We need to ensure that the forward operating bases—the airfields from which we would be operating—are able to maintain themselves 24-7, even in an Arctic environment. A crisis is not going to wait for nice weather.
Once again, there are some questions as to whether or not the capacity of the forward operating bases is such that they in fact can operate on short notice. We need to have the aircraft to operate from there. That means a decision needs to be made on actually achieving the replacement of the CF-18s we purchased in 1982. We also need to consider the possibilities of refuellers. Many of the fifth-generation fighters we're looking at—presumably the F-35, since every single one of our Nordic allies with the exception of Sweden have actually opted for that, and I assume that is where we might be going—need to have refuelling capabilities to deal with the threat that the Russians and the Chinese will be presenting in the long term.
We need to have the infrastructure to know where the threat is. That is in reference to the over-the-horizon radar. That refers to the aerospace threat.
What has been completely lacking from any discussion is how we modernize our undersea listening capabilities. Are we talking about a SOSA system, which may be prohibitively expensive? Nevertheless, it's something we have to be looking at.
We also have to be talking about how we will be moving forward in terms of our satellite capabilities. There are some discussions in the open literature to the effect that we have not yet made a decision on the replacement of the RADARSAT constellation. I hope that literature is incorrect and that, in fact, we are planning to prepare for the next RADARSAT capabilities, but it also means integrating with the Americans and the Europeans in terms of their satellite surveillance capability.
If you go right across the list, I'm afraid what we are left with is that on the upper end of any type of surveillance and at the upper end of our response capability, literally everything is still needing to be done at this point in time.
When we hear the government making suggestions that because of the economic difficulties we are now facing, the funds will be extremely limited, I see this as one of the most difficult—or as the policy people like to say, “wicked”—problems that we have going into the future era.