Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you, Colonel Pellerin. Ladies and gentlemen, a conventional mantra has been that there is no military solution in Afghanistan. In our view, a far better way of phrasing that would be to say that there cannot be, without the military-provided security, any chance of development.

Finance committee  Absolutely. When you're talking about strategic and tactical lift, you're talking about the method of getting supplies to where they are needed. One might make the point as well that we're not simply looking at it in terms of overseas deployments, but also in terms of the requirement of the Department of National Defence to provide aid and assistance to other government departments in such things as the problem of disasters.

Finance committee  This has certainly been the largest chunk of procurement activity for many years. I would not be able to give you a specific date, but we have been most encouraged by the announcement of the commitment to procure a number of major platform renewals. Those address critical deficiencies and will then enable the forces to carry out their duties in a more effective and efficient fashion.

Finance committee  Well, to take the medium airlift fleet as an example, we would have seen about two-thirds of the fleet die within the next couple of years and the rest would have followed after that. Without that critical logistical airlift capability, the rest of the forces' ability to function comes very much into question.

Finance committee  In the case of these particular purchases, we are seeing the restoration of a strategic and logistical lift capability for both the air force and the army and, from the naval standpoint, the provision of the joint support ships, which are the operational refuelers of naval squadrons.

Finance committee  Mr. Chairman and Mr. St-Cyr, the Conference of Defence Associations identifies the requirement based upon our analysis of the age, particularly, of equipment, and simply points out that if that equipment is not replaced as it comes to the end of its service life or indeed beyond, then the capabilities associated with that equipment disappear as well.

Finance committee  That is correct, and it has been for quite some time, as you will see from the various coloured charts that indicate the stage of obsolescence of the major platforms that are involved. So that has to be addressed over the period of time in the future in order to restore those capabilities, or else the foreign and security policies themselves will not be capable of being executed.

National Defence committee  The east is currently still under American control. The plan had been for the south to come under ISAF control in the spring of this year, which in fact it did. The plan had been for the east to come under ISAF control in the fall. I think, in fact, the working plan originally had been to go out just about this date, or one or two days on either side of it.

National Defence committee  Could I perhaps respond to that? I think the text said it was interesting that this reduction took place. That I don't think was really a consequence of the Canadian activities, because in order to eliminate crop production you have to stop the planting, and the planting takes place, actually, at about this time of year and it will be harvested next year somewhere in the April to June timeframe.

National Defence committee  The short answer is yes. Over time during the course of that 20 or 30 years, the requirement for forces at the level they are at now would decline, and the national resources then supplied could result in a decrease in the military resources supplied and an increase in the developmental resources that are supplied.

National Defence committee  I think that if you are looking at any group of states, you are looking for the point of entry that gives you the most leverage. In other words, what is the weakest state that you are faced with? By attacking there, you are attacking at the point of weakness, which allows you then to leverage your effect.

National Defence committee  There is an old saying in the military that no plan ever survives first contact with the enemy, and I think here we are seeing, of course, changes in the actual tactics that are employed by the Taliban. The calls for specific capabilities reflect the realization that since the facts on the ground have changed, then our response to those have changed as well.

National Defence committee  The commitments were on an alliance-wide basis. The actual delivery fell at about the 85% level. General Jones said a week or two ago, “You have promised me 100%; you have delivered 85%; I want the remaining 15%.” Can you mount operations at less than 100%? Of course you can. You can't do as much with 85% as you can with 100%, but you can certainly achieve the objectives over a specific area.

National Defence committee  I think the Canadian Forces have taken advantage of the more flexible equipment procurement processes, which involve unforecasted purchases that allow them to bypass the very slow normal equipment procurement process. And I think of such things as the acquisition of the M777 howitzers and the Nyala armoured vehicles, which are precisely the types of equipment that are necessary for the forces there and which have been procured in a very short time.

National Defence committee  A quick response is that there are a number of items in the government's long-term equipment program in terms of heavy airlift--heavy helicopters, for example--that would be enormously useful if they were present.