Dispatch: Transforming RCAF Operations

Magazine Article / March 1, 2020

By Captain Andrew Sheahan, Projects Officer, 8 Operations Support Squadron, 8 Wing, Trenton, Ontario

Captain Andrew Sheahan is a projects officer at 8 Wing and a key contributor to the Dispatch project. He worked closely with Captain Amanda Whalen during the “go to market” campaign, trialing the new software with 8 Wing’s squadrons. In this article for PERSpectives, he describes Dispatch’s path to modernizing the RCAF’s air mobility operations.

A team of software professionals at the RCAF’s Aerospace Warfare Centre, working in a lab known as “The Flight Deck,” has delivered a new application to transform and streamline the air mobility logistics support system. Dispatch, as the name suggests, is a platform for dispatchers at home to offer a modern support process to RCAF aircrew around the world. It leverages new software tools to provide better mission planning to aircrew, and allows dispatchers to offer more responsive and agile support when the mission changes at the last minute – a fact of life in RCAF operations.

And so, in a radical departure from traditional procurement, the software team decided to simply build a solution from scratch. "After meeting with many individuals from 8 OSS and a number of squadrons, it was clear that there was no shortage of great ideas,” said Young. “What was missing was a capability that could transform those great ideas into a digital solution that could be delivered in very short order and evolve as usage increased."

With that in mind, the team followed a well-established, battle-tested framework known as Agile Development. In use by industry for decades, and more recently at the United States Air Force’s Kessel Run team and associated Department of Defense software labs, this was a first for the RCAF.

Within two months of the initial consultation, through the Agile Development cycle, the team at 8 OSS was trialing a cloud-based web application. Captain Amanda Whalen, at the time the Dispatch Officer responsible for supporting air mobility operations in Trenton, oversaw the transition from legacy software and paperwork to modern, digital processes. During the rapid, iterative development of the software, she acted as the primary liaison between her staff and the software team to identify challenges as well as opportunities for efficiency. She was crucial in the “go to market” strategy, rolling out the application to the squadrons and end users, managing their feedback, and helping the software team translate user problems into software solutions.

For dispatchers, the application helps organize a huge amount of information in a format that is easily understandable. For aircrew, this means a streamlined product. When things change, the data is easily modified, and affected parties are quickly notified.

The application also promises some significant financial benefits. With the decrease in the requirement to manage the old administrative paperwork, 8 OSS has been able to reduce its full-time employment positions by about 70 percent, reassigning several skilled operators from clerical duties to more relevant work, such as the tactical data link cell.

8 OSS continues to work with the software team, with the aim of achieving an estimated $4-6 million in AvPol savings per year. This can be achieved through identifying optimal fuel tankering situations and, using the application, making recommendations to aircraft commanders. (Fuel tankering is the practice of having aircraft carry low cost fuel from inexpensive airports to isolated and austere locations with more expensive fuel, reducing purchases required on the other end.)

What Dispatch has delivered is a new way of doing business. More importantly, it’s proven that the RCAF can respond to the needs of aircrew in a timely manner using cutting edge tools. As a one-stop-shop, aircrew can ensure that during and leading up to a mission all relevant considerations have been addressed. If there are any concerns, a pilot can reach out to the specific dispatcher on their file, and work to figure out a solution.

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