Mr. Chair, committee members, I am pleased to have the opportunity to discuss the Royal Canadian Air Force's readiness with you today.
[English]
Success in operations, my number one priority, rests on a foundational pillar of readiness, that is, our ability to act and to deliver the right air effect at the right time and at the right place. It demands that our capabilities exist in various states of readiness. Since no two national or international operations are ever the same, the question becomes how we ensure that our country has the right stuff to respond quickly and effectively. It boils down to a mix of the right people with the right training, the right doctrine, and the right equipment.
In terms of readiness, the RCAF generates relevant, responsive, and effective air power to meet the defence and security challenges of today and tomorrow. In other words, we equip, train, and sustain air power to carry out operations for the force employers who actually employ our people and assets to conduct the missions. These force employers include Canada Command and NORAD for continental operations, and Canadian Expeditionary Force Command for operations oversees.
The strategic, operational, and tactical effects that we achieve nationally and internationally are the ultimate test of our readiness. We have passed that test with flying colours.
As we approach the end of an extraordinary year, we look back at an unparalleled number of domestic and international operations, including engagement in combat operations in two separate theatres.
[Translation]
Operation Mobile was one of our most recent demonstrations of our readiness. The morning after the United Nations passed its resolution on Libya, our CF-18 Hornet fighter jets were en route to Italy to take part in the operation. CC-150 Polaris air-to-air refuellers and CC-177 Globemasters loaded with personnel and equipment followed immediately. And a few days after leaving Canada, our aircraft were in the skies around and over Libya, working side-by-side with our coalition partners.
During our mission, we also had Aurora long-range patrol aircraft, Hercules refuellers and Hercules transport aircraft in the air, as well as a Sea King helicopter embarked with our frigate in the Mediterranean. All of our airmen and airwomen fulfilled their duties with the professionalism that has been the hallmark of our RCAF service through the years, and I was extraordinarily proud to welcome them home last month.
[English]
The rapidity with which we responded was due entirely to our readiness. Our equipment was ready. Our highly professional people were trained and ready. And our logistical support was robust. Moreover, during this period, our air wing in Afghanistan was still active, delivering air power to the Canadian and allied commanders under extremely demanding situations.
Around the same time that Operation MOBILE began, we deployed six CF-18s to Iceland to carry out an air policing mission under the auspices of NATO.
In August, we deployed Griffon helicopters and crews to Jamaica to conduct search and rescue training and to support the Jamaica Defence Force during hurricane season.
[Translation]
Closer to home, we responded to threats from Mother Nature. We evacuated residents of several communities who were in danger from wildfires in northern Ontario and evacuated others from flood threats in the Richelieu Valley in Quebec. We continued to deliver on our domestic no-fail task of protecting Canadians from air threats through NORAD. And we continued to fulfill our very demanding search and rescue mandate, assisting Canadians in peril.
[English]
In this extremely busy—I might even say unprecedented—period of activity, we delivered excellence in every area of responsibility. In fact, there was a point this spring where every one of our operational capabilities, in varying numbers, was committed to operations. Throughout my career, I have never seen this level of engagement.
In addition to ensuring our people and fleets are ready to carry out missions such as those I have described, we have certain tools at hand to aid us in ensuring that we can turn our readiness into action effectively and efficiently. In particular, I want to make note of a true success story, the Canadian Combined Aerospace Operations Centre or, as we call it, the CAOC.
[Translation]
The centre is located in Winnipeg.
This entity was established a little more than five years ago and is having a significant, positive impact on our ability to deliver operational effect at home and abroad. The CAOC supports our air component commander, enabling him to exercise centralized command and control, and facilitate decentralized execution of air power at home and around the world.
As a result, we can exchange information rapidly and accurately throughout the air force and the Canadian Forces, with other government departments, and with our allies. The CAOC allows us to effectively allocate and rapidly re-group and re-task capabilities to force employers and thereby better support operational commanders.
