I am happy to do that. This is a very important issue.
In the Second World War we were involved in a struggle principally against a submarine threat. We did not have submarines or submariners of our own to train with and prepare us for that type of struggle, and we lost 24 ships before we sank the first enemy submarine. That's an exchange rate we could not sustain today, so submarines are a vitally important aspect of a fleet that is designed principally and foremost to be competent in anti-submarine warfare. They are vitally important if, for no other reason, than as a training asset.
Now, the big question is, can surface ships actually compete effectively against submarines? Our own submarines were in a big exercise on the west coast, performed incredibly well, and in another one on the east coast. You should ask the chief of the defence staff about what those exercises showed because those two submarines raised hell.