Public Accounts committee  Mr. Chairman, thank you very much, and I certainly will.

Public Accounts committee  Sir, it is now up to the government to come to a decision regarding helicopter procurement. We have done our planning. Major generals Grant and Benjamin, in conjunction with NATO, ensure planning and coordination at the Kandahar Airport, prior to the government decision being made.

Public Accounts committee  In terms of...?

Public Accounts committee  To reinforce General Benjamin's point, platoon commanders, company commanders, and battalion commanders all have stock checks occurring on a regular basis. When they finish a major operation and get back to one of the four operating bases, or to Kandahar airfield, they take stock.

Public Accounts committee  Mr. Chair, that's absolutely the case. Ensuring that the soldiers and sailors and airmen have what they need is an absolute priority. Our challenge is anticipating the next demand. How do we anticipate their needs so that, even before the soldiers ask for something, a new piece of equipment arrives that will enable them to achieve success while mitigating their risks?

Public Accounts committee  That's correct.

Public Accounts committee  We have seen huge progress in the capacity and professionalism of the Afghan security forces, both the Afghan army and police. We have a lot of our soldiers right with them, providing them with training, education, and mentoring. We have military police working with the RCMP and others professionalizing their police and staying with them in various outposts.

Public Accounts committee  On equipment holdings, we guard our security very closely. That goes without saying, because it's a matter of life and limb of our soldiers. At the same time we insist that given the various fleets of vehicles—be they tanks, light-armoured vehicles, reconnaissance vehicles, or trucks—there are spare vehicles in theatre.

Public Accounts committee  I would just say that certainly one of the fundamentals of being in the military and wearing a uniform is accountability for kit. You'll probably be aware that a sergeant or a warrant officer getting his section--the platoon--out with all their kit, ensuring that every soldier has what they need in order to go into operations, which will save their lives and ensure that they can achieve their mission successfully, has grown into our culture across the board.

Public Accounts committee  As General Benjamin said a moment ago, we have seen a huge amount of support to ensure that the soldiers, sailors, and airmen have everything they need to do their mission. However, through the Manley panel process that's now under government consideration, we will put the helicopters and/or UAVs into theatre with government approval.

Public Accounts committee  During the Cold War period, when we had a lot of troops--air and land troops--in Europe, we did indeed have NATO standards for various pieces of equipment, and there was a degree of sharing across the board. We now see efforts by NATO partners, as General Benjamin just mentioned, to try to get back into that.

Public Accounts committee  Just before this audit, in the fall of 2005, we created General Benjamin's headquarters. The Canadian Operational Support Command brings together logistics, medical, engineering, and signals under one umbrella to ensure that it's all synchronized. And what we're seeing now is the effect of that.

Public Accounts committee  I call Dan Benjamin.

Public Accounts committee  This is a credit to ADM Materiel, Mr. Dan Ross, with the procurement side, in getting those spare pieces. Also, with regard to Canadian Operational Support Command and how they have used the C-17s, contracting the ships, and ensuring that the high priority is flown in, those pieces, those commodities that we have a month or two before getting into theatre are in a container aboard ship.

Public Accounts committee  I'll just start off, if I might, Mr. Chairman. Any piece of military equipment put out there is a compromise of a number of factors: protection, mobility, power, its firepower. It's always a compromise of all of these characteristics of a vehicle. The Nyala is a great vehicle. And we realized, because of how the mission was evolving, that we needed to provide a more heavily armoured car than we initially had with the G-wagon or the jeep that we had in theatre, which were armour-protected but didn't have sufficient protection.