A few comments on my part here:
First of all, I thought this was a very good presentation by the Admiral: Short, clear sentences; no mumbo-jumbo or buzzword that make you sound like a politician; direct answers to direct questions, and taking responsibility where responsibility lies. Moreover (and this one is a personal beef) I appreciated seeing a senior military officer meeting the press dressed appropriately in DEU, not in "look at me I'm a crusty combat type" gear.
Second of all, I will admit to being surprised to learn that the 26 B$ of the NSPS identified for the SCSC is for the overall program - not just the ships, which are apparently only 14 B$ of it.
I had always assumed the higher figure to be for the ships only, which to me made sense, as being about 1.5 B$ each for the GP version and about 2.5 B$ each for the three AAW/Command version. With the lower costs, I can see this makes no sense: 15 ships for 14 B$ means each one is below one billion dollars. They must have been on drugs: The CPF's cost about 800 millions each to build in the early to mid nineties, and just TRUMPing the tribals cost about as much for each.
Third, I am happy to see that the Navy wants to be heard publicly about its requirements. We don't do that often enough and in my mind, every opportunity to explain to Canadian what we do and why it can be so expensive should be seized upon. Canadians, in my experience, understand - they don't like spending that kind of money - but they understand, if they are told the facts.
Finally, I appreciate his candour when saying, we tell the government "this is what we need and how much it costs, or this is what capability the money you want to spend buys" but when all is said and done, the government decides and we get on with the job with what we are given (in my early days in the Navy, we used to say "The Queen will provide"). I made that very point on a different aspect of this discussion in my above post #30 of Sept 09, 2015 at 16:59:11.
A little side note: In the "Power and Politics" video, it's hard to see because they have a "exclusive interview" electronic box in front of it, but in the short clips of the Admiral's interview aired on the National, you can see that the ball cap on his desk behind him says "HMCS HARRY DEWOLFE PGB 430". I guess they have decided that the AOPS are "Gun Boats (PG), Icebreaking (B)".
