January 8, 2021 | Local, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security, Other Defence
Lee Berthiaume The Canadian Press
OTTAWA -- An internal Defence Department report has warned that Canadian Armed Forces operations and security may be at risk due to major problems with how the military's computer networks are built and supported.
The report follows a review of the Defence Department's information management and technology systems, which are described as "critical" to the success of Canadian military operations and training.
That review uncovered a patchwork of IT systems across the Defence Department and Armed Forces that was not only inefficient and expensive to maintain, but also often out-of-date and poorly supported.
The brunt of the report's criticism is directed at the technical support provided to the military by another federal entity, Shared Services Canada, the agency that took over management of most federal networks in August 2011.
Nearly all defence and military officials who participated in the review were upset by the amount of time it took Shared Services to respond to requests for help, according to the report. In some instances, those delays harmed operations.
The report cited one instance in which an email server that went down during an unspecified domestic mission couldn't be fixed right away because it was a weekend and Shared Services did not have staff on call.
The reviewers also found that a quarter of requests for assistance made to Shared Services remained unresolved after six months, and the agency did not have anybody in Europe to help the hundreds of Canadian troops posted there.
While the problems were partly attributed to a lack of appropriate IT resources and staff, the report also flagged the lack of an agreement between the Defence Department and Shared Services establishing clear expectations for network support.
Without such an agreement, the report, defence and military officials believed Shared Services not only didn't understand their needs but also wasn't required to respond quickly, "which led to putting clients at great risk on a number of fronts, including security."
Delays in tech support weren't the only point of contention between the Defence Department and Shared Services, with the latter upsetting the navy by requiring the removal of equipment that had increased bandwidth on warships.
Shared Services also stopped supporting some older intelligence systems while they were still being used by the air force, army and navy, according to the report recently published on the Defence Department website.
Defence Department spokesman Daniel Le Bouthillier on Monday described the review as a "valuable tool" for improving IT support even as he defended the department's relationship with Shared Services Canada.
"We have a good working relationship with Shared Services Canada and the two departments continue to work collaboratively to ensure the appropriate and timely delivery of IT services to DND/CAF," he said.
"We are also reviewing our relationship with Shared Services Canada with a focus on improving the service delivery model to help better support the department and the Canadian Armed Forces."
The internal report also took aim at the military's troubled procurement system, which was found to deliver IT equipment with inadequate or out-of-date technology. Poor planning was partly to blame but the report also blamed onerous levels of oversight.
While that oversight was described as the result of cost overruns and delays on past IT projects, the report said that it nonetheless created new problems in delivering modern equipment.
"The complex processes associated with the capital projects and procurement are very slow and cumbersome," according to the report. "The process cannot keep up with the rate of change of technology."
Those delays -- and their potential impact on operations -- were also cited as a major reason for why a patchwork of IT systems and programs now cover different parts of the Defence Department and military.
While that patchwork might serve the day-to-day needs of the military, it was also found to be inefficient and expensive.
To that end, the reviewers could not pinpoint exactly how much was being spent by the Defence Department and military on IT services and support every year, but estimated it at more than $700 million.
In response to the report, senior officials told reviewers that they were looking at ways to better calculate annual spending on IT and address the problems that have contributed to the creation of so many systems in the first place.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 4, 2021.
March 27, 2023 | Local, Other Defence
U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday invoked the Defense Production Act to spend $50 million on domestic and Canadian production of printed circuit boards, citing the technology's importance to national defense.
