New organization, DGFSC, prepares RCN for future ships

[OceanBonfire]

By Darlene Blakeley

A new organization, designed to better support the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) as it receives the ships it needs for the future, plans to introduce them into service smoothly and with a view to driving naval innovation.

Director General Future Ship Capability (DGFSC), headed by Rear-Admiral Casper Donovan, will help ensure the RCN is ready in terms of occupations, training systems, infrastructure, doctrine and tactics, and operational policies when the ships are completed and turned over to the navy to operate.

DGFSC has three main components. The first is the Directorate of Naval Major Crown Projects, which includes RCN teams assigned to the new Arctic and Offshore Patrol Ship (AOPS), Joint Support Ship (JSS) and Canadian Surface Combatant (CSC) projects. The second is the Directorate of New Capability Introduction (DNCI), which includes a team in Ottawa, as well as detachments in Halifax and Esquimalt, B.C. And the third is the Maritime Innovation Team (MIT).

“DNCI is critical to ensuring the RCN is ready, in all respects, to receive the new ships and be ready to introduce them into operational service,” explains RAdm Donovan. “They are focused on all things other than the ship itself like crewing, training, infrastructure, helicopter integration, occupational structures, tactics development and readiness standards.”

The MIT is a small team that works within DGFSC to ensure that the RCN innovates as it introduces the future fleet. “It’s not just about new ships, it’s also about new approaches to how the navy will deliver on its future missions,” RAdm Donovan says. “This mindset requires innovation to be at the forefront of everything we do.”

He adds that DGFSC is well set up to enable this innovation. “Obviously the inclusion of the MIT in the organization helps, but I would also say that marrying the three project teams with the DNCI organization creates great synergy between what we are pursuing with each project and the folks who are embedded on the coasts. These DNCI personnel are plugged into the broader RCN organization so that we all stay in sync as to where we are going in key functional areas like our future naval training system or in pursuing a much more digital navy.”

RAdm Donovan says the new organization affords the navy more dedicated capacity to devote to all future ship builds, but particularly the CSC.

“CSC is undoubtedly the main effort for DGFSC, but not the exclusive focus. The RCN has much to learn from both the AOPS and JSS projects, like we had from the Halifax Class Modernization project, that will shape, influence and inform what we potentially do with CSC. So it makes a lot of sense to have all the ship projects in DGFSC.”

This dedicated capacity is especially important once the design for CSC has been selected. “There will be a significant amount of work that the project team will need to kick off and progress in an expeditious manner,” RAdm Donovan says. “There is no time to waste – all the organizations involved with CSC want to complete the design and start cutting steel as quickly as is reasonably possible.”

There are three main things he’d like to accomplish during his tenure at DGFSC. First, he’d like to see Harry DeWolf, the first Arctic and Offshore Patrol Vessel, introduced into service in a smooth manner.

“By this I mean that once the ship is ready to be transitioned from the shipyard to the navy we have thought through all the details, and it is very smoothly introduced into operational service on behalf of Canada and Canadians. There is so much work behind the scenes that we can’t lose sight of, and Harry DeWolf will be the first example of how we do. There will be 21 to 22 more ships to introduce as we move into the future.”

Second, he wants to get the RCN Innovation Program established and moving forward with momentum. This work includes encouraging a culture of innovation in the RCN, laying out priority areas and initiatives where innovation is pursued, and seeing these initiatives materialize in the fleet and ashore.

Finally, he’d like to see CSC enter its design as early as possible in 2019.

“There’s a ton of work to do prior to entering design, but if we put our minds to doing this work in a smart and disciplined manner, we can accomplish a lot in a short time.”

DGFSC, in conjunction with Commodore Rich Feltham’s team at Director General Naval Force Development (DGNFD), “double-downs” on the future needs of the navy and the goals of the defence policy Strong, Secure, Engaged.

“We are bolstering the navy’s capacity to move out on Strong, Secure, Engaged by more capably covering off the major ship builds and innovation. This overall team approach between DGFSC and DGNFD is key to our success,” says RAdm Donovan. “Pulling it all together coherently will be challenging, but the team is up to the task.”

https://ml-fd.caf-fac.ca/en/2018/06/14885

 

[Halifax Tar]

https://ml-fd.caf-fac.ca/en/2018/06/14885

Oh good!

 

[Eye In The Sky]

Was there a need for a 'new organization'?  ???

