Interview with BGen Chris C. Ayotte, Chief of Staff Army Strategy, Canadian Army

The Canadian Army Modernization Strategy is a document that positions the Canadian Army to continue acting as one of the building blocks of today’s and tomorrow’s Canadian joint military force. Built on Canada’s defence policy, Strong, Secure, Engaged, the Canadian Army Modernization Strategy outlines the numerous evolving challenges in defence, and emphasizes the multi-horizontal initiatives that must take place to modernize the Canadian Army in the context of these very challenges. 

To understand the many parts of this strategy and what needs to be done from a higher level, Vanguard recently spoke with BGen Chris C. Ayotte, Chief of Staff Army Strategy, Canadian Army.

BGen Ayotte enrolled in the Canadian Armed Forces in 1992 under the Reserve Entry Training Program. He first attended Royal Roads Military College in Victoria, and then graduated from the Royal Military College of Canada (RMC), Kingston, in 1996 with an undergraduate degree in Chemical and Materials Engineering. Upon completion of Military Engineer training in Chilliwack, he served in 1 CER, CFSME, 2 CER, and finally 4 ESR as the Commanding Officer.

BGen Ayotte’s international deployments have been to the Balkans, Afghanistan, and the Middle East. He has served on multiple domestic operations across the country in response to floods, ice storms, forest fires, hurricanes, and ground search and rescue. His extra regimental appointments include service with 1 Cdn Div HQ as the CO DART / J35, Canadian Army HQ as DAS 2, 4 Cdn Div HQ as the COS, and RMC as the Director of Cadets.

BGen Ayotte is a graduate of the Australian Command and Staff Course in Canberra, Australia and the National Security Programme at CFC in Toronto. He assumed the role of Chief of Staff Army Strategy in August 2020.

The Canadian Army Modernization Strategy comprises of four distinct elements: Orientation, Affirmation, Confirmation, and Implementation. Please give us an overview of these pillars and what it means to the Canadian Army?

The four pillars of the Canadian Army Modernization Strategy are:

  • Orientation –focuses on understanding the strategic context in which the Army will modernize, in particular domestic and international security trends, our government’s priorities, and our allies’ approaches. We need to do our best to anticipate where the future security environment is trending so we can make decisions on the right capabilities, structures and concepts to develop. We will not get everything right, but making sure we complete a robust orientation will greatly increase our likelihood of getting it right. This due diligence is a hallmark of any professional force.
  • Affirmation –is about who we are and how we contribute alongside our defence and whole-of-government partners. This is very much a confirmation of Army vision, mission, and our approach to operations and how we bring together people, platforms, doctrine, and training to generate effective forces, and options, in the land domain.
  • Confirmation – this is where the strategy starts to talk about the key operating concepts that inform the specifics of implementation. The importance of being able to operate with the CAF across all domains is highlighted. This is something that all services are working towards. This chapter also enumerates the principles of modernization and talks about risks. Both of these elements are important for planners to do the force development work needed for the future Army. 
  • Implementation – the last chapter describes the individual initiatives that will come together to modernize the entirety of the Army. This is where the breadth of the task to modernize the Army becomes apparent as this effort touches all aspects of the organization. 

What are some of the challenges the Army is facing or will continue to face at home and abroad and how will technology and other initiatives play a part in helping to solve these issues?

As with many other nations, the Army is faced with a complex world comprised of various threats and challenges that are constantly changing. Whether it’s violent extremism, climate change, cyber-attacks, disinformation, or interstate competition, the Army must continue to evolve to be as well-positioned as possible to address, or contribute to addressing, these threats. Sometimes this will mean fielding capabilities that leverage technology to deal with a particular threat or situation, while other times it could be about people and processes. Often it’s a combination of these and other initiatives since threats are normally complex and multi-faceted. Regardless of the approach, we need to always work with the other CAF services, our government partners, and our allies to provide the most comprehensive solution possible. 

Partnership is an important part of the Strategy. Who are some of the key international players that the Canadian Army is looking to foster better relationships with to leverage and position itself as a leader on the world stage?

