I did allude to that with respect to the 12 modernized Halifax class frigates. In fact, as part of this conference I was at last week in Victoria I had an opportunity to go to sea in HMCS Calgary, which is one of the modernized ships. It's incredible. I thought the ship I commanded, the Fredericton, was an amazing piece of kit. The difference is that the evolutionary improvements that the Halifax class modernization brings, specifically with respect to command and control, are amazing.
We had Senator Daniel Lang with us at this particular event, and one thing that struck him was the ship's company. It was a high readiness ship's company, as I alluded to in my remarks, with just amazing young Canadians who form these crews.
Are we ready? I think we're as ready as we've ever been, absolutely. The problem is we just don't have enough ships that are ready.
The other important point is that with 12 frigates, it doesn't mean we have 12 frigates available at any given time. There are going to be some that will be available for operations or on operations, some that are in maintenance periods after operations or once they get to a certain time and need to go into a refit period, and then there are the ones that are preparing for operations. So having 12 ships means you may have four or five available on a good day.