National Defence committee  Thank you for the question, Mr. Chair. I'll start and maybe I'll give the floor to Mr. Crosby to complement the answer. The phases you mentioned are project phases. These come from the Department of National Defence. They're the option analysis, the definition and the implementation.

National Defence committee  Mr. Chair, I thank the member for her question. Our process led us to the conclusion that currently appears on our website, namely that the only available military aircraft that met all the high-level needs of the Canadian Armed Forces was the Boeing P-8 Poseidon. As for my remarks before the other committee, and to answer the first part of your question, indeed, we did not request further information at that time.

National Defence committee  Mr. Chair, I thank the member for her question. I don’t have the specific date, but it was in 2021.

National Defence committee  Mr. Chair, I thank the member for her question. The mandate was divided into three phases. The overall mandate for the Avascent study was actually a detailed market analysis with an options analysis in phases two and three. It wasn’t really focused on the military products already available on the market.

National Defence committee  Mr. Chair, I thank the member for her question. As I said, the report involved three phases. We received the last one in 2022. I don’t have the exact date on hand, but I could provide it to the Committee later. As I said, the mandate was a market analysis. Many figures, many facts and a great deal of data were gathered to culminate in a fairly detailed analysis.

National Defence committee  Mr. Chair, I thank the member for her question. I wouldn’t say that Avascent recommended an existing product. We really conduected a detailed market analysis, which included analyzing the options. That analysis looked at aircraft suppliers and systems suppliers. A combination of analyses was done in that regard.

National Defence committee  Thank you for the question. The short answer is absolutely. We actually have a very focused effort at the moment. It's a whole-of-government effort, including all the departments and agencies that you see at the table here this evening and more. We're looking at the entire spectrum of the defence procurement.

National Defence committee  Thank you for the question. The only thing I would add is that we do have a process for urgent operational requirements, but it's very much commodity-dependent. There's a huge difference between being asked to purchase ammunition in an expedited fashion and doing ship design, for instance.

National Defence committee  Thank you for the question. Actually, we do that on a fairly continuous basis. I think at the last committee we mentioned that we are now working on a very specific initiative that will look at optimizing the defence procurement “machinery”—I'll call it that for now—or enterprise.

Government Operations committee  Yes, they did.

Government Operations committee  It was the pistol replacement project.

Government Operations committee  Thank you for the question. Ultimately, the decision whether or not to issue calls for tender has not yet been made. A decision still needs to be made about the process. Secondly, as I mentioned before, it should be noted that the only aircraft that met...

Government Operations committee  This is the information we have and analyze.

Government Operations committee  Thank you for the question, Mr. Chair. I have not.

Government Operations committee  Thanks for the question. Usually the country-to-country discussions are more with the Department of National Defence. It's not that I want to shy away from the question, but I have not engaged with any other countries on this procurement.