JFS Fact Sheet

• The nature of combat power is fundamentally shifting from mass to precision and agility. Additionally, the explosive growth of the world’s major urban centres, changes in potential enemy strategies, and the Global War on Terrorism, have made the urban battlespace increasingly decisive and virtually unavoidable. The urban environment strips away the ability to use the strategies and tactics developed for use by mass or overwhelming force. We now need to see farther and more clearly, manoeuvre faster, and engage more precisely than the enemy.
• These changes require a detailed examination of how the Canadian Forces (CF) needs to adapt to be capable of applying precision effects, which requires a shift from a platform-centric to a network-centric mode of operations, and from a kinetic weapons-based to an effects based approach to operations. 
• The Canadian Forces Warfare Center (CFWC) is developing a CF Joint Fires Support Concept of Operations; is probably the first truly joint CF Operational Concept. To ensure that it is developed properly, CFWC is reaching out to the Operational and Force development communities to become engaged in its development; and
• The Canadian Forces Experimentation Center and the Defense Research and Development Canada (DRDC) agency have adopted a two-track approach to the development of a Canadian JFS capability. CFWC is developing the CF Joint Fires Support Concept of Operations as part of this collaboration.

• The JFS TDP and Operating Concept construct is based upon conceptual development and experimentation and has a 4-year life cycle. The TDP is based upon technology and operational concepts expected to be available in 2010. As new technologies emerge, and the JFS TDP team and CFWC EET members become aware of more efficient communication procedures and improved command and control concepts they will be introduced into the Operating Concept . As the inevitable changes are made to this Operating Concept  the stakeholder community will be consulted;
• Both the JFS TDP and the related CD&E work will be linked to and conducted within the bounds of the strategic guidance, analysis, goals and priorities established by the revised Capability-Based Force Development process.
• We are engaging industry early in the overall development of the TDP and solution to Joint Fires; and
• The TDP product will be driven by the details of the Operating Concept ; however, we already know that we must reduce the kill chain time line, improve our Time Sensitive Target (TST) procedures, reduce fratricide, be more efficient at deconfliction, and we must improve our Common Operating Picture. The real task is to figure out how to do these things.