Those are two very good questions.
There certainly will be some costs, depending upon the progress we make in the memorandum of understanding with Lockheed Martin.
To answer your second question, we are proceeding towards taking ownership of these aircraft, these F-35s, in approximately the year 2016-2017. That is when the majority of the costs will in fact kick in. While the $9 billion sounds like a significant amount of money--and it is--keep in mind that it is amortized over a 25-plus-year period of time. We are still approximately four to five years away from making the major investments that will be involved in the purchase of this aircraft. When one examines the utility we are seeing even today in Libya with the existing fleet of F-18s and the fact that those aircraft are now approaching 30 years of service, the per-aircraft investment for the F-35 procurement, when one includes the all-up in-service support, the spares, the simulators, and the training package that came with that initial purchase, is in rough order of magnitude on par with what the Department of National Defence paid for our existing fleet of aircraft.
To put it in that perspective, I would simply add, Mr. Braid, that this is an eye-watering aircraft in terms of its technological advances. It's the only fifth-generation aircraft on the market available to Canada. It is inter-operable with other fleets, including those of NORAD and other countries that are purchasing the same aircraft. It will allow us, first and foremost, to protect our own sovereignty and that of continental North America and to be able to participate in missions similar to those we're seeing to protect civilians in places like Libya well into the future.
I stand behind this procurement. Mr. Fantino, of course, will be very involved as we move forward with Lockheed Martin.
Some of the criticisms that have been levelled at the aircraft don't pertain to the CTOL--that is, the conventional takeoff variant of this aircraft that Canada is buying. We're not purchasing other variants of the aircraft, the vertical takeoff model for the Marine Corps, which is similar to a Harrier jet, or the aircraft carrier model. Of course we don't have aircraft carriers. We're purchasing a different variant, which is on time and on budget according to Lockheed and the Pentagon.