National Defence committee  When you are looking at deploying fighter aircraft into the Arctic, you then look immediately at the question of how you're going to have enough gas. Then the responses are, first of all, that you look at the existing forward operating locations, which are in Iqaluit, Whitehorse,

National Defence committee  I will cite one point that was made by one of the pilots, who was not an American, but was rather a Brit who was flying there. I think he was flying an F-15 at that point, with one of the greatest search radars going. He said, “There was at one point an F-22 inside our space with

National Defence committee  It's a force multiplier. The pilots we have had reports from who have driven the F-35 think that it is a superb aircraft because in addition to stealth it has a fusion capability, which takes the data flow from all of the sensors and integrates it such that the pilot is totally a

National Defence committee  It was1957.

National Defence committee  Yes, I will make the forecast that the future is not very solidly forecastable. I was certainly totally surprised by what developed in terms of 9/11 and then the involvement in the Afghan mission that followed. I was totally surprised by the Arab Spring, surprised by the revolut

National Defence committee  Exactly. The greater range of capabilities you have gives you the greater ability to respond to the unexpected, and the unexpected is critical.

National Defence committee  There has not been an air combat involving F-35s or J-20s or the T-50s, since all three aircraft are at various stages of development and there's not been a sufficient body of data to be able to run this thing through the simulators. There is speculation as to what is intended t

National Defence committee  I think there's an assumption in your statement that we are not going to have a situation in which Canadian aircraft are coming into combat with stealth aircraft of other nations. I suggest that is an extremely risky assumption. The evidence is quite clear from the exercises the

National Defence committee  I don't think I said the F-35 is superior to the F-22. Since you raised the issue, I in fact had described to me one area in which there has been an increase in capability. That is the actual radar-absorbent paint covering. The technology has advanced under the F-35 development t

National Defence committee  In my experience studying the work of the People's Republic of China, including the development of the joint research agreement between the Beijing Institute of International Strategic Studies and the Canadian Institute of Strategic Studies while I was its director, I have gained

National Defence committee  Well, I would disagree. Again, if you look at the American concept of a high-low mix of an air superiority fighter, on the low side is primarily an attack fighter but with a dogfighting capability. For example, in the U.S. Navy you had the F-14, the Tomcat, which was the heavy

National Defence committee  There is no question that training is a critical part of readiness—no question whatsoever. But when we look at training, we have to look at the division of that training, starting with the recruiting and basic level training and then the splitting off in the various streams to th

National Defence committee  Yes, (C) is due in another few weeks.

National Defence committee  You have to look at some other numbers that are coming into view. The process for the last several years has been for increased transparency in the financial numbers, if you know where to look.

National Defence committee  If you look, for example, at the new quarterly statements for this fiscal year, when you look at the individual program activities you'll see a spending ceiling, and then where you are in relation to that ceiling. You're looking at about a 20% gap between the actual spending and