January–February 2019 Volume 79, Number 1 RCMI THE JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL CANADIAN MILITARY INSTITUTE FOUNDED 1890 SITREP The Canadian Army —LCOL GRAHAM WALSH Inside this Issue ‘The .50 Cal at dusk.’ The Deputy Commander upbeat on the future of the Army Reserve Toronto Scottish on their by Bob Kennedy �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������3 Canadian Army Reserves: A New Era of Optimism by John Selkirk �����������������������������5 mission task assignment Instant impact: The Integrated Soldier System by Chris Thatcher ����������������������������������7 training (Reserves story Operational Influencers by Grant Cree ��������������������������������������������������������������������������� 10 page five). Android vs Human Soldier: What Near-Future Warfare Will Look Like by Konrad Mech ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 12 www.rcmi.org @rcmiHQ From the Editor appy New Year! Welcome back from the fun, feeding and frenzy of the Holiday Season� If 2019 proves to be anything like 2018 we will have more than enough Hdefence and security-related issues to address, both in this ROYAL CANADIAN MILITARY INSTITUTE publication, as well as in our event programming� FOUNDED 1890 For Canada, the new year is not starting out in an auspicious manner� The Patron diplomatic friction between Canada and Saudi Arabia that was initiated via a Her Excellency the Right Honourable Julie Payette tweet from the Minister of Global Affairs concerning the treatment of women and Governor General of Canada human rights in general in Saudi Arabia was further exacerbated by our extremely Vice Patrons rapid acceptance of a young Saudi woman who claimed, while escaping via Thai- The Honourable Elizabeth Dowdeswell, OC, OOnt Lieutenant Governor of Ontario land, that her life was in danger� While this gesture has been hailed as yet another General Jonathan Vance, CMM, MSC, CD Chief of Defence Staff example of Canada’s commitment to women’s rights and human rights, there are His Worship John Tory concerns that the overt politicization of this case may lead to further retaliation Mayor of Toronto by the Saudis, while simultaneously potentially endangering the individual who Officers & Directors has already received death threats here in Canada� LCdr/Dr� Michael J� Hoare, CD (Ret’d)—President and Executive Director Then there are the Chinese� Late into 2018, the Canadian government, Col Jay B� Claggett, CD (Ret’d)—Vice President ostensibly at the behest of the American, arrested a very senior executive of the Mr� James H� Lutz, MA—Vice President Capt Rodney W� J� Seyffert, CD (Ret’d)—Secretary Chinese firm Huawei who was passing through a Canadian airport, and who was BGen Paul A� Hayes, OMM, CD (Ret’d)—Director wanted in the US on charges related to an alleged move by Huawei to undermine Mr� Robert C� Kay, JD—Director Capt Stewart C� Kellock, MOM, CStJ, CD—Director US sanctions on Iran� While the Canadian authorities might have resorted to some Ms� Michele Walkau, MEd—Director form of creative incompetence in order to avoid the inevitable diplomatic fallout, HCol Bryan J� R� Brulotte, CD—Director the individual was detained pending extradition to the US� Almost immediately, Past President two Canadian citizens working in China were arrested on charges that they were HCol Gilbert W� Taylor a danger to Chinese national security� In early 2019, another Canadian who was Honoraries already in a Chinese jail for alleged drug smuggling offenses was re-tried and sen- HLGen Richard Rohmer, OC, CMM, DFC, O�Ont, tenced to be executed� While the Canadian government has, of course, appealed KStJ, OL, Legion d’Honneur, QC Honorary Vice President to the Chinese for clemency and the release of these three Canadian citizens, at Dr� J� L� Granatstein, OC, FRSC time of writing the diplomatic imbroglio had not been resolved� Dr� Desmond Morton, OC, CD, FRSC Honorary Historians These are but two of the “interesting” situations that are currently roiling Mr� Arthur Manvell Honorary Librarian the Canadian government� One could add several others, including the US partial LCol J� Roy Weir, CD, AdeC, QC (Ret’d) government shutdown; the Brexit mess; ongoing, if not increasing, insecurity in Honorary Solicitor Mali (in spite of our relatively small, albeit effective, presence in that country); Honorary Chaplains the potential withdrawal of US troops from Syria which may endanger Kurdish Maj The Rev Gillian Federico, CD forces and increase the maneuver room for Iranian ones, etc� etc� All of this is LCdr The Rev �J David Mulholland (Ret’d) HLCol The Rev Mark L� Sargent, CD occurring, of course, against the impending October election� It would be quite a shock to the Canadian