Sir, I would say we're delighted with the Nyala vehicle. There are Canadians who are alive today who would not be if we did not have that vehicle. It's not a perfect vehicle, but no vehicle ever is. You always balance the advantages and the disadvantages for it.
We have bought a sufficient number; we have more being delivered now. It is exceptionally good in convoy use on trails and flat terrain, if not in the really rugged, deep-trenches kind of terrain. It's not really built for that.
So it's exceptional in that area. It is functional in extremely rough terrain, but not the kind of vehicle you would want in that rough terrain all the time. We bought it to provide more protection from the improvised explosive devices and the suicide bombers we encounter. It has been marvellous in that role.
We did have one young soldier, Trooper Wilson from the Royal Canadian Dragoons, killed on the Nyala. We've already taken steps—I would not say what they are, because we have some operational security concerns on it—that we believe would prevent in the future that kind of death, or reduce its probability. You can never be sure 100%. We continually evaluate the vehicle to see whether we can make some improvements to it that can just make it an even better vehicle.
I think by the end of this month we'll have close to 100 Nyala vehicles. They're going to be with us in the mission in Afghanistan, and obviously, if we go elsewhere around the world or out of Afghanistan, we would use those we have until they run out. We're walking through options now to come forward to our minister with to say whether it is a vehicle we want to get a lot more of, or whether we need another type of vehicle. We'd like to be at the cutting edge of technology on those vehicles that defeat explosive devices, defeat suicide bombers, and still do cross-country manoeuvre, and still allow us to dismount in a hurry when we have to do it.
I had a chance to drive the vehicle, to try it at the remote weapons station, to be a passenger in it on the 50° days across country. It's not very comfortable when you have eight troops crammed into the back of it and it's 50° outside, but it's something people put up with, because it is a good vehicle and they have confidence in it.