You also wrote that, “There is some question whether the NSPS—”
—that's the national shipbuilding procurement strategy, for those who might be listening—
“—will actually be able to deliver 15 warships within its announced funding envelope, informed observers commenting that this might be scaled back to between 10 to 12 vessels”.
You referred to 12 a moment ago, as a matter of fact.
You also likely know that the Auditor General, in his November 2013 report on the NSPS, called the government's cost estimates “inadequate”, “insufficient”, “very imprecise”, and “at most, placeholders”. He said this is because budgets in the NSPS were set early in the options analysis phase and were based on rough estimates.
Could you talk more about navy procurement issues and the resulting affordability concerns in this context?