Absolutely. The minister talked a little bit about what we would be able to do but cannot do today. We are talking about an internal threat, a ship that may be carrying dangerous items or threats that do not necessarily emanate from a state but that need to be monitored. Current monitoring techniques are limited without being detected. With an F-35 platform, the government can monitor without having to take action. That gives us options that our current conventional airplanes do not. The same answer applies to air-to-ground operations. The aircraft can carry out those operations. The danger is much less than what we can do with conventional planes.
On September 15th, 2010. See this statement in context.