Thank you, Deputy.
Mr. Chair, as the deputy has pointed out, the PBO used this parametric modelling, which is normally reserved for projects in the conceptual stage of development where there's very little cost data available to do a bottom-up analysis.
In doing so, the PBO estimated the acquisition price of the aircraft at $148.5 million each, and all of his subsequent costs derived from that. Because that acquisition price is significantly inflated above what we understand the cost to be from the joint project office at the time, all of the subsequent data and costs estimated by the PBO are similarly inflated, by significant amounts.
If the PBO had used what we understood the acquisition price of the aircraft to be at the time—that is based on SAR 2009, $75 million—then the PBO's estimate, other things being equal, would have been about $17.2 billion over his 30-year timeframe rather than the $29 billion.That difference is entirely attributable to the PBO's assumption about the acquisition cost of the aircraft.