We have worked very closely with Australia in understanding the fatigue. Some of the experts are absolutely here in Canada. That's already been said. I was speaking to some of them late last week. The centre of excellence for F-18 fatigue in the world is here in Canada, at Mirabel. The U.S. Navy actually send aircraft, some of their F-18s, for maintenance in Canada as a result of that expertise.
We have tested aircraft to destruction to make sure we have a full understanding, a full model, and we have a really good understanding of the fatigue life. We cycle them through heavy maintenance at a rate at which we see less fatigue than we're expecting, which is a good thing. It's less cost but it's also safer.
We know that the Australians operate their aircraft in a more corrosive environment with their bases, with salt air and other things. They have a very strong maintenance program. We sent people down to do a very detailed analysis. They also gave us access to all of the data that's held here in Canada for all of their aircraft. The detailed models for structure of all of their airplanes are actually held here in Canada, and we have then been able to access all of that. There are slightly different configurations, but even within our fleet, some of our aircraft arrive at different blocks, as they're called, and therefore, there are changes. But if there is ever a case....
You can compare it with the submarines, which I lived. There were only four of them in the world, and it was “bring them to Canada and bring them into service” versus this fleet, which is quite ubiquitous and which will be used, as I've indicated, in the 2030s by a lot of our allies. There is still a lot of demand on L3 by the U.S., the Spanish and others, not just us. The entire community is asking how they can continue to operate them safety and effectively and what upgrades we can do.