Connected Defence | The future is now

In the past, major defence departments around the world often performed R&D, which helped achieve many ground-breaking technological advances. But, in many cases, government efforts now trail those of the defence industry in R&D spending due to military budget cuts and the exponential growth in technology companies.

Advances in disruptive technologies, including artificial intelligence and machine learning, are dramatically changing the way we do the business of defence. This new reality calls for new strategies.

While digital technology is more important to defence than ever before, the key to an effective and efficient force lies in having a fully “connected” organization in which every function across the front, middle, and back office is seamlessly aligned to deliver on mission objectives. In the commercial environment, we call this digital transformation a “connected enterprise”, and there are many examples of businesses employing such an approach, coordinating the front (customer or citizen experience), to the middle (including supply chain and operations), to the back (including human resources, finance and information technology).

The connected enterprise is one element of the future defence journey that we will explore in this and future columns, which we hope will provoke and stimulate debate.

Given the broad roles of defence forces today, primarily foreign defence and peacekeeping missions, and civil protection including emergency response at home, such connectivity must be maximized to achieve an effective outcome. This is particularly true due to the depth and breadth of a force and its supporting human and technical infrastructure, including a complex supply chain and wide range of roles from soldiers to fighter pilots, cooks to chaplains, finance to IT specialists, and every other role in between.

Accelerating preparedness

A connected defence force accelerates preparedness by bringing together equipment, resources, and training, enabling decision-makers to scan the entire asset base in real time, understand cost-to-serve and time to deploy, throughout the entire tactical, operational, and strategic cycles of a military operation.

From a connected enterprise perspective, one technology is blinking particularly bright on the civilian technology radar: 5G and its associated ecosystem. Although some defence organizations around the world are starting to invest in 5G-enabled “next generation” platforms, such as the F35 Strike Fighter and the P8 Poseidon, their effectiveness is constrained when the communications capacity is based on 2nd or 3rd generation technology.

5G is not just the next evolutionary step in mobility; it is truly a revolutionary leap forward for several reasons: its high speed, low power, and low latency; and, the fact it will be led at the enterprise level.

With 5G able to support a million active connections per square kilometre, sensors can now be deployed ubiquitously, which provides an opportunity to link everything to everyone. Its huge bandwidth can support augmented intelligence with little to no impact on workloads, enabling a much nearer real-time common operating picture. Security naturally takes on even greater importance, as sensors can not only intercommunicate but may also need to make decisions independent of humans. This means defence organizations must be assured that no malicious code has been injected into the Internet of Things.

Although it will take a number of years for there to be a universal rollout of 5G, the networking capability exists now to provide campus rollouts of private 5G networks. Looking to the horizon, it’s possible to envision capabilities such as a drone providing a 5G envelope for a mobile brigade, for example.

5G an evolutionary leap forward

Defence organizations should be planning now how they intend to exploit these capabilities.

Here are the eight elements of a connected enterprise: 

1. Insight-driven strategies and actions – harnessing data, analytics and insights to develop a real-time view to inform strategy and operations.

2. Innovative platforms and services – developing integrated operational capabilities to help the force consistently and securely deliver on its mission.

3. Mission centricity by design – to be fully force ready, with leaders setting requirements and having the necessary resources under their control.

4. Seamless interactions – between front, middle, and back office – for total, real-time visibility to instantly inform decision makers and optimize spend.

5. Responsive operations and supply chain – to deploy forces and meet mission needs in an agile, consistent manner, supported by advanced analytics.

6. Aligned and empowered workforce – inspiring people to drive performance.

7. Digitally enabled technology architecture – to create intelligent and agile platforms.

8. Integrated partner and alliance ecosystem – to reduce cost, mitigate risk and close capability gaps.

In a KPMG survey conducted by Forrester of defence department decision-makers in six countries, including Canada, more mature ‘connected defence forces’ were found to be investing heavily in all eight capabilities, with a laser focus over the next 12 months on responsive operations and supply chain. Their less mature peers are striving to close the gap over the next three years.

In summary, in the fast-moving environment we find ourselves in today, no defence force can afford to fall behind in their connected capabilities. Future mission success depends on the ability to rapidly evolve in a connected way.

This article was first published in the Canadian Defence Review Magazine in February 2020.

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