The Canadian Joint Warfare Centre – What does it do?
January 23, 2023 - Defence Stories
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The Canadian Joint Warfare Centre (CJWC)
The Canadian Joint Warfare Centre (CJWC) is a centre of excellence that assists the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) and the Department of National Defence (DND) in finding ways to operate as a Joint Force to face the ever-evolving operational environment by implementing best practices, novel concepts and accelerate the adoption of available and emerging technology and tools. It consists of the following sections:
- Joint Experimentation & Simulation
- Joint Warfare Development
- Joint Warfare Sciences
- Joint Training Management
- Joint Research and Analysis
CJWC is located at the Shirley’s Bay Campus in Ottawa, Ontario and is just a short drive from the National Defence Headquarters (Carling). The centre also runs courses in conjunction with the CACSC (Canadian Army Command and Staff College) at CFB Kingston and the Canadian Forces Intelligence Command (CFINTCOM) located in Ottawa to train Canadian military personnel.
The centre can trace its roots back to when the Defence Management Committee directed in December 2000, the CAF Experimentation Centre (CFEC) be established at Shirley’s Bay, Ottawa to provide the DND/CAFwith a Joint Concept Development and Experimentation capability. The Joint Experimentation Capability project was originally created and funded to establish CFEC as a new unit within the CAF.
The Chief of Defence Staff in the spring of 2005, in support of CAF transformation, recommended the development of a Canadian Forces Warfare Centre (CFWC).
The original CFWC operating concept was aimed at consolidating and integrating several CAF force development functions. The main emphasis was on establishing a new centre that would directly support CAF integration with the CFWC’s initial mandate focused on force development in support of CAF operations.
As part of CAF transformation, CFEC was officially renamed CFWC on 17 June 2010. Founded on the excellent work done by CFEC and under the leadership of Chief Force Development (CFD), the CFWC took on a broader role of leading and enabling integrated capability development including support to collective training efforts across the CAF.
Command authority for CFWC transferred from Canadian Force Development to Canadian Joint Operations Command (CJOC) on 01 Apr 2014. In August 2019, the Unit changed its name to the Canadian Joint Warfare Centre (CJWC).
The CJWC team employs critical thinking to problems, seeks alternative perspectives, and performs rigorous research and analysis using a range of advanced technologies and techniques, validated by the scientific approach.
The outcomes of these CJWC activities are enabling the creation and sustainment of a more capable and integrated joint force that will be better able to achieve operational effects across the full spectrum of conflict.