National Defence committee  Mr. Chair, and distinguished members of the committee, I'd like to add my thanks for the invitation to appear before you to answer questions relating to your study of the defence of North America. As assistant deputy minister, Material, for the Department of National Defence, I

National Defence committee  I can only provide a little bit of information. It's really one for the air force or, I'd say, the Canadian Armed Forces. I will touch on some of what General Hood said when he was here about a month ago. I think it's also important to remember how we were deployed at the time

National Defence committee  That is something I do. Also, it's not just the acquisition but the in-service technical authority; we are working on that. We are completing a very large program to extend them to 2020. It is in the billions of dollars. We have a very detailed plan to do structural reviews, str

National Defence committee  I'm sorry, I don't have the information with me on the number that are available right now. What I can tell you is that the required rotary wing search and rescue is being covered. In the context of a kind of 3:1, as you indicated, materiel, I would say that that's not unusual of

National Defence committee  I think ultimately the Cormorant was more focused on search and rescue. The EH101 was multi-purpose aircraft and also meant to be the maritime or shipboard aircraft, which of course engenders all kinds of things when operating in a maritime environment and structure, and with the

National Defence committee  If I could just go back to your previous point, I don't believe the crash was related to the tail rotor hub issues in the Cormorants. With the Cyclone there are no cuts being made to the project. There has been a reduction in the budget. I would tell the committee that in the p

National Defence committee  It is a project that is in evaluation. In fact, we have just completed this week the flight testing of the second aircraft. We are down to two suppliers in this competition. Again, there are lessons learned from the past—which I talked about early on—about the length of time thes

National Defence committee  Again, I can't speak to the capability on behalf of the air force. Certainly, I can say it needs to cover the Canadian airspace. In the request for proposals, there are timings that they have to meet, so there are some capabilities of that nature. Of course, there's the nature of

National Defence committee  We don't have the order of magnitude established yet, in the sense that we're still looking at options and are unsure of aircraft and what that would involve. The point I was going to make as the project leader for all these new acquisitions—and it's something that's somewhat u

National Defence committee  Again, I think that when General Hood was here he talked about how that becomes.... You can look at a fighter decision, and then that comes thereafter. If I remember correctly, for the Airbus anchors, we'll have another decade out of them. The Hercules model H aircraft, of course

National Defence committee  I beg your pardon for interrupting. I would not say that there is no current thinking in the context of needing the capability.

National Defence committee  What that looks like and how that evolves.... The Polaris aircraft, for example, were retrofitted for that capability. Again, the Herc-Hs were modified. Fuel bladders are installed so they can be.... I won't say it's simple, but it's a different thing that could be done. Potentia

National Defence committee  For aircraft or for infrastructure?

National Defence committee  I don't know. I'm sorry.

National Defence committee  I think we can predict no better and no worse than anybody else, as you indicate. I'll speak to ships. I spent a lot of time in that domain. As you indicated, the costs are about one-third acquisition and one-third personnel. If you look at the $100 billion we more or less fore