Major-General Jeff Smyth has one of the most consequential jobs in the Canadian Armed Forces right now. As Chief Air and Space Force Development, Royal Canadian Air Force, he is responsible for defining what the RCAF needs to meet the threats of the next decade and ensuring the force gets there.

With Canada replacing approximately 80% of its air fleets, committing to its first-ever Airborne Early Warning and Control capability, and investing billions in NORAD modernization, the scale of the task is unlike anything the RCAF has faced in generations.

Vanguard sat down with MGen Smyth to discuss what continental defence demands of the Air Force today, how the RCAF is managing a transformation of historic scale, and where Canadian industry fits into that picture.

What does continental defence require from the RCAF today that it did not require a decade ago?

The nature of the threat has evolved rapidly. We see that daily on the news in Ukraine and Iran. Low-cost, precision strike with massed drones, ballistic missiles, rapid electronic warfare developments, and cyber threats, for example, are all accessible to adversaries in a way that used to only be within the means of state actors. 

Additionally, what we don’t necessarily see on the news is the advancement of high-end adversary capabilities, including low observable aircraft, long-range air-to-air missiles, hypersonics, space capabilities and others. We’re watching those kinds of things closely. 

We used to feel protected by our oceans to a much greater extent than we do today. Now we could have a mass of drones pop out of a sea container – as demonstrated by Ukraine’s Operation Spider Web – on a ship, train, or truck and strike almost anywhere. That requires a different mindset along with improved defensive capabilities.

Climate change and increased interest in the Arctic also mean that we need to improve our ability to operate in the North: better infrastructure, communications, and logistical support to enable a more persistent presence. 

The evolution of the threat means that we have to field both high-end capabilities like fighter aircraft, as well as more affordable mass capabilities like autonomous collaborative platforms, such as advanced drones, low-cost air-launched effects, affordable and overlapped sensors, and the advanced command and control systems to link all those sensors and shooters to be able to detect first, decide first, and act first. 

We still have a long way to go, but with this massive increase in defence spending, we’re able to invest in a wide range of areas to improve our lethality and our ability to defend Canadians and our Canadian Armed Forces members wherever they might be operating. 

The RCAF has been wrestling with a shortage of qualified personnel for some time. What are you doing to address that and how will the RCAF training systems need to grow and adapt in the future to support a modernized RCAF?

A shortage of personnel is something that plagues most Western militaries, and we’ve made some great progress from the lows of COVID over the last couple of years. Recent pay raises help, but we’ve also streamlined recruiting processes and ramped up our training capacity. Those things all take time, but we’re accelerating in the right direction. 

Our Future Aircrew Training program is a partnership with SkyAlyne to deliver a completely overhauled aircrew training system. We’ve invested in five new fleets of training aircraft, with the new CT-102B Astra II now flying in Moose Jaw, the PC-21/CT-157 Siskin II recently accepted at the Pilatus factory in Switzerland, and the CT-153 Juno helicopter most recently unveiled at CANSEC last month. We’ll have new CT-142Q Citadel Dash-8s as our Air Combat Systems Officer and Airborne Electronic Sensor Operator training, as well as new CT-145E Expeditor II King Airs coming in Spring 2028. This transformation will take a few years to fully implement new hangars, training facilities, classrooms, simulators, and accommodations in addition to the new aircraft. In the meantime, our existing aircrew training system is at full throttle. 

It’s not just about the aircrew, and there are a lot of initiatives ongoing with technician and trades training. For example, we’re investigating aligning RCAF air maintenance technician training with civilian Aircraft Maintenance Engineer (AME) training with civilian colleges. This is one of many examples of how we’re modernizing and streamlining our training systems. 

Canada recently announced its intention to acquire a dedicated Airborne Early Warning and Control capability for the first time. What does this bring to the RCAF's continental defence mission and how does it fit into the broader NORAD modernization architecture?

AEWC brings a much-needed ability to understand what’s happening in Canadian airspace. We have a shortage of radar coverage across this massive, sparsely populated country, and frankly it would be cost-prohibitive to cover everything with ground-based radars. AEWC brings the ability to rapidly shift that sensing and command and control capability to wherever we need it, whether it’s in response to Russian bomber patrols or for special events like the FIFA World Cup or G7 Summit. 

AEWC is an important part of NORAD’s missions of Aerospace Warning, Aerospace Control, and Maritime Warning. It will allow us to better spot threats to Canada and the U.S. and do something about them. Right now, we are reliant on the US E-3 Sentry for NORAD missions, and those aircraft are getting tired, so having a Canadian AEWC will be a welcome addition to the fight. 