[English]
Now, it goes without saying that airplanes are fast, that is, faster than any land- or sea-based capabilities. Therefore, the inherent nature of air power allows us to respond rapidly. Our agility and resilience are important organizational values that are foundations of our readiness.
So what is the state of readiness of the RCAF?
All of our capabilities have a high-risk component that enables us to respond rapidly to developing situations. In fact, the air force maintains the highest overall readiness of the three environments. Most of our forces are either ready for or conducting operations. I want to give you a few examples of our readiness in our aircraft fleets by way of illustration.
Our CF-18 Hornets maintain high-alert states to support NORAD and Canadian airspace control. They could be airborne in minutes on any given day. Our readiness assignment for the Globemaster III ranges from 24 hours' notice to 21 days for humanitarian assistance missions. Our CP-140 Aurora long-range patrol aircraft maintain readiness to respond within 12 hours for domestic operations conducted under the auspices of Canada Command. Our tactical transport communities, which include our helicopters, maintain a number of platforms at high readiness by region for domestic emergency response, ranging from 30 minutes to 24 hours' notice to move. For example, the C-130 Hercules readiness is the shortest, at 30 minutes for search and rescue, 24 hours for domestic operations, or 3 days for unforecasted support to the Canadian Expeditionary Force Command.
[Translation]
Maintaining this level of readiness requires a significant level of planning, effort and resources. Moreover, as we look to the future, we will be challenged to maintain our readiness. We need to ensure that our ability, creativity and innovation—the factors that enable our readiness—are institutionalized.
We have always been able to adapt to new technologies, procedures and techniques, largely because of our flexible, highly competent, and extremely knowledgeable airmen and airwomen.
[English]
For instance, our personnel at the air wing in Afghanistan acquired a very sharp focus in high intensity multi-fleet combat operations. In this operational petri dish, the learning curve was tremendously steep; but our people adapted wonderfully, often learning in days or even hours what might normally take months or years. Our lessons learned from Afghanistan are being analyzed and institutionalized to guide our doctrine and training for years to come, and thereby further strengthening our readiness.
[Translation]
In addition, we have made tremendous investments in our human resources over the past decade. We have revamped several of our occupations to ensure career structures are optimized, that training, experience and tasks are aligned, and that opportunities for career advancement are improved.
Moreover, we are creating efficiencies in personnel training and seeing promising improvements through the use of technology such as networked virtual training in simulated environments. We are also transforming the training system for our technicians: training more students in less time but graduating them with an even greater degree of technical competence. We need to continue to carry out this type of self-examination and refinement in the years to come.
[English]
With regard to our aircraft fleets, we are facing tremendous opportunities, but many will challenge our ability to maintain readiness. Very soon we will integrate the Cyclone into our fleets. We will have personnel availability challenges, training challenges, as well as the growing pains that can be part of bring any [Inaudible--Editor] into operation. The new CH-47F Chinook will bring similar challenges, although our experience in Afghanistan should facilitate its entry into service.
In late 2016, we expect to start taking delivery of the F-35 Lightning II, our next-generation fighter.
[Translation]
We know that some of the threats faced by the CF-18 Hornet in the 20th century have faded, some have continued and new ones have emerged. There is no reason for us to doubt that we will continue to see similar fluidity and evolution in threats as the century unfolds. Acquisition of the fifth-generation F-35 will enhance our readiness, giving us the flexibility to face the threats we know and, just as importantly, the threats that have yet to emerge.
[English]
In conclusion, ladies and gentlemen, we face many challenges every day in the Royal Canadian Air Force, but we see these as opportunities to strengthen the institution. Supported by a robust operational command system, relevant equipment, effective training and education, and rich operational experience, our airmen and airwomen are willing to take on whatever domestic and global security challenges our nation may face, today or tomorrow.
The Royal Canadian Air Force is ready.
[Translation]
Thank you again for the opportunity to speak with you about readiness; I look forward to your questions.
