You raise a good point. We have initial estimates to show that the costs of sustainment will be in the same range of what we currently pay for our current fighter aircraft. Based on that, and understanding the huge cost advantage of procuring through the JSF program and the MOU, and understanding our timeline to reach an initial operational capability prior to the end of our CF-18 capability, we need to start now. When we put all of those factors together, we advanced a recommendation that we start now.
On October 28th, 2010. See this statement in context.