National Defence committee  You can't have everything from these data, but there is some usefulness.

National Defence committee  We also said this was a valuable tool to assess the cost associated with increased readiness posture in terms of crews required or perhaps maintenance and flying rates.

National Defence committee  We're pointing to the limitation of the available data and the way the data were collected.

National Defence committee  The justification is the cost, and there are some other considerations. We indicated in our report that Greenwood would present somewhat of a challenge to slower aircraft with reduced range, like the CC-130. On the extreme edges of the envelope of the east region, that would require landing in Gander or St.

National Defence committee  I think there are quite a few of the requirements that address the cargo compartment, and almost all of them relate to the ergonomics, the needs of the SAR technicians. Some of them relate to the SAR load and to the need of interoperability--

National Defence committee  Yes, and we agree with that, with a caveat that there is no need to call for ability to accommodate the NATO pallet except that the notional SAR load—there is no standard SAR load, by the way, but the idea we support—whatever that is going to be, should be compatible with the NATO pallet.

National Defence committee  So our recommendation was to remove that requirement but to retain that the SAR load be compatible with the pallet.

National Defence committee  Sorry, could you repeat the question?

National Defence committee  Yes, of course, we had to take it into account, because one of the extremes of the incidents could be a need to rescue somebody from the North Pole, and that's the extreme. It is a very low probability event and yet it's one that makes a lot of demands, if you like, when we include all the constraints.

National Defence committee  See where it lands. That's right, exactly. We believe that the industry has the ability to cost their offer. Let them put it on the table. Then Canadian taxpayers will have a choice.

National Defence committee  No, we have not looked at that. Again, I have to state that this was not part of our mandate. We really focused on the SOR as it was presented to us. Also, we haven't looked at possible solutions, meaning possible aircraft. That, again, was really counter to where we wanted to focus the recommendations of the statement of requirement.

National Defence committee  The short answer is that we have not. This was not part of our mandate. We essentially analyzed the statement of requirement as it was presented to us.

National Defence committee  Essentially we advocated adding integrated vertical optical infrared sensors and night vision goggle capabilities, and to have those integrated from the start. If you do it later, that relates to certification, and it might increase the cost. We also advocated for short gravel runway operation capability; operations using austere airfields; flight into known icing conditions, ground de-icing, anti-icing clearance; a 30-year estimated life expectancy for fixed-wing SAR aircraft based on an average yearly flying rate; ergonomic design of the seating and workspace at the spotters' windows; as well as compliance with relevant civil operating rules, such as access to airspace requiring performance-based navigation, reduced vertical separation minima capability, installation of traffic collision and avoidance, and terrain awareness and warning systems, as well as having a ramp.

National Defence committee  When we say mandatory, we feel that in a Canadian context it is not feasible to acquire fixed-wing search and rescue aircraft without this capability.

National Defence committee  May I read the conclusion from the report? It says, on the single type of aircraft assumption: Despite the preliminary costing data, the assumption of a single aircraft solution should be removed to allow industry to submit single or multi-fleet proposals. Such proposals can then be assessed on the basis of their merits including costs.