Canadian JTAC Training Jordanian Military

By: Rupert Pengelley - Jane's International Defence Review
A Canadian-led team has trained the first cohort of Jordanian joint terminal attack controllers
The Jordan Armed Forces is setting up its own training capabilities

The air-land integration capabilities of the Jordan Armed Forces (JAF) have received a boost from a Canadian-led multinational mobile training team (MTT). Follow-on plans are being developed for a Jordanian national joint terminal attack controller (JTAC) instructional capability.

A Canadian JTAC instructor in discussion with JAF JTAC trainees undergoing training at an air-ground weapons range in the Jordanian desert in early 2017. (Canadian Armed Forces)

Assembly of the MTT began in late 2016 under the auspices of the Canadian JTAC school at Gagetown. The latter was responding to a Jordanian request initially lodged with the US-led Joint Fire Support Executive Steering Committee for the in-country provision of a US JTAC memorandum of agreement (MOA)-accredited course for JTACs.

Speaking at the 2017 Omega Close Air Support conference in Bristol, in the United Kingdom, Warrant Officer Ken Power, a Gagetown-based JTAC Standards and Evaluation (STANEVAL) examiner, said the task had filtered down to his organisation only two months before the MTT was required to be on the ground.

The team core was provided by three Canadian JTAC instructors (JTAC-Is), supplemented by others from Australia, France, Poland, and the United States.

As lead country, Canada was responsible for undertaking an initial reconnaissance of the in-country facilities and ranges, plus assuring availability of airspace, air support, maps, and safety support. All basic course material was supplied by Canada, along with a mobile simulator.

Power noted that the latter was supplanted only a few days into the course by a VBS2-based Deployable Virtual Training Environment (DVTE) simulator loaned by the US Marine Corps (USMC). The MTT was able to derive considerable additional support in theatre from the USMC, which had an Air Naval Gunfire Liaison Company (ANGLICO) detachment deployed in Jordan at the time.

The standard Canadian Forces JTAC course is spread over 10 weeks and, according to Power, is “heavy on homework”.

iAOR Asterix Loses Power before Massive Storm

By: Tom Ayers, The Chronicle Herald 

A new naval supply ship lost power in Halifax Harbour last week just ahead of a winter storm that packed nearly 80 kilometre-per-hour winds at the dockyard and gusts that exceeded 100 km/h elsewhere in the province.

The MV Asterix, a large former commercial container ship that has been converted into an interim auxiliary naval replenishment vessel, arrived in Halifax late last month and will be leased to the Royal Canadian Navy once it passes sea trials.

With the storm coming and the Asterix tied up at the pier next to the Halifax Seaport Farmers’ Market, the harbour authority asked the ship’s owners to move its berth up the harbour, said Spencer Fraser, CEO of Federal Fleet Services, the company that refurbished the vessel.

The ship was accompanied by tugboats, as usual, he said, and after the power went out, an extra tug was called in just as a precaution.

“The reason we moved berths was I guess it was too exposed and they don’t want to suffer damage to the jetty with the ship knocking in, so the ship was in fact moved before the storm approached,” Fraser told The Herald.

“There was a power blackout ... a sensor on the lube-oil system failed on the power generation, but the emergency power generation kicked in as required, and the extra tug was kept there just because of the pending storm and sorting out the sensor problem, which has been solved.

“We did that and we’ve subsequently done more harbour moves in the harbour. We’re now tied up at the navy dockyard at jetty November Bravo.

“So all systems worked. There was a failure of a sensor and then the backup systems worked as engineered. There was no damage to the ship, no storm damage, no cost to us other than standard repair.”

Fraser declined to discuss financial issues, but said there was no extra cost because the large ship always requires tugboats to manoeuvre around the harbour.

“It’s a new ship and it’s new to the Halifax Port Authority so everyone’s being extra cautious and professionalism came through,” he said.

Ken Hansen, a retired navy commander and defence consultant, said finding a faulty sensor is a common aspect of sea trials before a ship goes into service.

And lubricating oil is a critical component of a ship’s mechanical operations, so running drills related to the lube-oil would be expected, he said.

“Lube-oil failures are a very common thing to practise and the engineering staff have to take action so that they can determine whether or not it’s a faulty sensor or quickly shut down,” Hansen said.

“Lubricating oil is vital. It’s one of those real, honest-to-God emergencies that happen in a ship, because if the engine or the transmission runs dry, you can very quickly end up with a catastrophic failure.”

However, he said, the incident with the Asterix sounds like it was fixed right away and was not serious.