What are the most important lessons the RCAF is applying as it prepares to bring a new generation of capabilities into service?

With a succession of defence policies over the last decade, we’ve seen an unprecedented investment in the CAF and the RCAF. Strong, Secure, Engaged provided funding for many new capabilities, and since that was published in 2017, we’ve had additional funding under NORAD Modernization, Our North Strong and Free, and most recently, with the 2% of GDP announcements, and there may be more to come. This equates to the largest investment in the military since at least the 1950s, if not since the Second World War. 

What that means for the RCAF of today is that we’re replacing around 350 aircraft - about 80% of our fleets - in the next decade. New Cormorant Search and Rescue helicopters and Kingfisher fixed-wing SAR aircraft. Five new training fleets as part of FAcT that I mentioned earlier, as well as a new Fighter Lead-In Trainer to replace the Hawks we retired a couple of years ago. New PC-21s for the Snowbirds, new CP-8A Poseidon to replace the CP-140 Aurora, new Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems, the CQ-9B Guardian. New refuelling tankers – the CC-330 Husky is replacing the CC-150 Polaris and the CC-130H(T) tankers. New AEWC aircraft, new fighters, and we’re looking at our other helicopter fleets as well. And I haven’t even talked about space yet – new satellite communications, sensing from and within space, and space control capabilities!

I’m not done yet. We are also investing heavily in the command and control systems to connect the entire air defence ecosystem: an upgraded Combined Air Operations Centre (CAOC), radios, datalinks, intelligence capabilities, sensors like Over-the-Horizon-Radar (OTHR), and the data centres that underpin modern warfare are some of the key connective ‘brain and nervous system’ that are essential to defend against the modern threats we’re facing. 

There’s an awful lot of investment and most of that investment will be staying in Canada: new hangars and infrastructure to support all of those new aircraft, in-service maintenance and support contracts, and in some cases, Canadian aircraft like the six new Bombardier Global 6500s to replace our Challenger fleet. Our Cormorants are being assembled in Halifax, as an example of partnering with others under the Build, Partner, Buy framework of the Defence Industrial Strategy. We think there are many more opportunities like that to come. 

With all those things going concurrently and the general shortage of qualified, experienced people, we need to do things differently. We’re pushing people to change their mindsets, to accept smart risks, and to find better ways to do business – things like leveraging digital tools where we can, which should allow us to free up what I call “trapped human capacity” in the system. That will focus people’s efforts on the important things, and not the things that use too much time for too little benefit. 

Where can Canadian industry be most useful in supporting RCAF modernization and readiness?

For starters, delivering on time and on (or under) budget. We have too many projects where optimism runs afoul of reality. Despite the increase in funding, our appetite to do more is still greater than our budget. That means we must be very disciplined in prioritizing where we’ll spend our next dollar. In some of these massive projects, any delay can mean increased costs for both taxpayers and industry, and the threat demands that we deliver capability on schedule. We can’t afford years of delay, in both the literal and figurative senses. 

We’re also looking for opportunities to leapfrog into the next generation of capabilities with Canadian industry. For example, we need affordable mass in addition to traditional things like fighter jets, so innovative solutions to operational problems are welcome. We can’t guarantee that every good idea will get funding, so we’re happy to work with industry to better define some of those operational problems and focus on the most important ones. 

Another key thing industry can do to help is improving security. It’s a difficult challenge, especially for small and medium enterprises, but frankly, given the threats we’re seeing through our intelligence, we need to have classified discussions around our operational problems. I can’t have an unclassified conversation about a classified problem in most cases. We need industry to invest in the secure facilities to design and fabricate a capability. It’s one thing to have a conversation in a secure facility about a problem, but the IT systems and Intellectual Property that engineers are working on also need to be secured. The security culture and ecosystem in the defence industry needs to increase across the board, and companies that invest in those basics are going to be more valuable to us. 

It’s not just an industry problem; there’s a lot we need to improve on the government side as well, in terms of policies, security clearances, etc. But ultimately, we need to work together to up our collective game and protect our critical information. 

I’ll leave you with a final thought. I like to use the analogy of the CAF as a dry, brown lawn that’s had a long-term drought. If money equals water, you can lay down a whole lot of water on that brown lawn on the first day, and it looks like nothing is happening. You put more on the lawn the next day, and the next, and the next, and eventually things start to turn green. That greening takes time. The CAF has been in a drought for a very long time, but we’ve had a lot of ‘rain’ lately, to extend the analogy. Things are starting to turn green. It will be a few years yet until everything is as green as we would like it to be. We are well on our way, and these are exciting times for the RCAF and the CAF as a whole.