Reimagining defence research to enable the modern defence mission

Canada has a long history of devaluing defence relative to other national priorities. When Senator Dandurand described our country as “a fireproof house, far from the sources of conflagration” in 1927, he was suggesting it was right and natural that Canadians should choose to pay as low a premium as possible to insure our national sovereignty. Nearly a century later, how have our attitudes changed? Among the world’s top ten economies, Canada has the smallest active military service both in absolute numbers (56% smaller than the UK, who hold the ninth position) and as a function of GDP (each Canadian Armed Forces, CAF member ostensibly defending ~$50M of Canadian productivity). Even at the height of the war in Afghanistan, with the largest force we’ve had in recent memory, no more than 0.2% of Canadians were serving in the Regular Force – a proportion made less visible still by concentrating it on bases in smaller towns and cities [link]. Given our widespread and long-term alienation from armed service, it is not surprising that most Canadians are unfamiliar with the actual job our defence team performs at home and in the world. 

I would encourage the uninitiated to set aside the Hollywood military image and to instead picture a small city, with all its same needs and challenges amplified by the fact that its major industry must be able to relocate its operations – quickly and in its entirety – to a hostile location. All of the normal human needs of food, water, clothing, shelter, and health care are still present, plus robust systems of electrical service, communication, transportation, logistics, engineering, finance, physical and digital security, environmental protection etc. are needed just to establish a base. Operations put even greater demand on these systems – and only then do we reach the special requirements of combat on land, at sea, and in the air. The cinematic elements of the military loom large in our minds but hide the immense effort and ingenuity that goes on behind the scenes. 

Similarly, our assumptions regarding defence research priorities tend to inflate weapons and weapon platforms while forgetting the seemingly mundane but truly critical military challenges. Northern operations are changing as seaways open and ice roads buckle, so climate and civil engineering research is defence research. Secure wireless communications are necessary for transmission of sensitive information and reliable navigation so signals, machine learning, and quantum research is defence research. Concussive blast injury has long-lasting effects serving members and veteran health so brain and mental health research is defence research. Infectious disease has determined the outcome of more military campaigns than strategy or technology, so preventive medicine and public health research is defence research. Under-investigated and unprosecuted sexual harassment and assault has corroded trust and camaraderie among military members, so criminal justice research is defence research. Religious observance of head coverings and beards require thoughtful approaches to ballistic and chemical protective equipment, so inclusivity and human factors research is defence research. Suffice to say that a wider range of technologies and knowledge are critical for operational readiness than is typically appreciated, and in sectors whose direct benefits extend to all Canadians, not only its warfighters.

If Canadian defence research is expected to address such a wide array of operational needs today, even with our comparatively meagre defence spend ($33.8B, 1/39% GDP in FY24/25), how much more can we imagine when it reaches 2%, projected to $57.8B FY29/30 (Department of National Defence, DND) or $81.9B FY32/33 (Parliamentary Budget Office, PBO) [link] or 5% GDP – an absolute increase between 4 and 6 times our current expenditures? This represents a fundamental shift in how federal funding is allocated and distributed to meet Canada’s national priorities and so cannot be a case of simply doing more of the same thing. We can and should expand our imagination to meet the expansion of possibility that such a profound rearticulation of defence resourcing affords. Over-reliance on foreign innovation and industry bases to provide for Canadians in times of crisis is a serious vulnerability that can now be addressed through defence investments in advanced education and training pipelines for robust technological, manufacturing, and logistic capabilities. The research capabilities and training programs that exist within our universities and colleges are an existing strategic advantage that defence can leverage to improve processes ranging from material procurement to contingency planning to recruiting. National investment into critical communications, utility, and material infrastructures can reclaim a level of decision-making control over networks that we have allowed to be sold and outsourced. Establishing DND/CAF as a large, reliable customer can enable private sector ventures to take on greater challenges in high-cost/high-reward areas including space, drug development, and computation. 

Joining our contemporaries in dedicating 15-20% of our defence spending on research and development in ten years under a 5% GDP scheme amounts to an annual research investment on the order of our entire recent budgets for DND. Concomitant institutional support, along with a substantial increase in the scientific expertise employed within the public service, will be necessary for the responsible allocation and distribution of so much public funding. Each country has its own history and political character, so while we can and should look to other nations, Canada will need to develop its own solution that respects our multiple sovereignties, laws, and traditions. I am excited for the prospect of a virtuous circle growing between Canadian academia, industry, and defence team partners. 

Canada’s dramatic change in defence posture reflects how close we suspect the sources of conflagration may be and the trust we are willing to place in our inflammability. With this shift in spending on Canadian security and defence we can and must expect it to produce a more secure and defensible Canada. A robust national academic and industrial research and innovation ecosystem, the training and development opportunities it affords, the technologies and industries it produces, and the widespread public benefits it generates have always been central to defence. Dedicating an amount of new spending proportional to the benefit that Canadians deserve to expect from defence research and innovation will prove to be a key enabler of the modern defence mission.