electorate if the usual debates regarding economic and General Manager social policies were overtaken by foreign affairs, diplomacy or, my goodness, Mr. Michael T. Jones defence and security issues! Happy New Year indeed! Controller In this edition of SITREP we have, as promised, focused on the Army� Our Ms. Elena Trouba Director, Defence and Security Studies Programme, timing was auspicious in that the Deputy Commander of the Canadian Army, Editor, Sitrep MGen Carl Turenne was our most recent dinner speaker, and we were given the Maj/Dr Daniel D. Eustace, CD (Ret’d) opportunity of excerpting his excellent presentation into our lead SITREP article� Deputy Director, Defence and Security Studies Programme Thank you to Robert Kennedy for undertaking this task� Mr. Eric S. Morse No Army-focused edition would be complete without a serious nod to the An Official Publication of the Reserve component� LCol John Selkirk (ret’d), who is both Executive Director Royal Canadian Military Institute of Reserves 2000 and a member of the Defence and Security Studies Program 426 University Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, M5G 1S9 Continued on page 11 Tel: 416-597-0286/1-800-585-1072 Fax: 416-597-6919 Website: www�rcmi�org Editorial E-Mail: daneustace1@gmail�com Copyright © 2019 RCMI ISSN 0316-5620 SITREP may be fully reproduced in whole or in part for academic research or institutional purposes, provided that the author’s and the institute’s copyright is acknowledged. The views expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of the Institute or its members. 2 SITREP Deputy Commander upbeat on the future of the Army Reserve by Bob Kennedy ajor General Carl Turenne says the army’s plan to largest Reserve units in the GTA along with many of MGen the strengthen its Reserve, based in part on guar- Turenne’s friends and former colleagues, including his first anteeing summer employment to new recruits, is Commanding Officer� He was introduced by Honourary Col- Mworking� “We consider it a significant success,” he told an audi- onel Bryan Brulotte of the Governor General’s Foot Guards, ence at the RCMI in late January, and “we’re confident we’ll get who was already in his second year at College militaire royal the funding” to pursue the commitment into the summer of de Sant-Jean when a young Officer Cadet Turenne appeared 2019� He also wants us think in terms of an army that includes at the door� HCol Brulotte described in detail the Canadian Army of 1984—a very different army that many in the audience could remember well (if not fondly)� MGen Turenne be- gan with a brief scan of the stra- tegic context� The government’s defence policy of June 2017— Strong, Secure, Engaged—sets the framework� Across the Ca- nadian Armed Forces, the new buzz-phrase is Force Posture & Readiness, the CDS’s approach to managing concurrent oper- ations� Beyond this, “probably the biggest staff initiative across all of NDHQ” is the Force Mix & Structure Design project� This will grind on for at least another year and have, he said, “a signif- —ERIC MORSE icant impact on the army�” Inside the Army, “Force 2021” captures full-time soldiers and part-time soldiers—instead of one that the staff’s continuing work on how to improve sustainability includes Regulars and Reserves� Now in his fifth tour on the and force-structure balance� Army staff, he repeatedly, and with great conviction, named Reviewing the Army Commander’s priorities, his Bureaucracy as the principal enemy of Progress� deputy zeroed in on what they call “the total fitness of the The Deputy Commander of the Canadian Army was force”, meaning the proportion of each unit that is able to the guest speaker for our annual Reserve Forces night on Jan- deploy, and the 15-25% of it that is not� “We need to reduce uary 24� Filling the Otter Room—named for the militiaman those numbers,” he said, by taking a preventive approach and who was the first president of the RCMI—were leaders of the by improving training� It’s a direct support to the commander’s necessary first priority: excellence in operations (which, he added later, “we’re already achieving�”) Capt Robert Kennedy, CD (ret’d) is a writer and editor. He is a member of There is also a new capital investment plan that lays the RCMI Defence and Security Studies Program Committee. out just under $20 billion in a twenty-year timeline� “That The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect money is there,” he declares, and ten years from now we’ll the views of the Institute or its members. have, at least at the tactical level, “the best equipped generation The production of SITREP is made possible in part by the generosity of the Langley Bequest, which is made in honour of Major Arthur J Langley