Thank you for the question, Mr. Chair.
No, there is no delay. From the start point of the selection process of selecting the two shipyards, it was always envisaged that the next step in the process would be to examine what the shipyards needed to do to upgrade their own infrastructure in order to efficiently build the ships.
The concept here in NSPS was not just to select two shipyards and have them attempt to build complex vessels—as they were—but also to assess and benchmark what infrastructure upgrades those shipyards would need to do in order to efficiently build ships over 20 to 30 years. It was always understood that would take some time. Those infrastructure upgrades have commenced.
The other part of the answer to the question is wrapped in the design-then-build approach that we've adopted. Keep in mind that for many of these projects, sir, they're developmental projects. You have to develop a design, test it, and look at how you would construct it. In fact, with modern shipbuilding techniques, you essentially get to a full 3D design—you know virtually where everything is before you actually start the construction process. That way, you don't get design and engineering changes through the construction process that costs you more money, and you go back and forth, which was probably the traditional way of doing it. It was always anticipated that these steps in the process would take some time, and in fact allow you to more efficiently and more rapidly build a vessel when you actually got to the construction process.