National Defence committee  I'm going to start with this one, Art, because the navy has labelled me the navy's Arctic expert, and I've been working on the Arctic file for a fair while. That's a big question that unpacks into two components. One is the soft security, environmental pollution, constabulary na

National Defence committee  Yes, sir: theoretically, you're right that if you hook all the niche or specialist capability requirements in any domain to any one ally, or any one type of thematic relationship, you lose your sovereignty as a navy. And you can never know what tomorrow's mission will be. No miss

National Defence committee  Wow. That's like a research project. That's a very tough question, sir.

National Defence committee  It's a great question.

National Defence committee  I'd rather Art McDonald start, and then I'll write notes and think about it as he goes. We are a very proud nation. The reflection of that is that we're a really proud navy. We don't abrogate sovereignty to anybody in any way, shape, or form. At a government level, government ha

National Defence committee  Thanks, Admiral. We started 20 years ago talking about the replacement of the Protecteur class, so it's a long-term endeavour to situate these recapitalization efforts. We're at the moment where we retired two of our AORs...and I will take exception to the term “prematurely”. A

National Defence committee  Yes, sir, but some of these elicit great passion. I'm just one of those types of people.

National Defence committee  Could I just elaborate, sir?

National Defence committee  The counter-drug mission of the joint inter-agency task force south is, as he said, a partnership endeavour of 14 regional states in the Caribbean. So not only are we taking drugs off the streets of Canada—that's an easy way to express the outcome of taking tonnes of cocaine out

National Defence committee  I have a mandate to generate the readiness of naval forces, and at the same time I have a mandate to employ those naval forces in operations on behalf of the commander of the Canadian Joint Operations Command. I am given resources to execute this operational mission on every case

National Defence committee  Thank you very much, sir, for the question. Yes, we serve both on NATO and within United Nation frameworks. Coalitions themselves will seek international frameworks to operate. Even nationally we will seek an international framework, and we'll operate within international norms,

National Defence committee  Perhaps I can start. Submarines are an incredible force-multiplying capability in any navy, for any country. One submarine equals 30 submarines as far as the adversary is concerned. The inability to detect the presence of a submarine in your oceanic areas of interest, and the am

National Defence committee  Thank you, sir, for a great question. In my career I've certainly had the reward but the great challenge of participating in an economic embargo of a state that was at war. The war in the former Yugoslavia implicated NATO in a maritime interdiction operation, in an embargo of mu

National Defence committee  Thank you, Mr. President and honourable members of Parliament. Thank you for the opportunity to testify on the readiness of the Royal Canadian Navy. I am honoured to serve the 3,000 sailors of the Canadian Atlantic fleet and several thousand defence workers who ensure that our

National Defence committee  They were very operational-minded decisions. There were no personnel issues. In fact, I've disappointed a lot of sailors. On Cyclones, all I'll say, ma'am, is that one is flying from the back of a Royal Canadian Navy ship now. We're thrilled with what we see. Things accelerate v