Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'll just make one statement and then I'm going to turn it over to Pierre Paul-Hus.
With all due respect, General, your predecessor, the former chief of the defence staff, General Tom Lawson, just said a couple of weeks ago that there is no capability gap. Thirteen former commanders of the Royal Canadian Air Force have said there is no capability gap. Now, if the threat levels increase and we need more planes, then just buy the planes. But the idea that we need an interim solution is going to compromise our capability, compromise our resources, and compromise our ability to have enough pilots. I have to put that on the record because there have been enough experts who have actually flown the CF-18s, who have said completely the opposite to what you just stated.