Mr. Speaker, with regard to (a), when the Government of Canada made a decision in 2010 to replace the CF-18s, the statement of operational requirement that informed that decision was the “Statement of Operational Requirement for Canada’s Next Generation Fighter Capability”. It is version 1.0, dated June 1, 2010, and is filed under defence services program number 00002527.
On April 3, 2012, the government announced its seven-point action plan, which is currently being implemented by the National Fighter Procurement Secretariat. One of the steps in the action plan is a requirement for DND to evaluate options to sustain a fighter capability well into the 21st century.
Work on all elements of the seven-point action plan will inform conclusions that will be presented to the government for decision
With regard to (b), the statement of operational requirement contains 14 high-level mandatory capabilities, 28 mandatory requirements, 158 tier-1 requirements and 40 tier-2 requirements. These categories are defined below.
First, the high-level mandatory capabilities are the broad capabilities required by the new resource and form the basis for deriving the mandatory requirements. The 14 capabilities, in general terms, define the various capabilities that are required by the next generation fighter capability to provide a reasonable expectation of mission success in the presence of current and assessed future threats and take into account NORAD and NATO requirements.
Second, the mandatory requirements, comprising some 28 requirements, are capability elements that must be in the product, as their absence would unacceptably diminish the aircraft’s operational capability. Therefore, the product must meet the mandatory requirements for consideration.
Third, tier-1 requirements, comprising some 158 requirements, are capability elements without which the aircraft’s operational capability would be seriously diminished. An aircraft not meeting a tier-1 requirement would result in the Canadian Forces accepting a high degree of operational risk.
Fourth, tier-2 requirements, comprising some 40 requirements, are capability elements without which the aircraft’s overall operational capability would be diminished. An aircraft not meeting a tier-2 requirement would result in the Canadian Forces accepting a low to medium degree of operational risk.
With regard to (c) and (d), while there is only one version of the statement of operational requirement, the document was developed in stages. The first stage began with determining the high-level mandatory capabilities, which were then used as the foundation for the mandatory requirements. The mandatory requirements were used to derive rated requirements that were classified as tier 1 and tier 2.
With regard to (e), there is only one version of the statement of operational requirement.