National Defence committee  Yes, I will.

National Defence committee  Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Mr. Chairman, thank you for the opportunity to address the Standing Committee on National Defence. I apologize for the slight hoarseness. I will do my best to maintain volume and clarity throughout. Lockheed Martin is proud to be again supporting Canada and the Canadian Forces, this time by being selected to provide a new fleet of tactical transport aircraft through a clearly defined and demanding qualification process.

National Defence committee  I'd be more than happy to address what I think were some of the issues you raised. First, I would like to clarify that we do not have a contract. Although we have been selected and are in negotiation, we have not been awarded a contract.

National Defence committee  As I said, we are in the process of negotiation, but no contract has been signed. As Mr. Coyle pointed out this morning, he has not been involved for approximately a decade in the environment of the aircraft, so he could not offer personal history but was obliged to read from the same January report.

National Defence committee  And that is the one I am now going to address. But the report he was given to read from this morning was dated this January. That is the 2006 DOT and E annual review report, which they are obliged to produce every year. There are three issues raised in that report. What I would like to clarify is that the OT and E environment that has been referred to only relates to the United States Air Force C-130J aircraft and its testing environment and does in no way reflect the operational condition of the aircraft as it relates to all other operators, which are many years ahead in terms of testing and operation than the United States is.

National Defence committee  I'll actually defer to Mr. Crisler.