National Defence committee  You said “smart defence”. You are perhaps referring to a series of projects to analyze capabilities that NATO and its members are working on. The members meet to work together on various matters, including innovation, advanced military capabilities, and so forth. I can give you a

National Defence committee  I don't know for sure. It's a process by which we seek participation. I do know that internally, that part has occurred. We can find out for you whether the last steps have occurred for us to formally sign on at NATO. It's something that—

National Defence committee  Thank you.

National Defence committee  It may not be the maintenance. At some point that can become an issue, because they can often move away from it, but what it does to us generally in the life cycle is that rather than our taking it away so they can't reuse it or there being the threat that somebody in Canadian in

National Defence committee  There were a few things there. Yes, as you indicate, to be able to simultaneously meet NORAD and NATO commitments, it is 88 aircraft. It's obviously not all 88 by virtue of maintenance and training and other things that happen, as occurs today. With the Australian legacy Horne

National Defence committee  Because it's not just the airplanes, we've set aside, if memory serves me, about half a billion, but that includes infrastructure and a whole bunch of things we need to do. I don't have the numbers per aircraft. They are much below that. Again, we could provide a bit more informa

National Defence committee  We still need to get authorities to proceed, as has always been the case in the Canadian context, from Treasury Board and other authorities. We're pulling that together. The Australians have now gone to the U.S. State Department for the transfer under ITAR. That is under way. Th

National Defence committee  In the context of NATO procurement, which leads to their operations, the approach is similar to that of Canada's. In my career in procurement, 20 years ago, although IP was something that was there, we talked about it quickly because, quite frankly, we could give you the whole in

National Defence committee  Sir, thank you for the question. In the context of procurement at NATO, like Canada, it responds to the requirements that are set. I have to say that I'm not aware of specific procurements in that area. I don't know if you know of any specifically.

National Defence committee  Thank you for your question, sir. As to science and technology, my colleague Ms. Desmartis manages the innovation component of the defence policy, which is known as IDEeS. Canada has ties with NATO and is already involved in smart defence initiatives. We are trying to innovate i

National Defence committee  I think there are a couple of different things. Let me speak to the Auroras. We still have some years ahead as we add more capability to the aircraft. We're just finishing the life extension of the aircraft to 2030, which is a pretty significant capability investment. We've see

National Defence committee  I'm sorry, but compliance to which framework?

National Defence committee  The NATO protocols we were talking about were about NATO's procuring, not—

National Defence committee  It's not protocols that they apply to the allies.

National Defence committee  Sir, not that I'm aware of, but I perhaps would not be the person who would know. It would maybe again be a question for our operational....