I'll take that one, because it's one that I've been very interested in. It's the issue of making sure that the navies of our friends and allies are aware of what our capabilities are.
Our starting to integrate with the American battle groups really stemmed from an initiative that occurred on the west coast when the commander of the west coast fleet, MARPAC, simply had a good relationship with the commander of the American force and said, “Our frigates are really good, why don't you see how they can integrate?” That was when we saw HMCS Ottawa being integrated, I think it was with the Lincoln battle group, for the first time.
The point of the matter is, the more we show what we can do—because we are one of the most capable navies there are, in terms of our training, capabilities, the men and women who man the ships.... We are one of the truly great naval powers, in that context. But we have to make sure that they are aware and that they can see the integration.
Then when they see the integration, it's basically jumping at opportunities, such as integrating with an American battle group or any other formation, such as Combined Task Force 151 for the anti-piracy patrols, demonstrating to people how we work, then working together so that we can integrate our systems, so that wherever there are difficulties in integration, we're able to overcome them.
Let me be clear. All the open evidence points to Canada's being probably unique in its ability to integrate itself with all the NATO countries and with the Americans at the highest level, and that means also in terms of security capabilities, but also as one of the very best countries to integrate with the forces of countries with which it hasn't traditionally integrated, such as the Indian navy or the Chinese navy. This is due to the flexibility that goes into the training and capabilities that our forces have.
This is one of the untold stories, but if you look at Combined Task Force 151 or at RIMPAC and at the ways we're brought in, you see that we're always at the top level in terms of integration. We are one of the few countries being given task force command in, say, some of the conflicts in the Middle East.
That's a testament to what we do, and it basically means that we have to unleash the navy to let them do this more and more, so that people are aware.