National Defence committee  I think the C-17 was a remarkable success and continues to be. All the C-17 users in the world keep a common configuration of the aircraft, so that if you got into a U.S. one it would look like an Australian or Canadian one. That's by design, because it gives us flexibility and r

National Defence committee  Yes. In fact I'm very proud of the state of the air force. It's a shame that Ms. McCrimmon has departed as our first female CO in the armed forces. At the time, I was a CO beside her. I have the exact numbers available. Out of the armed forces, the air force has the highest per

National Defence committee  The plan right now, as I think I've said, is that once a decision is made on the next fighter aircraft, the next decision will be the tanker replacement. We know that the lifespan of the Airbus is 2026 right now, so that decision has to be taken regardless. I won't debate what's

National Defence committee  We started with 138. Then we made a decision. Normally, an F-18 should only be in service for 20 years. That was the plan. When we decided to keep the life going we decided to invest in 80 aircraft only. That was sufficient. Currently, we feel that we do not need more than 65. Th

National Defence committee  I would have to get you all those exact numbers if you're looking for specifics. What I can tell you is right now we're doing operational tests and evaluation, so it's been flying off the back of ships. That is the first block of aircraft. There are still two more blocks to come

National Defence committee  Actually, I think it's more our ability to train people and operate two aircraft at the same time.

National Defence committee  You heard my comments about the block 3 Aurora. For the capacity the Cyclone aircraft is going to bring to us, and the Royal Canadian Navy, it's going to be world-leading capability.

National Defence committee  In fact, if you look at the training system we've put in in the facilities at Shearwater, I couldn't be happier with where we're headed with it. Would I have liked this to have gone smoother? Of course I would have, but we can't control everything. I'm very optimistic, though, i

National Defence committee  With a fleet of 65 aircraft, our capabilities are not compromised. We can fulfill our mission with NORAD and conduct one deployment, perhaps two. That depends on the demands with NORAD. In the various levels of NORAD commitment, based on the risk, the number of fighters we have

National Defence committee  I can't throw 200 more pilots at the problem, because I don't have them, so it's acceptable, I think.

National Defence committee  Yes.

National Defence committee  Yes, we would have to change our present commitments.

National Defence committee  I think that all the aircraft in competition to replace the F-18s would have those capabilities. That is not the case with most aircraft. For example, the Eurofighter, which was bought to be used as air-to-air now has the capability to be air-to-ground. Excuse me, I do not

National Defence committee  Looking into the future, it's important to imagine a formation of aircraft like a computer network. In a formation in the future, you could have an aircraft over here whose radar can see something, but the optimum weapons deployment is done from a different aircraft in the format

National Defence committee  The number of projects that are ongoing in the Department of National Defence in any given year is tremendous. We were talking just about the air force, but then you imagine the navy and the army on top of that. It's a very busy system. Technology evolves very quickly, as you wel