November 28, 2018 | Local, Naval
Andrea Gunn (agunn@herald.ca) The federal government has spent $11.8 million on legal fees relating to the Canadian Surface Combatant project over the past two years, some of that owing to a large number of amendments to the project's request for proposals. In an answer to a written question posed last month by a Calgary Conservative MP, Public Services and Procurement Canada confirmed that 88 amendments had been made between July 1, 2016, and Oct. 2, 2018 to the request for proposals for the massive, multibillion-dollar project that aims to replace the Royal Canadian Navy's fleet of frigates. The request for proposals — the document that interested consortiums would have crafted their bids around — was released to 12 companies that had been pre-qualified to participate in the procurement by Irving Shipbuilding in October 2016. Irving is the prime contractor for the combat portion of the National Shipbuilding Strategy, which includes the Arctic Offshore Patrol Ships and the Canadian Surface Combatant, and is tasked with building the 15 warships at its Halifax shipyard. At a projected cost of between $56 and $60 billion, it's the largest and most complex procurement in Canadian history. There were a number of delays in the closing date for the request for proposals. Originally set for April 2017, the first bids weren't received until last November. In its many technical briefings and media releases from that period, PSPC said the delays were partially as a result of the back-and-forth between industry, government and Irving — feedback which resulted in a number of amendments to the RFP. “A total of 88 amendments were issued by Irving Shipbuilding between November 1, 2016 and August 13 2018,” the order paper question response reads. “These amendments were developed and issued to address inquiries from the 12 pre-qualified bidders, and to incorporate process improvements to the competitive RFP so as to maximize the opportunities for bidders to demonstrate the value of their solutions to Canada.” The response goes on to say the $11.8 million was spent by the government of Canada on project legal fees during the amendment period, but that PSPC is not able to provide a breakdown on how much was spent on the amendments themselves. PSPC also noted that because Irving issued the RFP, they would have also incurred legal fees. In the end, three firms submitted bids for the Canadian Surface Combatant and last month the federal government chose a consortium of Lockheed Martin Canada and BAE Systems offering the UK navy's Type 26 global combat ship as the preferred bidder. Full article: https://www.thechronicleherald.ca/news/local/feds-legal-bill-nearly-12m-for-warship-work-261231/
November 12, 2018 | Local, Aerospace, Naval, Land
OTTAWA — For the second year in a row, the federal government is expected to spend billions of dollars less on new military equipment than promised because of a combination of good and bad news: cost savings on some projects and delays in others. The Trudeau government in 2016 released a new defence policy that included dramatic increases in spending on new aircraft, ships, armoured vehicles and other military equipment over the next 20 years. The investments are vital to replacing the Canadian Forces' fighter jets, ships and various other types of aging equipment with state-of-the-art kit. Yet while new budget documents filed in the House of Commons show the Department of National Defence has so far been given authority to spend $4 billion this fiscal year, the policy had predicted total spending of $6.5 billion. The department does have until March 31 — when the federal government's fiscal year ends — to make up the $2.5-billion difference, but its top civilian official, deputy minister Jody Thomas, admitted Thursday that a large shortfall is likely. Part of the reason is that the department expects to save about $700 million on various projects that ended up costing less than planned, Thomas told The Canadian Press following a committee appearance on Parliament Hill. “We've delivered things more efficiently than was anticipated and so we don't need the money,” she said. “And we can apply it to projects, either new projects or projects that have a cost overrun.” But delays moving some projects through the military procurement system have also caused their fair share of problems, Thomas said, and the department is expecting to have to put off $1 billion to $1.3 billion in purchases it had planned to make this year. “We'd like to (spend) $6 billion every year. Can I guarantee to you that we're going to do that? No, there's slowdowns in projects, there's slowdowns with suppliers, there's changes in scope. Things change,” she said. “I'm hoping to get it below $1 billion. I'm not committing to getting it to below $1 billion. ... We're driving projects to get it as low as possible and spend funds efficiently and effectively. We're not wasting money.” The government spent $2.3 billion less than planned last year. That was also largely because of delays in projects such as the government's multibillion-dollar plan to buy new warships, though also because some things ended up costing less than expected. The government does deserve credit for having increased investments in equipment to levels not seen since the height of the war in Afghanistan in 2010 and 2011, said defence analyst David Perry of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute. “And if they can actually move as much as the deputy (minister) was saying, and they only leave $1 billion on the table, that will be the best year in the last several decades,” said Perry, who has previously warned that delays in the procurement system could derail the defence policy. “But there are a bunch of impacts from not being able to spend money on schedule. One is you don't have the actual gear to do what you want. And project budgets lose purchasing power when money is not spent on schedule. So it's not good to have delays.” https://windsorstar.com/pmn/news-pmn/canada-news-pmn/ottawa-on-track-to-invest-less-on-new-military-kit-than-promised-for-second-year