National Defence committee  Perhaps, yes, but I'd appreciate discussing it briefly after.

National Defence committee  As somebody who's had American submarine commanding officers sit in my office—as a commander down on the east coast—and talk to me after they've done an exercise with the Victoria class boats it's easy to make the case that our Victoria class are British-built submarines that fea

National Defence committee  It has less to do with geographic positioning and more to do with ice. That is because our current submarines have limited capability.

National Defence committee  In fact, I'm not even sure—

National Defence committee  However, when it comes to all the other tasks that submarines take on, you should have no concern about their capability. The other point I'd make about submarines is simply that it's important to recognize the contribution made to, let's call it the NATO navy, or on the west co

National Defence committee  Right. It's not so much loving the military, it's loving the effect that can be achieved. If countries don't wish to play a role in the Asia-Pacific region, one way of not being taken seriously at security dialogues or at international conferences, and also tangentially in issu

National Defence committee  Indeed.

National Defence committee  If my answer is unsatisfactory, I'm sure my two colleagues would love to pile on to what amounts to a political question in reality. My starting point would be that without a foreign policy review that informs why we're doing things internationally, you have a harder job startin

National Defence committee  Regarding that 2% aspirational target, I would only add that it's useful to have such targets, even if one doesn't see this country actually achieving 2%. What I can tell you is that the bipartisan approach to national defence in this country under eight previous governments—whic

National Defence committee  You mean working not just with members of the navy but alongside public servants who work—

National Defence committee  —and make our navy effective by the work they do in the dockyards. Do you want to go ahead?

National Defence committee  With respect to the aerial side or...?

National Defence committee  We have multiple capability gaps at this point. In fact, the gaps are turning into—

National Defence committee  Yes, in some cases, with respect to supply ships, as just one example. The fact that we can't put a supply ship to sea to keep frigates and destroyers on station doing the work they need to do at sea is an indication. We can't even get gas. Both the previous government and this

National Defence committee  Simply put, an amphibious ship is quite different from a humanitarian assistance ship, or a humanitarian assistance-peace support-disaster relief kind of ship. A humanitarian assistance ship, while not quite built to warship standards, is still a complex undertaking, and not mere