“It’s like cars,” Hansen said. “Cars are the same. In fact, I’ve got a faulty engine light in my car right now, and I know it’s a sensor, because all the other indications — running temperature, fuel efficiency, power response, all that stuff — is normal, so we don’t pay any attention.”

As an auxiliary naval replenishment vessel, the Asterix will provide the navy with fuel, cargo, ammunition, a floating hospital, a platform for two helicopters and quarters for humanitarian and rescue operations.

It will be leased to the federal government for five years at a cost of about $700 million, with an option to renew for an additional five years, while another firm builds new replacement ships for the navy.

The Asterix is currently crewed with a mix of 36 civilian and 114 Canadian Forces personnel and is set to run through sea trials this month.

Fraser said he expects the navy will put the ship into service in February.

Canadian Special Forces Looking to Recruit more Women

By: Murray Brewster, CBC News 

Canada's special forces hope to recruit more than just a few good women in the coming years, says the commander of the elite force.

Maj-Gen. Mike Rouleau said the special forces, the highly trained military units that hunt terrorists and conduct covert operations, are considering how they can recruit more women.

More than just a nod toward society's growing demand for gender balance, having more women in the unit would make it more effective, he said.
'This is the future, and it is a bit of James Bond, but if you want to defeat a [terrorist] cellular-based network, you need to be in front of that cell'- Steve Day, former commander of counterterrorism unit

"Having female operators would allow us to be more flexible in the battlespace," Rouleau said in a recent interview. "It would allow us to be more under the radar in certain cases."

In certain countries, two men walking down the street might draw attention, but having a man and woman conduct the same mission might be less noticeable, Rouleau suggested.

A former commander of the country's elite counterterrorism unit, JTF-2, which is part of the special forces command, said the need for such mixed gender teams is something Canada's allies have already recognized.

The more special forces are called on to fight terrorists, the more they will have to act and fight like intelligence agents, rather "door-kicking" commandos, said retired colonel Steve Day, who is now president of Reticle Security.

"Our closest allies routinely deploy male and female alongside each other to do the softer, intelligence-gathering, sensor-type operations," he said.

"This is the future, and it is a bit of James Bond, but if you want to defeat a [terrorist] cellular-based network, you need to be in front of that cell, and at the moment, we're not there."
Clear criteria

Up to 14 per cent of the more than 2,200 Canadian special forces personnel are women, a percentage Rouleau said he wants to increase to 25 per cent.

That figure would be in line with the overall direction of the Canadian military, which has set the same goal.

"We're an equal opportunity employer," said Rouleau. "We'd love to have more women in the force."

It is, however, easier said than done.

Rouleau noted a handful of women currently serve in both the special forces command and the unit that responds to chemical, biological and radioactive incidents.

A few have even tried out for JTF-2, but none have gone on to take the training course, because they failed to qualify, he said.

In order to be successful, Day said, a cultural change is needed within the special forces that recognizes not only the value of women in the field, but the fact that the elite troops are capable of doing more than assaulting a target.

The very first introduction of women into the special forces ranks in 2003-2004 "didn't go over that well because organizationally we were quite immature when it came to understanding what the selection process would be," said Day.

"There was a lot of pushback and no end of short-term grief."

The problem is not simply gender bias, he added.

The selection process of an "assaulter" — a soldier well-suited to combat — is well documented, he said, but the criteria for choosing the best people for more intelligence-based operations is not as well defined. That needs to change, Day said.

Rouleau acknowledged his organization can do more to get out the message that "female operators are not only welcome, but in many cases, they would make us operationally more successful."
Army under strain

The Liberal government's defence policy, released last spring, mandated the expansion of special forces by up to 605 personnel, presenting all sorts of challenges beyond the gender issue.

At the moment, troops can only join the elite unit through the regular forces, and up to 94 per cent of those transfers come from the army.

The wider military is having its own problems.

The army currently sits at 47,000, which includes regular and reserve soldiers, as well as Canadian Rangers, who patrol the Arctic. But the regular force is short up to 1,500 troops from its allotted strength of 23,100, according to Department of Defence statistics.

Members of Canadian Forces Special Operations JTF-2 unit storm a ship during a training mission off the shores of Churchill, Man. in 2012. The nature of operations for special forces is changing to include more intelligence gathering. (Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press)

Senior defence officials insist they're hitting recruiting targets, but retention of highly skilled members is a problem.

Drawing from an army that is struggling to keep qualified soldiers "is a concern," said Rouleau, who acknowledged he and his staff are looking for a direct-entry model similar to a program introduced by the U.S. Army, known as 18-Xray.

