Thanks, Chair.
My questions are in the same vein as Mr. Arya's, but I've reached a little different conclusion.
When I look at page 8 of the report:
3.48 In 2017, National Defence estimated that the total cost of extending the flying life of the 76 CF-18s until 2032 will be $1.2 billion. This amount includes the cost for spare parts and upgrades to the structure and avionics and electrical systems, but not any combat capability upgrades.
3.49 Without combat upgrades, the CF-18 will be less effective against adversaries in domestic and international operations. In our opinion, flying the CF-18 until 2032 without a plan to upgrade combat capability will result in less important roles for the fighter force and will pose a risk to Canada’s ability to contribute to NORAD and NATO operations.
I looked at that and I thought one of two things. One touches on where Mr. Arya went and it looked like incompetence. I'm addressing my questions to the general because it is your people who do this work. To leave out the fighting capabilities of fighter aircraft is hard to understand from a layperson's point of view. It sounds like incompetence.
If it's not, and if it's as Mr. Arya believes, that it was under way but not finalized, then my second thought is that the $1.2 billion is a ruse. That's not the real number. Either you knew you had to do combat capabilities but somebody forgot to put it in the analysis, or you knew you were going to have to do it and there was a cost to it, but it was going to make the $1.2 billion look unacceptably high.
I accept there could be a third reason. I anxiously await your response, General. Which is it, incompetence, trying to dodge the numbers or something I'm not seeing?