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RCAF Air Requirements and Directorates
These are not designations per se - although the Government of Canada regards them as such. Anyway, I hope they may be useful nonetheless. I've always found the swirl of Director-Generals and 'Diretorates' at the Department of National Defence somewhat bewildering. [1] Doubtless, within DNet, there are straightforward directories of directorates (sorry, couldn't resist). But, from the outside, we just have to try to puzzle through the alpha-numeric soup ...
One issue for outsiders is DND's penchant for name-changing, fad-following, and rebrandings. So, for example, the current Directorates of Air Requirements (DARs, DBRAs in French) have defaulted to an early name style when the former Directorates Aerospace Requirements were calved off into Directorates of Space Requirements (DSR) and renewed Directorates of Air Requirements.
In the past, the Directorate(s) of Air Requirements were clearly position under the Chief of Air Staff. So, you would see 'CAS/Directorate of Air Requirements', 'CAS/DAR', etc. Then 'NDHQ/Directorate of Aerospace Requirements' began popping up. That may relate to the adoption of a Commander of the Royal Canadian Air Force position which co-incides with the slightly revised title of Chief of the Air Force Staff (which seems to retain the 'CAS' acronym). In any case, both Commander of the RCAF and CAS offices are within National Defence Headquarters ... which seems to make the 'NDHQ/DAR' usage pointlessly vague.
One will also see the current use of lumped together forms like D Air & Space Programmes (DAR Prog) - with a specific mention of DAR 8 (once UAVs, now RPAS). Other times, the senior Directorate of Air Requirements is referred to as an unnumbered 'DAR' or as 'DAR Prog' without distinction. Other times, you will see 'DAR' attached to specific areas of responsibility but without the known number applied. So, yeah, nothing potentially confusing there.
I should note here that, despite the widespread use of 'Directorates' within DND (and outside), there is no such term in specified GoC usage. Rather, there are simply Directors and their staff. However, just to be contrary ... and too acknowledge that widespread usage ... I will continue to refer to 'Directorates' when listing the DARs.
In GoC, DND, and CF documents, numbered DARs are often referred to as such but without any hint of their functions. As such, I have composed a numerical listing of these Directorates of Air Requirements (as best as I can puzzle them through). After those DARs, I will also list the other DND Directors/Directorates and Directors-General positions that I have come across. But there will be plenty missing. Perhaps other members could contribute as memories are jogged or additional titles are stumbled across?
As always, any updates (preferably with lineages) and/or corrections will be most welcome!
These are not designations per se - although the Government of Canada regards them as such. Anyway, I hope they may be useful nonetheless. I've always found the swirl of Director-Generals and 'Diretorates' at the Department of National Defence somewhat bewildering. [1] Doubtless, within DNet, there are straightforward directories of directorates (sorry, couldn't resist). But, from the outside, we just have to try to puzzle through the alpha-numeric soup ...
One issue for outsiders is DND's penchant for name-changing, fad-following, and rebrandings. So, for example, the current Directorates of Air Requirements (DARs, DBRAs in French) have defaulted to an early name style when the former Directorates Aerospace Requirements were calved off into Directorates of Space Requirements (DSR) and renewed Directorates of Air Requirements.
In the past, the Directorate(s) of Air Requirements were clearly position under the Chief of Air Staff. So, you would see 'CAS/Directorate of Air Requirements', 'CAS/DAR', etc. Then 'NDHQ/Directorate of Aerospace Requirements' began popping up. That may relate to the adoption of a Commander of the Royal Canadian Air Force position which co-incides with the slightly revised title of Chief of the Air Force Staff (which seems to retain the 'CAS' acronym). In any case, both Commander of the RCAF and CAS offices are within National Defence Headquarters ... which seems to make the 'NDHQ/DAR' usage pointlessly vague.
One will also see the current use of lumped together forms like D Air & Space Programmes (DAR Prog) - with a specific mention of DAR 8 (once UAVs, now RPAS). Other times, the senior Directorate of Air Requirements is referred to as an unnumbered 'DAR' or as 'DAR Prog' without distinction. Other times, you will see 'DAR' attached to specific areas of responsibility but without the known number applied. So, yeah, nothing potentially confusing there.
I should note here that, despite the widespread use of 'Directorates' within DND (and outside), there is no such term in specified GoC usage. Rather, there are simply Directors and their staff. However, just to be contrary ... and too acknowledge that widespread usage ... I will continue to refer to 'Directorates' when listing the DARs.
In GoC, DND, and CF documents, numbered DARs are often referred to as such but without any hint of their functions. As such, I have composed a numerical listing of these Directorates of Air Requirements (as best as I can puzzle them through). After those DARs, I will also list the other DND Directors/Directorates and Directors-General positions that I have come across. But there will be plenty missing. Perhaps other members could contribute as memories are jogged or additional titles are stumbled across?
As always, any updates (preferably with lineages) and/or corrections will be most welcome!