 

[Oldgateboatdriver]

Looks to me to be more along the lines of grouping together under a single umbrella the four different types of orgs that were used to deliver the transition from the steamers to the Halifax's in the eighties (training: trades and sea; logistics: new needs for the new vessels over their lifetime; combat: tactics and strategy for employment; engineering: manning, maintenance and upgrading over lifetime). The transition at that time had to overcome many bumps in the road that arose because these four orgs did not always talk with one another as much as they should. one such main result was that, while the trade's training for transition got set up, no one looked at the need/usefulness of integrating some trades with one another, or splitting some function from one trade to another, etc, until after some experience was gained.

If a new centralized org charged with transitioning from one type to another for all new vessel types can foresee many of these situations and preemptively deal with them, then it's a good thing. If they only become one more layer of management, it will be  a disaster.

 

[Eye In The Sky]

Copy, thanks!  Sounds somewhat similar to what the RCAF did when 434 Sqn stood up recently.

 

[Blackadder1916]

If a new centralized org charged with transitioning from one type to another for all new vessel types can foresee many of these situations and preemptively deal with them, then it's a good thing. If they only become one more layer of management, it will be a disaster.

Having been in the "matrix" many years ago, I can see a benefit for centralizing responsibility in dealing with new projects, however the expectation should be that as centralization occurs the assets that supposedly were OPIs/OCIs for those aspects of new requirements would be gathered into the new organization, including the highest levels of management.  However, scanning through the last GOFO promotions it seems that this is the creation of a new two star without any offset by elimination/under-ranking of another position.

https://army.ca/forums/threads/127512/post-1523356.html#msg1523356

B. COMMODORE C.P. DONOVAN WILL BE PROMOTED TO THE RANK OF REAR- ADMIRAL AND BE APPOINTED INTO A NEW POSITION AS DIRECTOR GENERAL CANADIAN SURFACE COMBATANT, AT NDHQ, IN OTTAWA ON

 

[Colin Parkinson]

And of course that 2 Star will need staff.....

 

[Underway]

I can see the benefits of this approach. One of the issues that PMO is running into is that few at the traditional organizations are aware of what they need to do to get ready for JSS and CSC. AOPS really hammered home that there needs to be some sort of clearinghouse where information and direction can get passed to and from. It's not that the traditional organizations don't want to change is that they don't often even know what to prepare for or where the projects are going. Or that they are so busy with their day to day it's difficult to plan for all of the new things that will be introduced.
There are second and third-order effects that the RCN is realizing with this massive recapitalization that are affecting the priorities of how the fleet spends it money going forward. For example, with AOPS it required the construction of a brand new jetty, which of course required the expenditure of updating power and internet support infrastructure in Halifax. This wasn't a surprise, but it did change priorities for base infrastructure development.

 

[dimsum]

Copy, thanks! Sounds somewhat similar to what the RCAF did when 434 Sqn stood up recently.

Not really. It's more high-level than the stuff 434 does. From my first pass, it sounds like what the Air Warfare Centre does, plus some bits of 434 (the MIT seems to sound like that) and bits of what DNR currently does (?).

 

[Navy_Pete]

I can see the benefits of this approach. One of the issues that PMO is running into is that few at the traditional organizations are aware of what they need to do to get ready for JSS and CSC. AOPS really hammered home that there needs to be some sort of clearinghouse where information and direction can get passed to and from. It's not that the traditional organizations don't want to change is that they don't often even know what to prepare for or where the projects are going. Or that they are so busy with their day to day it's difficult to plan for all of the new things that will be introduced.
There are second and third-order effects that the RCN is realizing with this massive recapitalization that are affecting the priorities of how the fleet spends it money going forward. For example, with AOPS it required the construction of a brand new jetty, which of course required the expenditure of updating power and internet support infrastructure in Halifax. This wasn't a surprise, but it did change priorities for base infrastructure development.

From a practical perspective it was nice to have all that known stuff coming from a MARS bar than the PMO, IT, etc. It's stupid, but all those things that were already well known and understood on infrastructure, manning etc. got a lot more traction when the message wasn't coming from the 'boffins'.

Plus it integrates them closer in the project delivery, so they can understand the frustrations first hand and stopped a bit of the crap chucking in the mess for engineers not delivering projects on time.

 

[Underway]

All that is true. All of us need to pull the rope in the same direction. If everyone is aware of the risks you can plan to mitigate or avoid them. And of course the operations side see risk differently than the material side.