Certainly. In terms of the re-equipment, the major issue is that we have a long-term challenge before us. To be quite blunt, and this is quite frankly a bipartisan issue, we have not had a good record in our procurement policy. We have had an issue where we tend to buy a whole bunch all at once and then basically let them rust out. This is unfortunately a legacy that we can back up in terms of our assessment.
If we have ever needed to get a long-term procurement policy for our air assets, our naval assets, and our space assets, this is the time. We need to be drawing out exactly what types of replacements we immediately need. For example, the replacement for the coast guard icebreakers has to be a priority. We're going to be in the situation of having more ice coming into our Arctic as the ice actually disappears. So we need that capability.
In terms of the aircraft capability, we need to ensure that we have some means of proper search and rescue. Now, I'm not necessarily wedded to the idea that they all have to be flying a Canadian flag. They can be rented, they can be borrowed, they can be assigned, but we need to have that capability in the north.
So we have to be thinking about how we respond from a procurement position, first of all, to have it, to meet the immediate needs, but then the reality is the Arctic is going to be our third ocean. It's not going to be that we will buy all these things once and then we can forget about it. We will have to be thinking in the long term. I think the suggestions of what the Americans have done in regard to their carrier and their submarine programs give us some lessons that you can in fact build one ship, one set of aircraft at a time. This is to ensure that, first of all, it stays in Canada, which is always an important consideration, I think, for most Canadians, and rightly so, and second of all, that we are responding to this long-term program.
In terms of what we need, we need search and rescue first and we need the icebreakers, but then we need immediately after that the offshore patrol vessels and we need the replenishments for the long-range aircraft. At that point in time, we will then have to make a decision in terms of what we are going to be doing for fast air or the fighter replacement. It's all very expensive, but a long-term policy cries out for this.