National Defence committee  Picking up on what the admiral said, as Canadians we want to matter. We want to matter both at home and abroad. My experience is that we do, when we're there. To throw it back to government, because of the funding level, we're not able to sustain the kind of presence that I think

National Defence committee  I think the other aspect here, though, as the admiral alluded to, is that an amphibious ship means a fundamental change in how the Canadian Armed Forces does its business. It means, in effect, marines. Most countries that operate amphibious ships have marines. There are other cou

National Defence committee  Sure. That, I think, has been standard for a number of years. We have done the refits of our ships in civilian yards. Some refits have been done in-house, particularly on the west coast, but what you might be getting at is what the U.K. went through a number of years ago, where t

National Defence committee  The whole idea of commercial contractors being involved in maintenance of ships is absolutely nothing new. It's something that has gone on for as long as I can remember. The focus on different pieces of kit have changed, for example the Victoria class submarines. Traditionally, t

National Defence committee  Chasms.

National Defence committee  Can I add that ASW, anti-submarine warfare, is very much a team sport. First you have to know where to look, and that's where intelligence and maritime patrol aircraft, because they have the speed, are able to assist. They also have the weapon system, but they don't have the pers

National Defence committee  Other fleets with technical—

National Defence committee  Effectively.

National Defence committee  I just wanted to add that my experience with sailors is they like being at sea. They like doing stuff on the ocean. They like going to interesting places. They like having a sense of purpose. In fact, what really astonished me in my career was when we went to the Gulf. We were in

National Defence committee  Can I add that I don't think it's an either-or concept in the sense that frigates are important. The Harry DeWolf class is important. Submarines are important. Replenishment ships are important. The problem we have frequently in the Canadian context is there's just that much mone

National Defence committee  To pick up on the admiral's point, certainly my experience with NATO, which again is a bit dated, is that when we send ships to a variety of missions, either NATO or multinational, or whatever, we matter. We do very well. We have first-class ships—world-class ships—and we have wo

National Defence committee  I did allude to that with respect to the 12 modernized Halifax class frigates. In fact, as part of this conference I was at last week in Victoria I had an opportunity to go to sea in HMCS Calgary, which is one of the modernized ships. It's incredible. I thought the ship I command

National Defence committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Good morning, and thank you to the committee for the opportunity to represent the Navy League of Canada at today's committee meeting discussing the Royal Canadian Navy and naval readiness. I sincerely regret I did not have time to submit my opening remarks