Thanks, Mr. Chair, and thank you, General Deschamps, for being here.
I just want to add my voice. It was a great honour for me to be in the Senate chamber for the event marking the successful Libya mission and to see General Bouchard honoured as he was. He is truly a Canadian hero.
My grandpa, Bill Strahl, also served with the RCAF at the end of World War II, so I've always had an interest in the air force. I was interested when the Norwegian Secretary of State for Defence was here. It was a one-off meeting, not pertaining in particular to our study on readiness, but he talked about the F-35. He made it clear that, from the Norwegian perspective, that there was no contest between the three planes they had run through the testing.
He said:
I asked my people there, our pilots, “Are we doing the right thing? What do you feel about the F-35s? Do you miss the F-16s when you are cooperating with Lockheed Martin and all the partners in Texas?” The answer from my pilots is that this is the best air fighter they ever have seen. All the test results so far are even better than they thought three years ago, when Norway selected the F-35s.
He goes on to say that the pilots from Norway believe this is the best thing that could happen to the Norwegian air force.
Perhaps I'm asking you to give the Canadian perspective. Do you share those sentiments about the F-35? Is it the best plane? What will it mean for our air force, in terms of future readiness?