Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Sir, I'd just point out that the announcement of Lockheed Martin as the winner of that competition was not necessarily a fait accompli that Canada or any of the partners would acquire the aircraft. It gave us access to the information as the concept and testing and trials proceeded, but we needed to closely monitor that to determine whether it was going to be successful. Would they be able to deliver the three variants? Would they be able to fly them successfully and test them successfully? At the same time, we monitored other countries and the development of other aircraft.
So it has only been in the last year or so that we've watched the success of the joint strike fighter program and with a degree of confidence we could come to government and say, “Yes, we've participated early. We've watched it. We know what we're doing. We have access to detailed, classified information and we're going to make the right decision.”