The Canadian Army Journal

narrow application. “If aircraft are designed to carry out ASW tasks, then they cannot
always be re-tooled fast enough to accomplish other missions,” Dr Lindsey noted. 21
Given the huge amount of resources required to acquire and maintain personnel and
equipment, this prompts a fundamental question: should the CF have a more generalpurpose
force structure that can quickly be retrofitted to fulfill several different roles,
especially if an operation could take place in any environment, from a desert or even in
the Arctic? There is potential wastage inherent in designing a resource intensive force
structure for scenarios that are unlikely to occur: “The cost of being ready may involve
putting certain capabilities into warehouses. Investment in a broad range of capabilities
may actually dilute effectiveness, especially if we do not have enough human resources
on hand. If the CF is going to spend a lot of money, they should probably choose
equipment that can be used in a number of different ways.” 22
That the CF must continually examine whether it pursues specialized capabilities or
capabilities with a general application should not be limited to a national context. Rather,
it should be extended to consider allied force developments as well. In 1965, in a report
entitled “The Allocation of Resources in an Alliance,” Dr Lindsey sought to determine
optimum allocations by the individual member countries of infantry, tanks and landing
craft to determine the overall effectiveness of an alliance. The cost of modern weapon
systems reached levels such that smaller countries, such as Canada, could no longer
maintain balanced forces, and were obliged to abstain from major military roles. Since
individual member countries tended to pursue capabilities independently on the basis of
national interest, Dr Lindsey argued that there needed to be an arrangement to
coordinate the development of an optimum force structure for the benefit of NATO. 23 In
terms of the current defence relationship within NATO, the CF seems small in
comparison to the US, but it is not the smallest country in the alliance. If CF operations
are predominantly undertaken with other large forces as part of a coalition and with the
aid of allies, Dr Lindsey suggested that we may want to revisit the way in which decisions
to purchase and operate weapon systems in the context of their overall utility for an
alliance of like-minded nations: “Perhaps we should pursue stronger ties with the
Norwegians or the Dutch, who are Middle Powers just like Canada with support from the
US instead of pursuing solutions through a large numbers of nations through NATO.” 24
Investing in capabilities that are able to perform more than one function offers a
potential way in which the CF can be ready for a broad range of missions across the
conflict spectrum. Because the geography of Canada (the second largest country in the
world) is vast, and we have a relatively small population that is concentrated along the
US border, there is an enormous amount of unmonitored territory. Numerous
technological developments in remote sensing have made it possible to monitor air, land
and sea from airborne or space-based platforms (e.g., satellites, unmanned vehicles,
aircraft etc). Overhead surveillance capabilities, for instance, could be deployed
overseas on little notice, benefit the aeronautical industry and minimize the requirement
for massive investments in personnel and training. Such capabilities would provide
increased knowledge of activities in Canadian territory, and aid in enforcing fishing laws,
detecting pollution, and search and rescue while maintaining sovereignty.25 Beyond
domestic roles, overhead surveillance could be used on current operations and to
defend against terrorism. According to Dr Lindsey, the speed and mobility of today’s
adversaries, their ability to blend in with surroundings and number of objects requiring
discrimination,26 makes overhead surveillance a prime candidate for the missions such
as the one in Afghanistan: “Suicide bombers are connected to overhead surveillance,
which can be used to see if there is suspicious activity at night or over specific areas.
This would also be important for ‘catching them in the act’.”27
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