[English]
Thank you very much.
I'm open to your questions.
:
Thank you for your question.
I'll go with the basic enhancement that the C-17 has brought to the CF and, of course, to Canada. What the C-17 embodies is the ability to respond quickly and effectively to either domestic situations or international situations, whereas in the past we had to pull together a different option package based on the tactical lift we had available, plus contracted lift, plus support from our allies. The C-17 has allowed us now to be able to initiate a response to any crisis on our own time and at our own speed, if you will. The airplane provides the range and the load capacity to pretty much take anything we need to bring to bear in any sort of situation. It can even carry our massive Leopard 2 tanks, which are pretty heavy vehicles. It's a platform that has opened up new doors for us, in being able to respond to our security needs. As you've seen in the last couple of years, it also has great potential for employment in the north, in the Arctic, in bringing to bear the capacity to bring outside cargo and personnel, whether CF or government agencies, that need to be in the Arctic for whatever reason.
We're also looking at its capabilities in the future. Up to now, we have used the C-17 mostly as a strategic platform to deliver those big payloads to Afghanistan and elsewhere. It's been used in the Arctic for re-supply. Clearly, the platform has potential that we have yet to explore and exploit. It can airdrop just about everything it carries. For domestic use, there is great potential for immediate reaction, and for bringing support and succour to those in need in Canada, through either landed or airdrop operations. So I think it holds great potential for us that we have yet to explore.
In the C-130 tactical fleets, the J model is, of course, a more robust and modern version of our very reliable C-130s. It brings with it greater load capacities. It's a slightly larger and faster aircraft that is more fuel efficient, with very reliable engines and systems, and, of course, it can be operated by very few individuals. So, from a resource perspective, it represents a far more manageable long-term sustainment bill for the air force to pay. It proved itself almost upon arrival. We took delivery of our first airplane only a year and a bit ago, and yet within a week or two from arrival, we were deploying it forward into Afghanistan because of the needs there. The airplane did wonderfully.
We have two platforms that have changed the game, and I see great things down the road for both platforms. We've seen them in action for the last two years and seen what they can bring to bear.
:
Thank you for the question.
We talked about it a little bit earlier on pilot production. The air force currently is responsible for 26 trades inside the bigger Canadian Forces package. Of the 26 trades, we have seven that are still under stress. We define “under stress” as being the trades that are 10% short of the preferred manning level.
That's better than last year. Last year, we had nine trades in stress. We're down to seven, and that trend is improving fairly rapidly. My sense right now, assuming conditions don't dramatically change around us, is that we will see the air force by and large being in the green as far as trades are concerned within the next three to five years. The pilot trade will probably remain a stressed trade because we have to make up for the gaps that we've had over the decades, and also to make sure that we can still produce and adjust for any sort of attrition that may be driven by the economy.
I'm fairly confident that we will close the gap on those remaining trades. In the pilot trade, we're okay. We're going to produce as fast as we can. Right now, I don't have any undue concerns about our being able to hold the line on our current production. We've improved a lot of our processes, which allows us to produce folks faster, and have had great success certainly in the trades. Our aircraft technicians used to take three to four years after coming off the street before being able to fix airplanes and sign for the work they did. We got that down to two and a half years, which is a tremendous improvement. We did this through technology. The use of the virtual world has helped us move things along a lot faster. We're very satisfied with where that's going. We're going to keep looking for those increased efficiencies, but by and large, we're doing okay.
The biggest issue we will have is a bit of a demographic issue, which a lot of the services and departments face. We have a fairly young demographic. Over 40% of the air force has less than nine years of service, and we have a fairly large proportion of folks in the older demographic, let's say with 20-plus years of service. We have a bit of a shortage of folks in that 12 to 20 years of service bracket. That was due to major adjustments that were done in the mid-1990s as part of that decade's worth of economic adjustments that we had to make. We're feeling that demographic pressure coming through right now. Part of our challenge is that we're training a lot of new, keen, and smart folks, but the mentorship piece is a bit of a challenge, as we have to keep distributing the experience that we have in that middle crew to those eager young folks who need to be mentored and developed so they become solid air force members.
