Mr. Chair, purchasing new aircraft obviously makes the most sense. I thank my colleague for the question.
In fact the Prime Minister was recently in Montreal to announce a further investment in upgrade in the existing fleet of 78 CF-18 fighter planes. So that new investment will allow us to project out to at least the year 2020. We're scheduled now to start receiving the F-35 around the year 2016 or 2017. There won't be an operational gap. That will allow for the training to take place, for the additional transition to occur at air bases like Bagotville and Cold Lake.
As you said, we've seen this movie before when it comes to the cancellation or the delay of contracts. We've seen that film. It's a nightmare. It's called the cancellation of the Sea King replacement. We're now flying 45-year-old Sea Kings as a result of that decision. That political partisan intervention, with a strike of the pen, saw that contract burned at a cost of $1 billion to taxpayers, and at a significant cost, I would say, to the air force in terms of our ability to continue to patrol over the Atlantic and the Pacific and to have those aircraft available to us for international missions, the counter-piracy type of missions, etc., in places like the coast of Africa, off Somalia.
It's important not to have operational gaps. These investments are forward looking. These investments allow us to ensure that we will have this fifth-generation aircraft, as you've mentioned, which is unique, which doesn't mean going back and buying older aircraft that will not have the parts and the spares and the supply chain that we will benefit from with a new fifth-generation aircraft.
This is the right plane. It's the best plane on the planet for the best pilots and the best Canadian air force that we can put forward to protect our country, to participate in international missions, and to do what Canadians expect of them in promoting and protecting our sovereignty.