Thanks, Admiral.
We started 20 years ago talking about the replacement of the Protecteur class, so it's a long-term endeavour to situate these recapitalization efforts. We're at the moment where we retired two of our AORs...and I will take exception to the term “prematurely”. After 46 years, it's not premature. It was done: the ship owes us nothing. It served Canada well.
I should add that replenishment ships aren't just resupply ships. They deliver real military capacity. I bristled when you said they had sort of a lower-level role. I spent a good part of my career on them. It's an exciting role delivering anti-submarine warfare helicopters to the anti-submarine surveillance requirement in distant operations. They provide humanitarian aid and disaster relief in mission after mission. They have command and control capacity. They are the nucleus of the Canadian task group, which is the real capability that the Canadian navy is striving to put back together after the modernization of the Halifax class and the gap introduced by the AOR.
It's an amazing capability that gives us the mobility, the flexibility, and the sustainment on station. Whether it's two or three, that's a government decision, but when we're given one, two, three, or four of anything, it is our job, both Art McDonald's and mine, to make the most of those platforms. We'll do a whole number of things to make sure we are very effective, with relationships in foreign countries, basing and hubs in foreign countries, and other capacities that can be brought to bear in our navy to help fill in some of these capability gaps that the auxiliary oil replenishment ship gave us.
It's our job to build readiness using other forces, relationships, and other navies, just like we did with the Spanish tanker SPS Patiño, which has renewed a relationship with the Spanish navy that was damaged during the turbot crisis. It's a beautiful relationship now with an enduring NATO ally, because they lent us a ship, and we paid for the fuel to fill our AOR gap. On the west coast, Art McDonald's team used the Chilean warship Almirante Montt, which has created an even deeper relationship with a Pacific power that is very closely aligned to Canada.
In trying to fix the capability gap, we've found virtue and success and enrichment of our relationships with our best partners and allies. That's our job, to fill in the gaps and patiently wait while the government delivers the program that is set out under the national shipbuilding strategy.