You know what? We've deployed on operations, as they say, across the world with those young folks, and they've done tremendously well. The training we provide them has certainly served them. Again, we call them our pipeliner veterans, because they've been out there doing the business and have done it extremely well.
:
Thank you for that question.
I'll answer the last question first. The SAR trade is actually healthy. It's slightly over establishment, in fact. We have no problem recruiting our SAR techs. We're slightly ahead in numbers, which is good, because it is a trade that's prone to injury, as I think we're well aware. But the trade itself is healthy, which is good news.
SAR, writ large, is clearly an important mandate that we have on behalf of Canada to provide the ability to respond across our vastness both in land and ocean. We are the biggest SAR region in the world because of our ocean approaches on three fronts, plus our land mass. We have 18-million square kilometres to be able to react inside of. Over the last 64 years, we've been mandated to do SAR, since just after World War II. Our system of search and rescue has evolved. We've learned as we've done it, as we've expanded the mandate and our capabilities. We've become a lot better at doing SAR over those decades.
I think what we find right now is a system that's in balance. We have highly skilled individuals with good platforms—although we definitely want to refresh those platforms so they're viable into the decades ahead. But the system works: It's a good system, and world class. I have no doubt I can put up our SAR crews against anybody in the world and they will do extremely well.
So the question becomes our responsiveness. I believe we have the agility right now to respond in a way that meets the general demand. Clearly the Arctic is a challenging area. As we saw recently, only a few weeks ago we had to do probably one of the toughest SAR missions I've ever seen and, of course, it cost us the loss of one of our SAR technicians, but we saved those who were at risk. The Arctic is an unforgiving place. Therefore, we are looking at our training and equipment to make sure that when we're called upon to operate in the Arctic, we will do it to the best of our ability and so that we can ensure success when we go out the door.
All in all, I think we are in balance. We are where we need to be, writ large, to be able to deliver SAR across the full spectrum of the demands in Canada, and in a way that is both resource-sensible and, in the end, that's able to actually save lives.
:
Thank you for the question.
It goes back to readiness. Why have we been able to achieve what we have this year as far as the speed of response and the quality of response are concerned? It's because we've maintained a significant investment in the training part of maintaining fully combat-capable forces. That's really the crux of how much investment needs to be made.
To maintain those robust skills across a reasonably benign spectrum to a very complex and dangerous spectrum requires a fair amount of investment in time and energy to expose our folks to the environments in the right kind of training setting--safe but demanding--and to build that confidence and skill set so they can go out the door on 12 or 24 hours' notice, do the business, and do it successfully. For us, it's really about finding the balance in how we do that.
We have great domestic exercises that we participate in. Maple Flag is the air force flagship of high readiness training, in which we integrate individual skill sets into collective training that is very demanding, where we play out those complex and very demanding scenarios where there are threats, both in the air and on the ground. Therefore, strategies to overcome them need to be worked out, and then you also get a chance to exploit your technology and see how it works under demanding circumstances.
But we've also expanded our operations with our allies in big coalition exercises and work very closely with the army in Wainwright at their big training centre. We have a rapprochement between us right now, where several times a year we have big exercises when we deliver the same sorts of air effects that we did in Afghanistan with the army. That is one of the lessons we've learned, that we need to make sure we maintain those skills with our joint partners so we don't have to relearn them on operations in a live setting. Also, of course, it's great training for both the army and us.
We're also working with the navy to expand again and recreate a strong skill set with it as we go out to RIMPAC, which is a massive exercise out in the western Pacific that exercises all the elements of sea and air power--and some land, in fact--in a joint setting.
We are investing in those kinds of great training opportunities to make sure our people are at the leading edge of skills and are also aware of the technology they will face out there.