National Defence committee  Mr. Chair, if I could jump in.... General Molstad, it's probably worth explaining that the first best shot is not just about whether you can successfully hit the target. It's about where the object is, where it would come down and what would happen if it missed.

National Defence committee  Chief, I believe you said “February 3”, the night before...?

Public Accounts committee  Thank you to the member for raising this question. I had not actually heard there were specific issues around the program, so I'm happy to take that back and look into it. I should flag for the committee members, though, that we have 5,200 Canadian Rangers. In terms of the rifles they use, these are rifles provided by the Canadian Armed Forces.

Public Accounts committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. I will start, but I think the navy is best placed to speak to capability. They are ice-capable. They are not icebreakers. The navy is quite anxiously looking forward to the receipt of the rest of the AOPS. They find them quite useful in terms of some of the infrastructure they can provide and some of their capabilities.

Public Accounts committee  Nancy may have some information to provide here.

Public Accounts committee  The efficiency in production is basically ahead of schedule in terms of the dividend you would expect for building ship five versus ship one. That is indeed happening. Nancy, I'm not sure if you have specifics on cost.

Public Accounts committee  Thank you for your question. With respect to the F‑35, that was indeed a key factor in evaluating and selecting a new fighter jet. I don't know if you're concerned about Boeing aircraft, but when the Department of National Defence purchases a new aircraft, it must be able to operate in the Arctic.

Public Accounts committee  There are a couple of things we're stressing, and my colleagues may have additional points as well. On subsurface we flagged DRDC, our defence research organization. It does excellent work in numerous areas, but of relevance here today would be the work they do in subsurface, which is mostly based out of their Nova Scotia facility.

Public Accounts committee  I'll start, and my colleague Rear-Admiral Waddell may wish to add. There's interaction at numerous levels, regularly, just through relationships and the sharing of information that comes to our attention or to their attention that is relevant. We also talk a lot about innovation.

Public Accounts committee  We are aware that Russia has excellent submarine capability. I can't speak to exactly where they're operating. I have nothing to add.

Public Accounts committee  I am not aware of any activity being in Canadian waters, but....

Public Accounts committee  I think the Auditor General's report points to awareness gaps, and we've talked about air, sea, subsurface just now and land. It's all of these things coming together that actually get you to all-domain awareness, and that is where the armed forces is looking to go in terms of the investments and upgrades it intends to make.

Public Accounts committee  That relates to the comment I made earlier as well in terms of one of the next great areas we have to focus on, and I would flag innovation as probably the key answer. I would also highlight that DRDC does some excellent research in subsurface. That is something I think is going to become more and more important as the years go on, and the capability that goes with that monitoring will likely be multi-faceted.

Public Accounts committee  I can't offer any additional information at this stage beyond what has already been publicly reported. I regret I cannot answer that question.

Public Accounts committee  There's a lot of speculation about what could have been the purpose, but at this stage, I can't offer any fact-based information.