Thank you.
Mr. Minister, we've all heard the horror stories about military procurement in this country: a brand-new hundred-million-dollar satellite, stored and never launched; trucks with the screaming brakes, “leaky squeaky vehicle wheel” I believe they're called, which reveal the presence of our troops; modern electronic equipment that could not be turned on because it interfered with commercial broadcasts.
I'd like to ask if a suitable product was already commercially available for some of these but for whatever reason somebody decided to develop a new, possibly redundant, product or to modify existing equipment. I'd like to know about this idea of purchasing so-called “off the shelf” equipment. It has been spoken about for years. I certainly don't think this practice is appropriate everywhere in military procurement. Would you please outline some of the scenarios in which this off-the-shelf purchasing would be appropriate?