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National Defence committee  Ms. Murray, the good news, I guess, is that I can speak to three of your four questions. Your first question is an issue of policy. Why the information requested by the Parliamentary Budget Officer was not provided is not in my purview to speak to.

November 18th, 2014Committee meeting

VAdm Mark Norman

National Defence committee  As it relates to your questions around schedules, capabilities, capability trade-offs on the AOPS and CSC programs in particular, and then your follow-on question about the AOR gap, on the AOR gap I can't give you any more of an answer than I gave to Mr. Bezan. We're looking at a range of options.

November 18th, 2014Committee meeting

VAdm Mark Norman

National Defence committee  That ship one will take roughly two years to build, so we're in the ballpark. Then the following ships, two through six, will go every 18 months. The pace will accelerate as they go through it, which is entirely consistent with modern shipbuilding practice. The first ones take a little longer.

November 18th, 2014Committee meeting

VAdm Mark Norman

National Defence committee  I'm very conscious of time, so I am going to be as quick as I can. I characterize the joint support ship and the legacy capability that it's replacing as floating Canadian Tires. They are floating Canadian Tires-plus, and what the new Queenstonclass is going to bring is the plus: the ability to replenish under way, to fuel both the ships and the helicopters, to provide ammunition supplies, and to deliver some humanitarian assistance, to embark people to supplement whatever type of mission we may have, and to be able to command and control forces ashore.

November 18th, 2014Committee meeting

VAdm Mark Norman

National Defence committee  The re-evaluation of the requirement for Nanisivik is a function of a variety of things, including ongoing development in that general area, which was not necessarily either predicted or known about at the time that Nanisivik was announced. There are other things going on up there that we can leverage, which don't necessarily require us to make the degree of investment we were initially looking at.

November 18th, 2014Committee meeting

VAdm Mark Norman

National Defence committee  In answer to your specific question around the beartrap, that is a legacy system designed exclusively to support Sea King operations. The AOPS is not designed to support Sea King; it will be designed to support the Cyclone and other helicopters in the Canadian Forces inventory.

November 18th, 2014Committee meeting

VAdm Mark Norman

National Defence committee  No. It uses a completely different arresting system and the new system is being engineered into the modernized frigates, which will be the first platform to operate the Cyclone. But to your point specifically on AOPS, I want to address it because AOPS will be fitted with the next generation of arresting gear once that arresting gear has been fully engineered and tested.

November 18th, 2014Committee meeting

VAdm Mark Norman

National Defence committee  I was going to transition to the air defence capability of the destroyers, which I indicated. We've had significant enhancements built into the self-protection capability of the modernized Halifax class from an air defence perspective, significantly better than the Legacy class.

November 18th, 2014Committee meeting

VAdm Mark Norman

National Defence committee  I think that's a possible scenario. I'm not sure I would jump there yet. What I will say is we're already doing it. In fact, we have coast guard folks at sea with us in Operation Caribbe on occasion. We are aggressively exploiting the hospitality of the coast guard. We have officers deployed to the high north, the High Arctic, to get experience operating in ice.

November 18th, 2014Committee meeting

VAdm Mark Norman

National Defence committee  AOPS is not being built or delivered to deal with the Russians. AOPS is being built to deal with our northern waters. Irrespective of any relationship we may have with partners in the Arctic Council, which includes Russia, or with anybody we may have disagreements with, including our neighbours with whom we occasionally have disagreements about territorial issues, the purpose of having a capability like AOPS is to have a naval presence in what is the largest maritime space in Canada.

November 18th, 2014Committee meeting

VAdm Mark Norman

National Defence committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Certainly I don't think you'll find anybody who's prouder of those sailors and airmen than I am. The brand of “ready aye ready” is a powerful statement. It speaks to who we are as an institution. We're increasingly using it as a rallying cry for our sailors recognizing that ultimately that's what we're there to be.

November 18th, 2014Committee meeting

VAdm Mark Norman

National Defence committee  One way to address the issue is to use more effective caps. That is why we use frigates instead of destroyers, as well as small offshore patrol ships instead of frigates. They are more efficient, simpler to repair, and their daily maintenance is less expensive.

November 18th, 2014Committee meeting

VAdm Mark Norman

National Defence committee  Based on the historical work we have done from the navy's perspective specifically, my understanding is we have not seen the degree of recapitalization in terms of its broad impact on the fleet since the Korean War. We have replaced one class over a relatively short period of time on a cyclical basis.

November 18th, 2014Committee meeting

VAdm Mark Norman

National Defence committee  I think the way I'd like to tackle this is to first off say that, as it relates to the economic benefits and industrial policy, there are people far more qualified to speak to that. I would invite your committee...just don't tell them that I said you should invite them. I would say from the perspective of somebody who was part of the commissioning crew of the first ship, I spent 18 months plus scattered over my career in Saint John, New Brunswick, delivering that ship, to the guy who has the great fortune and honour of sitting here as the head of the institution looking ahead 20 years, that I think one of the things we have to recognize is that there is an enormous advantage to predictability in planning and it's not just the fiscal predictability associated with planning, but it's also what I would characterize as capability insertion.

November 18th, 2014Committee meeting

VAdm Mark Norman

National Defence committee  It is about a quarter.

November 18th, 2014Committee meeting

VAdm Mark Norman