"You can't come from the street to be a special forces operator," said Rouleau. "But that doesn't mean in the future we won't have a model that you can come from the street.

"I'm not saying that's where we're going. I'm saying we're looking at alternate options to today's model to make sure that we're both capturing the talent that's out there, but also try, if we can, to alleviate some of the pressure from the services."

The American system gives recruits the opportunity to "try out" for special forces right away.

U.S.officials say it does not guarantee a recruit will be accepted, only that they will be given the opportunity to demonstrate they have "the right stuff."

RCN Revising Policy on Wi-Fi

By: Murray Brewster, CBC News 

For the navy's most senior enlisted man it was a seminal moment.

It was — in today's terms — the most ordinary of scenes, but the fact it was taking place in a mess aboard the frigate HMCS Charlottetown was extraordinary.

Chief Petty Officer 1st Class Michel Vigneault was amazed to see a sailor having a Facetime conversation with family back home on a smartphone.

The moment neatly captured the conundrum he and the top brass have faced in making the navy, which has for a decade been perpetually short of sailors, an appealing place to work.

The moment encapsulated two issues: the longstanding prohibition on Wi-Fi coverage aboard warships and the amount of time sailors are away from home.

Both have become central to the retention and recruiting makeover that is underway as part of the Liberal government's recently introduced defence strategy.

The ban on Wi-Fi was an obvious irritant.

"I realized then how important it is. Maybe not for my generation, because we didn't grow up with that, but for younger sailors, being connected is very, very important," Vigneault told CBC News is a recent interview. "Everything we can do to enable that for the benefit of the sailor and his or her family is very, very important."
Infrequent chats

The navy has dropped what its top sailor called the "draconian" policy on the technology and has embarked on a program to install Wi-Fi on each of its warships.

"There are other navies that operate with NATO that have Wi-Fi in far more spaces than we do." said Vice-Admiral Ron Lloyd, commander of the Royal Canadian Navy. "And we're saying 'No you can't have it aboard' — period? That's crazy."

The U.S. navy began installing 4G LTE networks aboard its ships in 2012, while Canadians sailors have over the same period of time been forced to stow their cellphones while at sea — particularly when in secured areas — and rely on the occasional satellite phone conversation with family at home.

Those infrequent chats conducted through "morale phones" were largely dependant on the warship's jammed-up operational network.

Lloyd said last summer the crew of HMCS Toronto bought a Wi-Fi kit and installed it for use in non-secure locations aboard the ship, demonstrating it could be done expeditiously.

The coastal patrol ship HMCS Summerside had done the same, according to a navy publication.

The Wi-Fi works while a warship is in port — home or otherwise — and Lloyd said they are working on creating access while the ship is at sea, in much the same manner airlines now offer connectivity for passengers in the air.

Aside from obvious security issues, which the navy insists it has a handle on, the introduction of Wi-Fi brings with it questions about privacy, social media addiction and, potentially, policing of content. Many of those issues are covered by the military's overall social media policy, but until recently they were not matters individual ship commanders had to routinely consider.

The navy is examining how much time sailors spend at sea as part of a strategy to be more family friendly. (Private Dan Bard/Canadian Forces Combat Camera)

Getting the quality of work-life balance right has also forced the navy to revisit and revise long-standing deployment policies.

The shortage of sailors has meant an increase in what is known as "attached postings," which has seen crew members do back-to-back deployments at sea for months on end.

Lloyd says they are now measuring, down to the sailor, how many attached postings there are.

"There is nothing worse than going from ship to ship," he said.

A flag officer — namely a fleet admiral or task force commander — will now have to sign off on deploying a sailor for more than 180 days per year.

And ideally, Lloyd said, the navy is trying to avoid sending someone to sea for that length of time years in a row.

It is a sea change for an institution that, for decades, gauged its effectiveness not by how long individual sailors were away but by the numbers of days its individual ships spent on the ocean.

Just how far out of step the navy has been with the rest of society was underlined when senior brass met recently with pollsters to discuss, among other things, getting millennials interested in a career at sea.

Lloyd said the research found the navy was — in some instances — going in precisely the opposite direction to the expectations of the next generation.

The Future of Canada's Iraq Mission

By: Murray Brewster, CBC News 

A captured ISIS battle flag hangs in a glass case on the wall outside the Ottawa office of the commander of Canada's special forces.

A hard-earned prize from a misunderstood war.

