Initially, as has been pointed out, we were not committed to buying the airplane. That focus changed in 2008, when the government released the Canada First defence strategy, within which it identified the need to replace the CF-18s with a next-generation fighter. At that point, clearly we had the imperatives to now review our fighter programs and determine what the future needs were, since we had to replace our F-18. It was at that point, 2008 and onwards, that we went to the statement of requirement analysis to determine what the needs of the next-generation fighter were and therefore whether the JSF was the right aircraft for us as we looked at replacing the F-18.
That process started after the government announced its intention to replace the fleet in 2008. It is not something that was pre-ordained from 1998. The fact that we were interested in the technology that was being developed by the joint strike fighter...it was a national desire to make sure that we had opportunities in the future, should the government decide that this was the way it was going to go. For us it was a question, now that we had confirmation that we could replace the fleet, of looking ahead and saying fine, what are the threats, what are the missions for the next 30 or 40 years, and therefore what are the requirements we need to identify to government?
That is the process we followed, which culminated this year in a recommendation to government to procure the JSF.