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Lieutenant-General Yvan Blondin, the commander of the Royal Canadian Air Force, spoke to more than 100 members and friends of the Montreal Council on Foreign Relations (CORIM) on the afternoon of Feb. 12th.
He spoke about creating the Air Force of the future by capitalizing on innovation. In his remarks, he touched on three RCAFinitiatives that will help the Air Force respond to today’s realities and will assist in maintaining and improving the Air Force’s operational capability:
The Emerging Skies Initiative (ESI) will bring together the Air Force, industry and universities to explore innovative solutions to Canada’s future air power needs. The Canadian solutions proposed by the ESI collaborative working groups will benefit all partners.
The RCAF will increase its use of modeling and simulation technology to preserve – and improve – the skills and abilities of its crews, while also increasing the availability of aircraft for operations. This will result in savings for Canadian taxpayers.
The future pilot training initiative will transform the Air Force’s aircrew and groundcrew training tools. The initiative will take advantage of advances in computer technology that can use simulators to create virtual worlds and realistic flying missions. A training system that combines both live and simulated training will help the Air Force to train its people more effectively and efficiently.
These initiatives will give the RCAF the flexibility, agility and capability to more effectively meet the security challenges of the 21st century.
For more information about CORIM, visit www.corim.qc.ca
