Thank you, Madam Chair, for the question.
I'll respond in two general categories.
The first category would be those projects that are largely being advanced through work that takes place in office spaces. In the beginning there was a little bit of a slowdown, as we came to grips with working remotely and through new technologies.
Generally, the projects that are advancing through the development of a request for proposal, such as the logistics vehicle modernization project or the remotely piloted aircraft system project—both of which have recently released significant portions of their draft requests for proposal—continue to advance. Similarly, the future fighter capability project, which has had the proposals in hand since the summer, has been able to advance.
There are challenges as we deal with a significant volume of classified information. Nevertheless, the team has found some really creative ways to ensure that we continue to move forward on those. I would see delays, potentially, in the order of weeks for any of those kinds of activities, but not measurable in the long term.
On the other hand, the projects that are in more of a production phase have been more challenging. The question touched on some of the shipbuilding projects. We can all appreciate that the physical distancing requirements on board a ship under production or on board a submarine going through a repair and overhaul have been more challenging. However, it's been remarkable to see the shipbuilding industry's response in finding solutions and working with its labour force to find ways to continue to move work forward. It's been quite astonishing. In fact, through the spring we were holding weekly defence industry advisory group meetings with the shipyards and there were 50 participants. They were quite readily sharing information on how best to respond and to continue to move forward.
Other projects in a production-type phase include the fixed-wing search and rescue project, which is the aircraft being produced in Spain. Airbus, the aircraft manufacturer in this case, did a phenomenal job of keeping the project moving forward according to its original timelines.
Again, moving back and forth across international borders has been challenging. We've actually made a deliberate choice to patriate and move some of the work that had originally been planned to occur in Spain to Comox, so that we would get ahead of future waves and uncertainty with the COVID situation. It set us back a little bit, but I think we're well positioned now to continue moving forward with the project in its current set-up.