National Defence committee  I'm glad I'm put on the spot. I recall this issue being raised at the time. I recall doing analysis on it. I don't have the answer with me to relay to you.

National Defence committee  I absolutely can, and I will.

National Defence committee  It's averaged over six years.

National Defence committee  That's capital.

National Defence committee  There would be some in the indirect category but also in overhead.

National Defence committee  I would suggest that they certainly have a higher rate in regard to the total force employment. The operations rate is much higher in the United States. We could also talk about their higher-end systems costing more on a flying-hour basis, let's say—recurring variable costs—which

National Defence committee  It does not exist as far as I know.

National Defence committee  If I can just add, the model and the way we built it is completely agnostic as to whether a given capability—whether it's direct, indirect or overhead—is essential or not. In fact, everything's assumed to be essential. You need the overhead and you need the indirect, in order to

National Defence committee  I don't have a breakdown by direct, indirect and overhead, other than what's available from the Congressional Budget Office, but there is nothing.

National Defence committee  I was going to first touch on the indirect versus direct capabilities front. In particular, it's not to demean a capability if it's indirect. It's the point of delineation that we used and implemented in the model. Is it something that is typically deployed as part of a force mix

National Defence committee  For the Canadian Army, we have a greater quantity of what we call indirect capabilities, for instance, armed reconnaissance regiments, combat engineers, engineering support regiments and such, which are, of course—

National Defence committee  These are indirect. They are deployed as part of a force mix.

National Defence committee  There's no reason to disagree with what you're saying. We follow the convention that was set forth in the strategic cost model, which was DND's own framework, dating back to over a decade now. Also, we follow the conventions established by the Congressional Budget Office.

National Defence committee  In so many words....

National Defence committee  There is a breakdown within the model. It's not displayed as part of the tool. As you can imagine, there are only so many axes by which we can offer that level of detail and that level of granularity. I would say that the reserve forces are fully accounted within the model.