National Defence committee  The twenty that are being upgraded to exactly the German standard will be done and returned to the Germans and it will own the ones in Afghanistan. Obviously, sir, you know that. We continue to work with Public Works to get a repair and overhaul contract in place. That request for proposal is due to close on April 15, in two weeks, at which time we will, with Public Works, evaluate those proposals and let a contract for the repair and overhaul.

National Defence committee  We work very closely with Dr. Walker and his team, and I'll give you an example. The example would be urgent survivability upgrades for Afghanistan, where we progressed over 30 projects: additional armour, belly protection, ballistic eyewear, etc. And with the support from the test facility in Valcartier, we ballistically or explosively proved all of those solutions prior to acquiring them.

National Defence committee  Mr. Jacobson is with me here today. He co-chairs a technology development council with DRDC, and they specifically look at those technologies coming up that the forces have a need for and DRDC has some expertise on and wants to partner with Canadian industry on. Virtually everything they do is in partnership with Canadian industry.

National Defence committee  I contribute a portion of the infrastructure cost. If the air force feels it wants additional facilities or there are underground works needed, the chief of the air staff has to fund that incremental part with the assistant deputy minister of infrastructure. That has all been planned out; it's funded.

National Defence committee  We look at every project from first principles when it is being defined. The specific example of civilian maintenance is largely driven by the combat deployability of the platform. If the platform is combat helicopters that will go in very dangerous places, it's almost always a military air force technician.

National Defence committee  I'm not exactly sure which.... Are we talking about the current project or the previous project?

National Defence committee  It was initially predicted that it would be delivered in 48 months. Sikorsky came back to us and discussed a weight problem, that the helicopter in its design was too heavy to meet the specific endurance requirement, which is a very difficult one, by the air force. They wanted to defer the delivery by about a total of 22 months.

National Defence committee  It's under contract.

National Defence committee  Plus $3 billion for in-service support over 20 years.

National Defence committee  It's $2 billion.

National Defence committee  The Chinook contract was signed last August for $17 billion. That included the complete definition of the scope of the work we wanted on our Chinooks. It included extended-range fuel tanks, special self-defence systems, de-icing of the rotor blades for Canadian winters, self-protection systems.

National Defence committee  They match the service contract periods. If we begin with a ten-year contract for maintenance with Boeing and its partners, they must deliver the value of that work in equivalent IRB commitments, so it's ten years. If we renew that for another five years, they're committed for another five years.

National Defence committee  No, because we don't as yet have a revised preliminary project approval from Treasury Board. I can't accurately predict that date, although as Mr. MacKay said, it really is a top priority for him, and he would like to move that forward as soon as possible. We will have those documents ready for him when he needs them.

National Defence committee  You mean our own process?

National Defence committee  In terms of other countries, we often look at the Netherlands and Australia as being most comparable to Canada in terms of size and how we do things. We have a very close relationship with the national directors who run their organizations. It's difficult to compare us to the United States, which has massive programs.