I think the government is taking it seriously in terms of what we need to be doing. I'm still waiting to see whether or not in fact we see this follow-through, because if we see any of the statements that have been coming forward in terms of what we need to do for the modernization of NORAD, the entire focus on the Canadian side is on the Russian threat. That's appropriate, given the fact that that's where all the attention is.
What we're not seeing is really what that means in the much longer term for China, particularly on the maritime side. When we look at what has been promised in terms of NORAD modernization, recognize also that the $4.9 billion is being drawn out of the $8.1 billion in the budget. In other words, as I think Mercedes Stephenson and Murray Brewster were able to bring out so brilliantly in their reporting, that's not new money that was announced in June. That is what we'll be doing with what is coming out of the defence budget.
The big money, the $36.8 billion, of course, is going to begin in six years, and as somebody who has watched politics over a fairly significant, long time, I can assure you that we have very little record of any government ever continuing a very large policy from the government before. The one exception, of course—and I'll give credit to both the Liberals and the Conservatives on this—is the decision to make it bipartisan to build the Arctic offshore patrol vessel. There is an instance where funding has gone across on a bipartisan basis, but that doesn't happen. So I am always concerned whenever I hear of any government, Conservative or Liberal, that says the bulk of what we're going to be doing is in the next term, because history tells us that that doesn't really happen.
In the longer term, the real problem we'll be facing with the Chinese is going to be their maritime capability. Most people will not be aware that the Chinese have the largest navy in the world. The American navy is still stronger and better. It has a better carrier capability, but in numbers, the Chinese navy overtook the American navy in 2014 or 2015. They are going to have that capability. They will focus on underwater capabilities. They are reinvigorating their entire submarine force, and what we can see from outside scientific literature is that they're examining what it means for their submarines to go under the ice, which means into the Arctic region. And—