Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Just to reinforce what Lieutenant-General Leslie said, at the time there was opinion and views and analysis by a large number of staff. Every Friday morning I chaired a meeting that managed sort of minute-to-minute execution of these 30-plus projects. That went to every two weeks for about a two-year period.
There was no time during those reviews of these projects that it wasn't clear to the senior officers and the senior managers I have—the brigadier-general and above—that we really had any other choice but to continue with the 33 vehicles we already owned. To start all over again with something else, a completely new family of armoured fighting vehicle, was really not a viable choice for us.
So we felt it was really—and it was clear to senior leadership—the only feasible, rapid option. And we already had those 33. Did it prove to be more technically difficult than we had expected? Yes, it did. The armour package design was particularly hard. We felt that the Armatec company did an outstanding job of giving us that design at a reasonable price, but it did take longer, and we did have to go back to Treasury Board the second time.