National Defence committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think the reaction is frustration, because we know the value of this program, and it would be very disappointing to see Canada lose an opportunity to get what it needs at best cost. It would be disappointing to miss a very significant opportunity as a nat

National Defence committee  I suppose the document that does have a certain amount of that information would be the Canada First defence strategy. It does talk about the strategic level need for these kinds of technologies. The air force doctrine manuals--we're revising our own internal documentation--is

National Defence committee  It is available to the public, yes, sir.

National Defence committee  It's not a classified intelligence analysis, no. It's our doctrinal view of how air power needs to evolve in the future.

National Defence committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I can assure you of one thing. The project is underway, we have begun training the teams that will look after the materiel aspect. Colonel Burt will be one of the team leaders. I am hopeful that we have started off on the right foot. We will have to make su

National Defence committee  I won't speak for the department, because that's not my purview. I can only speak to what the air force does. I can tell you, working with our colleagues, the ADM Materiel folks work very hard at making sure Canada gets the best procurement process possible. The Auditor General

National Defence committee  Mr. Bachand, clearly, I have not read the article. Therefore I will not comment on allegations made by the press. I can assure you that we called upon our most experienced and best staff for the F-35 file. We have people who are highly competent in aviation matters and in procur

National Defence committee  You know, people are free to speculate, and everyone is entitled to their opinions. Comparing an F-105, which is a “lead sled”, to the F-35 is somewhat facetious. The F-105 would take several counties to turn around, while the F-35 is as good in a manoeuvrability range as the cur

National Defence committee  The 65 aircraft will meet our defence needs as expected currently.

National Defence committee  In fact, that's exactly the analogy I used a few months back to try to express how this is different from other airplanes. It's basically the game changer that submarines were to naval surface warfare. Why? Because submarines were almost undetectable and therefore always had firs

National Defence committee  If memory serves, I believe it was in 1993 or 1994 that the airplanes were sold off.

National Defence committee  At the time I believe the decision was made that the anticipated roles for the military did not require the continued use of that platform. Those were decisions that were made in the nineties.

National Defence committee  The F-35 platform has very credible and powerful sensors, in the conventional sense of radar and so on, but it also has passive systems and electrical optical sensors such as you just mentioned. Combined with stealth, it certainly opens up more capability and options for governme

National Defence committee  You bring up a very good point. Within the department there's always consensus before we go to any major procurement program. So this is not something the air force runs up to the minister's office with and gives our advice, saying we'd like him to procure this. I have to get my

National Defence committee  The question goes back to my statement about the future environment being more dangerous because of the proliferation of technology and potentially non-state actors having access to very high technology. So for us it goes back to the point that if we can't evolve our capabilities