National Defence committee  I think a close relationship with the defence department and its industrial base is critical for keeping the cost, schedule and performance in the right balance. Much of that has to happen early on, in the early phases of a program. When you're designing requirements, you need to feel comfortable and adequately utilize the insights that come from industry in telling you what is possible, perhaps helping you think about the weapons system in a way that you might not have, helping you know a little bit more about the requirement, and informing what technological capabilities could address the capability gap you're seeking.

National Defence committee  I'll start. No, I am not aware of any army, navy or air force reports related to the Canadian Armed Forces or acquisition.

National Defence committee  The call went out for munitions probably in the spring of 2022, if I remember correctly. In the course of the last year and change, much work has been done between the Department of Defense and its prime suppliers in the ammunition industrial base to attempt to find all of what I would call the bottlenecks.

National Defence committee  Actually, I can do this really quickly. I'm not familiar with Senator Sullivan's statements, and I'm not really an expert on NORAD modernization, so I'd not hazard to even comment.

National Defence committee  I'll speak to your point about layers and simplifying or streamlining that. In the Department of Defense, our program managers, those who are responsible for managing the program as it goes through the process, sought in this last round of acquisition reforms to simplify the layers and to delegate some of the decision-making authority from the highest levels of the Pentagon down to the next-highest levels.

National Defence committee  With enough advance notice, we're able to adjust the industrial base. I can't speak to the other countries' industrial bases, but I can speak to the U.S. industrial base. With enough advance notice, we're able to produce the materiel we need. In fact, regarding the items going to Ukraine, such as munitions—I'll keep using this example—the Department of Defense awarded several contracts that have ramped up production to very large amounts.

National Defence committee  I think a major element to this is our workforce. As Dr. Taylor mentioned, it is critically difficult, once you have laid off, mothballed or reduced production, to ramp back up a skilled labour workforce. You can't just pull a person off the street and start having them do some of these hazardous projects.

National Defence committee  Thank you. The situation in Ukraine has been enlightening for the defence department, in terms of how it manages its relationships with industry in particular. If we look at the example of munitions and the munitions industrial base, what we're seeing today is that much of the materiel we are utilizing and providing to Ukraine—such as 155-millimetre rounds of artillery—are things we don't buy consistently or spend a lot of money on, compared with the rest of the materiel we purchase throughout the Department of Defense.

National Defence committee  I'm not sure that I understand the question, based on the discussion we just had. Would it be okay to repeat it? I want to make sure I am giving you what you're looking for.

National Defence committee  I understand now. I would echo what Dr. Taylor said about a modular, open-system approach. It was one of the key pieces of acquisition reform we attempted in this last round of reforms. Also, I will note that if the requirements are written in a certain way, in a correct way, it provides better opportunity to truly attain what the end-user is looking for—the end-user and the acquisition community being, of course, two different communities.

National Defence committee  I'll be very brief and offer just one thought. Without knowing the other country systems, I don't know if, by comparison, there are things that work well here that should be in place there. What I can do, though, is suggest something that doesn't work well in our system and that I would suggest you try to avoid.

National Defence committee  I'll take the first question first. It's a very good question, Mr. Bezan. I think there is a great importance that we place, especially currently, on domestic manufacturing. Starting in the nineties, we made some choices. These were choices that were made by the defence department and others that essentially amounted to exporting quite a lot of our production.

National Defence committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good afternoon, committee members. Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you to inform the committee’s deliberations by offering comparative insights from the U.S.'s experience with procurement. My name is Alexis Lasselle Ross. While I currently own a consulting business that advises companies as they navigate the defence market, I've spent 20 years in government working on national security policy.