Mr. Chair, thank you for that question and the reminder that I didn't answer the earlier question on that.
In terms of past programs, our experience has been that there have been quite a number of them for which initial cost projections have been too low. I don't have the figures for the CF-18 program in front of me, so I don't know the details of that in particular, but certainly there have been others. In the case of what's projected for this particular program, the figures show that what we're hearing from the Department of National Defence is perhaps only part of the picture. Certainly because the acquisition cost is still unknown because of rising production costs, what the final expenditures will be is still somewhat unclear.
The Norwegians have actually tried to cost out in some detail the life-cycle costs. There was a Defense News report in April of this year that said the Norwegian Ministry of Defence estimated the total cost of a 30-year program to purchase and support 48 aircraft at $145 billion kroner. When we work that out in Canadian dollars over an equivalent 30-year program, the cost would be about $34 billion Canadian. So it is significantly higher than the figures we have seen so far.