We will continue to work with the U.S. as our closest ally. Our partnerships with the Five Eyes armies, NATO, and other key regional partners remain the cornerstones of our desire to be part of military alliances and partnerships with like-minded nations. Furthermore, contributing to the UN or coalitions of the willing is something the Army needs to always be ready to do as determined by our government. Finally, if we want to optimize our modernization efforts then we need to have good communications with industry and academia to stay current on emerging trends and best practices across the defence and security domain. 

Since the Army is focused on the land environment, other domains like information and cyber are becoming more central to modern warfare. How does the land environment fit into this modern conflict and what sort of investments are needed to ensure the Army has the core capabilities to operate in such a conflict?

One could surmise that the future will be cyber, space, autonomous systems, and the place of a land army will become anachronistic. I would argue that is incorrect for a few reasons and land power will continue to remain highly relevant. Land forces interact with and protect populations, and community engagement remains critical to operational success. Until humans stop living on land, land forces will maintain enduring relevance to control territory and influence the activity within that territory. Aligned with that point, the commitment of land forces is a very real indication of a country’s commitment to solving a problem, to deterrence, and to supporting stability or conflict resolution. This logic extends to the home front and the place of the Army in defence of Canada and the continent. The air and maritime domains are traditionally viewed as the focus of continental defence, but land forces must be a part of this lexicon for many reasons. An example: Climate change is opening previously inaccessible areas and the Army will be expected to be able to provide an “on the ground presence” to assert sovereignty, or to respond to situations, such as increasingly frequent natural disasters, anywhere in the country, including the isolated, remote and northern areas of Canada. 

With respect to capability investment, we need to be able to operate in the modern battle space, at home and abroad, with some of our traditional capabilities and others that are newer, in all domains. We can maintain our fighting vehicles, indirect fire weapons, and communication systems, but we need to ensure they’re enabled for today and tomorrow. This means protecting our fighting vehicles and communication systems from cyber and electronic warfare attack, and operating in an environment where both the cyber and information spaces are contested. This means being better connected across the CAF to leverage any sensor for information or any system to deal with a threat, regardless of the service providing the capability. All of these challenges are at the front of mind as we go through our planning. 

As part of the Modernization Strategy, what are some of the key capabilities the Canadian Army will invest in over the next five to 30 years?

Strong, Secure, Engaged provides the roadmap for the development of Army capabilities for many years to come. The Army Modernization Strategy provides a comprehensive list of capability investments. Some of these investments are smaller and less visible with important capabilities such as power generation, simulators for training, or modernization of night vision systems. Others are more high profile with the return of Ground Based Air Defence, or the modernization of our land based command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance systems through a series of projects. As we look beyond the current defence policy timelines, we are determining what comes next and the modernization work will help refine this need further. 

How does the Canadian Army plan to manage and mitigate risk as part of this Strategy?

Although the strategy addresses risk, it also acknowledges this is an area that is dynamic and requires constant attention to do our best to mitigate as much as possible. Additionally, there are different types of risks when you are modernizing an organization as large as the Canadian Army so this is an area that relies on good strategic direction supported by continuous communication to ensure all of the experts understand the risk in their domain and have a voice to decision makers. We have made this a pillar of our planning efforts. 

How does the Canadian Army plan to implement this Strategy over the next five to 10 years and what role do you see industry playing in helping to achieve the initiatives outlined therein?

Although we are in the early stages of our planning for the implementation of our first major change which will be to restructure the Army with the Force 2025 initiative to ensure we are organized properly for our modernization objectives. We know there are several things that must happen for this to be successful. We will need to make tough choices in what capabilities the Army will have in the future. We cannot do everything we were doing and everything we want to do. Once these choices are made, we need to be disciplined to commit to these choices unless there is a significant reason to change the decision. We are not able to do everything in the Army, but that doesn’t mean that Canada’s needs can’t be met from some other part of the CAF, so integration and interoperability are paramount. 

Finally, in order to field the right capabilities, we need to increase our partnerships with industry. Unlike an era where technologies would start in the military or government and then migrate later to society, industry now leads technological advances on many fronts. In some cases, industry is better able to communicate the challenges of the future security environment because they are developing the leading-edge technologies. We need to build a relationship that is not simply transactional with individual projects, but one of idea sharing and mutual understanding.