Losing "the colours" is a humiliation for any military unit, a sign the battle, and maybe even the war, has been lost.

The black flag, with white Arabic letters declaring, "There is no God but Allah," is also a startling, visceral reminder of how much of the three-year conflict in northern Iraq has played out away from the public spotlight.

It also raises the question of whether Canada's involvement has run its course.

Canadian special forces look over a Peshmerga observation post in northern Iraq last February. (Ryan Remiorz/Canadian Press)

The Trudeau government committed last June to keep troops in the war-torn country until 2019, but it has never been clear about what those troops would do there once ISIS was expelled.

Just before Christmas, Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan signalled the mission would get another makeover, but was vague on what it would look like.

The question military commanders are grappling with is whether this next phase of the war will fall within the strict political lines laid down by two successive governments.

Special forces troops were mandated to "advise and assist" but not take part in offensive combat alongside the Iraqi army and Kurdish Peshmerga forces. The expulsion of ISIS, also known as Daesh, which fought large conventional battles to hold on to the territory it seized in 2014, did require Canadians to shoot to protect themselves and their allies.

Mission accomplished?

Last fall, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi effectively declared his country's war with ISIS over.

But while ISIS may have been defeated as a military force, it is far from dead, said Maj.-Gen. Mike Rouleau. The commander of Canada's special forces has drafted recommendations for the next steps as they pertain to his troops.

"The threat is going to morph," Rouleau told CBC News in a recent interview.

"What is Daesh going to do next? If they are not landowners with an overt military presence and heavy weapons in the hinterland, we believe they are probably going to go underground."

Going underground would mean the Iraqis and Kurds would have to be taught to fight a counter-insurgency and counterterrorism war, or at the very least, supported in their own elite forces operations.

It is a much more delicate, precise kind of warfare.

"It's much more intelligence-driven," Rouleau said.

"So, it's a slightly different skill set. It's too early for me to tell you whether [the new mission] is going to have a training component to it — or just an advise, assist component. But these are all the things we are looking at."
Combat vs. non-combat

The political debate about whether the special forces were engaged in "combat" in Iraq has dogged the governments of both Stephen Harper and now Justin Trudeau.

The precise — sometimes hair-splitting — explanations boiled down to this: it wasn't considered combat unless Canadian troops planned an operation and took the offensive. Officials have insisted the latter never happened.

Avoiding direct combat is something the Canadian government, particularly the Liberal government, has been keen to do.

But counter-insurgency and counterterrorism is all about going on the offensive and even taking pre-emptive action against an enemy.

A resident of Tabqa, Syria, waves an ISIS flag after militants reportedly seized control of an air base near Raqqa in 2014. ISIS has since been defeated in much of Iraq and Syria. (Reuters)

Rouleau visited Iraq last month as part of his assessment.

He would not discuss the specifics of what he is recommending to the chief of the defence staff and by extension the government, but it is becoming evident the mission has reached a fork in the road.

Rouleau said it remains to be seen whether his "options are squarely within the mandate the government gave us."

"At this juncture, I believe they will be under the advise, assist and potentially accompany regime."
Reconstruction needed

Other senior defence officials, speaking on background, said there is also the possibility that the special forces could continue with traditional military training of Iraqis and Kurds.

That would be to ensure Iraqi forces hold together in the future and don't melt away in the face of an enemy, the way they did when ISIS fighters swept out of Syria in 2014 and captured vast swaths of Iraqi territory.

Canada's special forces arrived on the ground in the fall of that year and began training the Peshmerga in conventional battle skills.

But that co-operation came to a screeching halt a few months ago when fighting erupted between independence-minded Kurds and the Iraqi army, which wanted to impose the authority of the central government in Baghdad.

In this 2016 photo, a partially destroyed ISIS banner hangs at the entrance to Qayara, Iraq, where oil wells were set alight by militant fighters attempting to obstruct airstrikes as Iraqi forces took control of the area. (Susannah George/Associated Press)

Aside from training, there is also a large role for Western forces in reconstruction, particularly around recently liberated Mosul, the country's second largest city.

ISIS extremists, as they retreated, sowed many ruined buildings and streets with mines and booby traps. Some estimates last summer suggested it could take up to a decade to rid the city of explosives entirely.

United Nations officials have said Iraq will need a de-mining program similar to the one instituted in Afghanistan, which employed 15,000 people at its peak.

Canada currently has combat engineers training Iraqis in the finer points of dismantling bombs.

A helicopter detachment, two C-130J Hercules transports, intelligence officers and a Role 2 combat hospital are also stationed in Iraq.