Public Accounts committee  All I can say is that within the nine-nation partnership right now, the United Kingdom is part of that nine-nation group. France is not. France has not indicated its intent to procure the F-35.

Public Accounts committee  That's okay, sir.

Public Accounts committee  No problem.

Public Accounts committee  As we've seen reported recently, much like Canada, the United Kingdom will make a decision of acquisition at the appropriate time for their budgets and government.

Public Accounts committee  Thank you for that question. To go back to what I said on Tuesday, when we look at the needs of the future we have to look at both domestic and international environments where technology will cause us some significant challenges. It's important to remember that one of the thi

Public Accounts committee  To go back to 2010 and the analysis we did, we looked at our requirements. We looked at the type of technology that would be required for us to be agile enough to deal with future threats. The analysis led us to a set of requirements.

Public Accounts committee  Certainly. In an unclassified way, there are very advanced surface-to-air missile systems currently being fielded by countries. That will proliferate. We see them now proliferating. We expect them to continue proliferating. The technology challenges the airplanes available today.

Public Accounts committee  I don't define national security, sir. What I do, though, is present government with options should it need to exercise those options 30 years from now. I can't predict the future. All I can do is predict where challenges will arise around the world, and at home potentially. Othe

Public Accounts committee  Thank you for that question. I don't manage those costs with regard to operating per hour. My colleague to the left actually manages those issues, so I will defer to him.

Public Accounts committee  Currently, from an air force perspective, we are focused on delivering the transition to the F-35.

Public Accounts committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. On the best way to frame the answer here, the F-35 is the aircraft we assessed in 2010 as the platform that met our needs and all of our requirements. The fact that it's still going through testing and development is certainly what's occupying a lot of

Public Accounts committee  Thank you for that question. We've been flying fighters in Canada for over 60 years, and there's been a lot learned on how to do tests and evaluation. If you've seen the movie, The Right Stuff, you know what it looked like in the fifties and sixties, when there was high risk in

Public Accounts committee  Thank you, Deputy. Mr. Chairman, members of the committee, ladies and gentlemen, bonjour. Thank you for this opportunity to contribute to this important discussion on replacing Canada's fighter jets. As mentioned in the Canada First Defence Strategy, the Canadian Forces need to

National Defence committee  Thank you for that question. I was just a little whippersnapper back then, Mr. Hawn. I remember being part of the legacy fleet, looking at the F-18 with a mixture of jealousy, I guess, and a bit of envy. Of course, the F-18, like any new capability, had its share of introductory

National Defence committee  Exactly. That's what test programs are supposed to do, to pressurize the system to the maximum to see where the failure points could be. They beat those things to a pulp to find out where the failure points will be 8,000 hours from now. So that's the whole point. The F-35 is a l