Government Operations committee  Mr. Chair, members of the committee, I'd like to thank you for the invitation to appear before you to discuss the national shipbuilding strategy. I'm Troy Crosby, assistant deputy minister, materiel, at the Department of National Defence. It is my responsibility to outfit the

National Defence committee  Sure. Quickly I would bring COVID, of course, into the conversation. As well, though, we have challenges with industry's capacity at times to move programs forward. As was mentioned earlier [Inaudible—Editor] with the technical challenges, the integration challenges of some of th

National Defence committee  L3 remains one of the two qualified suppliers in the competitive process for the remotely piloted aircraft system.

National Defence committee  There's no indication that it's U.S. eyes only on the Canadian portion of the solution. Undoubtedly, where there is technology transfer from a parent technology from the United States, there are elements of design there that I have no doubt are within the hands of the U.S. or the

National Defence committee  No. The maintenance will be done in Canada. Some of the materiel will be returned to the original equipment manufacturers, wherever they happen to be, whether that's in the U.S. or elsewhere, because that's where the expertise lies. However, the touch labour, the ongoing labour a

National Defence committee  Thank you, Mr. Matthews, for the opportunity. Thank you, Mr. Chair. The radar that's been selected in the proposal by Lockheed Martin and through ISI is in development now. It's modern, cutting-edge technology that will serve us well for the decades to come. It's also being work

Government Operations committee  I will defer to Mr. Page, who's leading the process.

Government Operations committee  I would quickly add that we work, as Mr. Page has said, very closely on the more complex, typically high dollar value programs. That said, National Defence has quite a level of delegated authorities. The vast majority of our procurements—the lower dollar value, less complex activ

Government Operations committee  Mr. Chair, I think I can help with a quick response there. The bands of potential build costs are meant to inform where the investment could lie, but until we move further through the process, the exact figures will continue to mature.

Government Operations committee  Not necessarily. I have to correct myself if I said that. It's not centre of gravity issues. They're considerations in how the aircraft is safely operated by the crews.

Government Operations committee  Mr. Chair, some of the modifications that are being brought to the C-295 for our application include Airbus enclosing the landing gear. In the older model C-295, you would actually see the wheels protruding below the belly of the airplane. Given the range and endurance requiremen

Government Operations committee  Mr. Chair, the procurement process and the proposal that was provided by Airbus included the cost of these modifications, which go beyond the ones I've described to date and include bringing mission systems specific to the fixed-wing search and rescue role [Inaudible—Editor] sear

Government Operations committee  The cost for the program delivery is part of the contract.

Government Operations committee  The cost of any modifications or testing followed by modification would be with Airbus. Of course, we continue to invest time and effort in the process and we want to see it conclude as quickly as possible.

Government Operations committee  The initial operating capability timelines for the aircraft have been reviewed recently. We're going to see an extended timeline in order to see those aircraft in use.