CFEC and CORA provide concept development and experimentation support, research, analysis, and advice to the Canadian Forces and the Department of National Defence. The organizations support programs for transforming the capabilities of Canada's national defense to meet the challenges posed by increasingly unpredictable threats to national security.

As part of this support, the organizations are using Gensym's G2, G2 ReThink, and G2 e-SCOR products for rule-driven modeling and simulation of alternative operational concepts and processes designed to enhance the Canadian Forces' agility, readiness, and efficiency. G2 ReThink is a G2-based product for rule-driven business process management, and G2 e-SCOR is a G2-based product for supply-chain management.

Enabling Concepts and Experiments

"Both CFEC and CORA apply a concept development and experimentation methodology," said Lieutenant Colonel Tom Gibbons, CFEC's chief of staff. "For each issue under analysis, this involves creating as-is models of related operational systems and then assessing alternative concepts for addressing the issue through experimentation, which is often simulation based.

"An underlying aspect of our analysis is capabilities engineering, which focuses on building and sustaining an overall systems capability for people, technology, and operational processes instead of focusing on acquiring a specific tool or piece of equipment. We've selected Gensym's G2 products as enablers for this planning work.

"Issues we are analyzing include those for defense of Canada, logistics, and battlefield command and control. For example, for defense of Canada we are collaborating with CORA to assess how to improve the coordination of military and civilian organizations, such as other federal departments, police departments, fire departments, and local governments, during responses to major incidents.

"We are applying G2 ReThink to assess alternative concepts for passing information between all these organizations in order to orchestrate activities as effectively as possible. Another example is supply chain and logistics - we will be using G2 e-SCOR to assess concepts for more effectively supplying materials to military forces that are increasingly deployed throughout the world on short notice.

"A third example is battlefield command and control - for instance we are working with CORA to explore how to improve synchronization of fire power for armed forces involved in an engagement."

G2 Chosen for Interoperability with Allies and for Reasoning Technology

"G2 was chosen for several reasons," added Kendall Wheaton, a defense scientist with CORA. "First and most important is interoperability with our allies. Gensym's software is used by the U.S. military, which has deployed significant G2, G2 ReThink, and G2 e-SCOR applications for command and control and logistics.

"This will enable us to more easily share models and results with the U.S. Second, Gensym's time-sensitive and rule-driven reasoning technology is a differentiator that enhances the realism of our analysis. And third, Gensym's G2 products are good general simulation tools with strong integration capabilities that serve our experimentation needs well."

"We are very pleased to be supporting Canada's national defense planning decisions," said Lowell Hawkinson, Gensym chairman, president, and CEO. "It is especially gratifying to see that the U.S. Department of Defense's excellent work with our G2 software during the past several years is being leveraged by Canada. We look forward to learning more about CFEC's and CORA's results as their work progresses."

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