With regard to the level of readiness, I think we have areas that we need to continue to work on in the Canadian Forces. I think we're doing a good job of looking after ill and injured, but I think we can continue to improve with regard to looking after families.
On the level of readiness, I'll start with the navy. I'll say two things.
The first is that the destroyers and the replenishment ships are old and difficult to keep at a level of readiness consistent with our expectations. They're also very expensive to keep at that level of readiness. So as quickly as possible we are advancing the shipbuilding replacement program so that the air defence capability and the command and control capability for deployed maritime forces can be made more robust. I think managing that gap in replenishment and in command and control and air defence ships for the navy will be an area of challenge over the next five to ten years.
We have had a challenging period with the submarines in the navy, but I'm confident that we are emerging from what the navy commander calls a “long beginning” to bring those submarines that will be exceptionally powerful components of the Canadian Forces back into a level of full weaponized operational service that will return value for Canada.
On the air side, I would say the challenge lies in the number of new platforms being introduced. There are a lot of very capable platforms being brought into the air force all at the same time. They're introducing more new platforms at the same time than we have ever introduced before. We're working that area very carefully, and the commander of the air force is watching that very carefully, particularly on the people side, to make sure we don't introduce weakness that draws away from the level of readiness we need in the air force.
On the army side, as I have said, we have redeployed from a long mission in Afghanistan, and a lot of the army's equipment and a number of the army's vehicles are being refurbished, because the conditions in Afghanistan were difficult. The equipment needs to be brought back up, not to perfect condition but to a usable condition, so we have the right number of vehicles and weapons systems for the army ready to deploy on the level of notice we expect.
That is an area the army is working through, and I think it will take about a year and a half until we are over most of that whole reconstitution bubble and back in steady state for the army. It doesn't mean we can't respond with the army, but it does mean that the number of concurrent missions would be limited right now because of that.
Does that answer your question?