National Defence committee  Sir, thank you for the question. You're quite right that in this operation two services primarily did the force generation, the Royal Canadian Air Force and the Royal Canadian Navy. What was different from Afghanistan, in simple terms.... The air force, of course, has a very specific characteristic that allows it to do things more rapidly: it's got aircraft.

National Defence committee  I spoke just very briefly in my opening address. I indicated that part of the backbone of what we have in the material system are depots. In fact, I operate, or I have a formation that operates, the material depots across Canada that feed into the bases and garrisons. But bases, garrisons, and wings are the purview and responsibility of the force generators: the army, the navy, and the air force.

National Defence committee  Thank you very much for your question. For clarity's sake, I am going to answer in English, if you don't mind. Ma'am, you talked about global systems and readiness. Very clearly, I am part of the overall Canadian Forces' readiness, based on my requirement to provide operational support capability to the Canadian Forces.

National Defence committee  Thank you again for your question. It is very easy for me. It is very important to use the chain of command to check the level of training.

National Defence committee  Okay. In essence, the chain of command is the key. You're quite familiar, I think, with the way we maintain the chain of command at unit levels and with the responsibilities you provide as direction to a unit commanding officer. As a formation commander, I have units, I have commanding officers, I have training opportunities.

National Defence committee  In my mind, it's just good relations. I find that when doing logistics-type business, it is always better once you start interacting with people, and you build that personal relationship in addition to the mechanics of building a framework agreement. It's just the reality of having an operating concept that perhaps you can ensure is workable.

National Defence committee  Okay. Again, thank you for that question. Third-line decompression is just a phrase. I've had the good opportunity now to visit every troop rotation going through in my tenure as commander in the last two and a half years. This is something in my mind that's essential for us to do to ensure the better welfare of our people.

National Defence committee  Again, it goes back to where you deploy, and it was alluded to. It's a good question. If I end up providing people who are going to be part of a task force, they will undergo the training required for that task force to make sure that they're mission capable, both in terms of technical requirements and in terms of operational or combat requirements.

National Defence committee  In simple terms, the concept when fully implemented would allow you to have a global reach that would potentially, using a node or a series of nodes, be able to reach out to a part of the world and provide a continuous sustainment and essentially force projection and/or sustainment of CF personnel.

National Defence committee  In principle, yes. The whole idea of a hub is you want to set in place pre-arranged conditions for projection sustainment. You want to deal with host nations that are both friendly and encouraging, so if there is an operation to occur you already have the conditions set in place for everything from transitioning troops with weapons...and what the protocols and jurisdiction are.

National Defence committee  In terms of numbers, based on the modelling of transportation, in the range of seven.

National Defence committee  Again, the modelling was done taking into consideration the logistics imperative. In the geopolitical environment, and taking a look from an intelligence perspective or the realities of our world, where do a lot of natural disasters occur and where are politically very challenging parts of the world?

National Defence committee  Again, my logistics perspective would be that as you start doing business, you start working on a more continual basis with people. You understand that you want to have a relationship, and then you can work it on a military-to-military basis. You then can potentially use that from a government perspective in terms of what the like-minded interests of nations are, as we start with a military-to-military sort of agreement and cooperation.

National Defence committee  Sir, thank you for that question. I believe this is one of the key pieces that I was trying to underscore. I think one of the advantages of Operational Support Command is that we end up being a very good planning coordination entity. There are two primary commands that I end up supporting.

National Defence committee  In terms of day-to-day operations, CEFCOM is responsible for the conduct of the operations to include support within what I would call a joint operating area. Where we have a mission or an operation happening, they will control all aspects of activity, both operations and support within that area of responsibility.