some Foxhound.

A2/AD in general, for a country like Canada, is a role for navy with air and army support and a healthy dose of EW/cyber.

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Boxwood be like...

season 7 growth spout GIF by SpongeBob SquarePants
 
In short an MDTF is part of an offensive strategy to punch through A2/AD networks.

This. And it does so by snchronizing fires across several non-kinetic domains. EW, Space and Cyber specifically. To the extent it does use kinetic effects, it's long range fires for deep strikes.

We absolutely do need elements of this. Not in the way the Americans are doing it at the theatre level. The only large thing we actually should build is for the CA: a proper EW regiment. Everything else is about incorporating those other effects at the staff level in the OPP. Ideally, you want to deliver a cyber attack and maximum jamming seconds before the GMLRS arrive on the enemy's Div HQ that we found from space. We aren't big enough to have a full task force to synchronize all that. Doesn't mean we can't actually still synchronize those effects.
 
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Nope. I think A2/AD brigades need to be Sheldrake with a heavy mix of Pronto, Acorn, Conrod, Cracker, and some Foxhound.

A2/AD in general, for a country like Canada, is a role for navy with air and army support and a healthy dose of EW/cyber.

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I think I would turn things around, as is my wont.

I am inclined to present the Army with the same dilemma that it and the Navy present the Air Force. On land the Army leads and expects the Air Force to cover their operations. At sea the Navy expects the same things. In a peaceful world where everybody forgot about Air Defence this effectively relegated the Air Force to a secondary role. Even though its NORAD involvement meant that it was operational daily very few people to the threat to Canada and the continent seriously. We could afford to spend two decades about what our next fighter looked like. And those fighters were expected to be multi-role because Air Defence was only one of their jobs. The national threat was low enough that we could afford to loan out our planes and pilots to friends and associates in return for goodwill and training opportunities.

Now things are changing.

I would promote the Air Force and the Navy and relegate the Army.

I would put the Air Force into the lead role in National Defence on a number of grounds, primarily based on their NORAD/NORTHCOM associations, but also predicated on their ability to act rapidly across the long distances of our land and sea estates, Our threat level is low but not zero. I don't think we need mass domestically so much as we need variety and speed. We need a little bit of everything and not much of anything, delivered at speed over 20,000,000 km2 of land and sea. We can expect dozens of small incidents, widely scattered over time and space that require rapid response occasionally. The likelihood of the D-Day fleet appearing of Vancouver Island is slim to nil, as is the prospect of a mass of bombers or ICBMs overflying our territory although the latter probability is greater than the former.

The Air Force can deliver missiles, SAR techs, JTF2 teams, light battalions and HIMARS regiments rapidly anywhere we claim sovereign rights.

I would make the Navy the lead in Foreign Affairs and expeditionary warfare. Expedition still requires delivering mass and volume around the planet and despite advances in air travel the sea is still the only feasible means of delivering that volume and mass. What that volume and mass should consist of we can argue about for a long whiles. The important bit is that the Navy makes delvery possible, both by keeping sealanes open and by providing protective escorts.

The Navy can deliver everything that the Air Force can but in greater volumes and mass over longer distances if at slower speeds. Only the Navy can deliver armies around the world, regardless of the army's capabilities.

Before addressing the Army I am going to add another element. OGDAs, Other Government Departments and Agencies. In this world of hybrid threats National Security is more than National Defence. Our enemies, and I believe we have enemies, seek to wear us down. @AmmoTech90 once described my options for opening a containment as a choice between slow and quiet or fast and noisy. We are preparing for the fast and noisy event and expecting to counter it in like manner, fast and noisy. But our enemies know that we and our friends are good at that and so they have chosen to adopt the slow and quiet route. And we find it difficult to counter that with fast and noisy tools. The slow and quiet tools are in the hands of all the OGDAs.

The OGDAs lead in the civil sphere. In that sphere our enemies seek to weaken our OGDAs, reduce their legitimacy and overwhelm them. To aid their project they create manufactured events, like sabotage and demonstrations. But they will also exploit natural disasters to weaken the connection between the government and the governed.

The government needs the means to manage any and all crises, no matter where or when they happen or what their scale,

Which finally brings me to the Army. The force of last resort comprised of citizen taxpayers with families that operate on land among fellow ctizen taxpayers.

The Army can supply people to be lifted by the Air Force to deal with events within Canadian territories.
The Army can supply people to be lifted by the Navy to meet the needs of Global Affairs internationally.
The Army can supply people locally to meet the needs of OGDAs domestically, whether the result of enemy action, natural disasters or simply accidents.

The Army needs to be able to manage all those roles.

And its primary role has to be to instil confidence in time of crisis, to be a visible demonstration that the government is in charge, it has a plan and is working the plan. Engaging people in that plan is one way of effectively managing any crisis. If people know who is in charge and what they have to do then crises are manageable.

The Army has to tie in to the citizenry.
As well as providing expert professional forces to meet day to day needs.
 
I would promote the Air Force and the Navy and relegate the Army.
The reason I see the Navy as lead is because I do not see the incoming missiles as the primary threat. I think long before that we'll see incursions in the Arctic sea lanes and tests of our resolve as claims are laid to what we consider our territory (and which I think are probably resource rich areas which we will eventually exploit. That's primarily a sea-based threat to our shorelines. Same for critical east and west coast infrastructure.

Also, what started the conversation was a limited subject which is the role of army A2/AD brigades in defence of Canada. Those I see primarily in a supporting role to a comprehensive "littoral" defence in the north and east and west coasts where the navy has the lead and the RCAF also participates.

I don't for one second argue the various other scenarios exist and that we need to build for all of that. While the navy leads the defence of the shorelines, I see that concurrently NORAD works on anti-missile defence and manages that. Same, same with EW defences and cyber defences although I'm not sure who really leads or conducts that. They're very specialized nation-wide issues that need a much broader approach than the relatively simple issue of the A2/AD brigades.

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As early as World War 2 Coastal Command was an Air Force responsibility. The Navy managed what the RAF couldn't reach. The Army managed the guns and barrage balloons over land.

Now the Air Force has access to info from its Space Force satellites. Its OTH-Radar. Its MQ 9B UAVs. Its P8 patrol aircraft. Its soon to appear AEWC aircraft.

It also gains info from CSE SigInt as well as the CCG and those ships of the Navy that are in Canadian waters and are not constrained by the ice.

The RCAF can respond with any of its patrol assets, with fighters and with transport aircraft, both fixed and rotary wing.

And if I had my way it add to its fleet of ground launched piloted aircraft with lots of rocket assisted ground launched uninhabited aircraft.

To my mind that gives them a head start in the A2AD game and the central principle in related Pan-Multiple-All Domain Operations.
 
Don't forget though that our two fighter squadrons sit well inland and are hours away from the coasts and littoral zones. The air and aviation which works on the coasts is basically maritime long range patrol and aviation squadrons. I'm not sure what their day to day command relationship is with other organizations but the operational side of east and west coast defence is through JTF Atlantic and JTF Pacific which are commanded by Commander Maritime Forces Atlantic and Pacific. That means that at least for those coast we see it as an RCN matter.

The north is currently different with JTF North which I think is still trying to define itself. IMHO because its been highly neglected by the RegF. I'm not sure whether its because its not sexy enough to concern themselves about or whether its too difficult to handle properly or spend limited resources on. Frankly, I don't think that Arctic Response Companies are a serious way of addressing the issue.

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Don't forget though that our two fighter squadrons sit well inland and are hours away from the coasts and littoral zones.
Don’t forget to not forget that there are FOLs on all coasts… 😉
 
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