First, Mr. Speaker, I have to address the member's comment that this is a disagreement between just him and me. I must say that there are 13 former commanders of the Royal Canadian Air Force who have written that this is a decision that will ultimately damage the nation's defence posture. Nobody is more passionate about the air force than these retired generals. This again reflects on how politically naive the Prime Minister was by making this very dangerous campaign promise of buying anything but the F-35.
The Liberals say they are going to move to an open competition, but it is five years down the road. We know that the current CF-18 fleet can only fly until 2025, and they are not going to replace those planes until 2030 to 2035. The first planes will probably not arrive until 2032 after we get this interim buy of Super Hornets. They also think that they are going to save taxpayers money, and they are not. They already have had to admit that.
In their campaign, the Liberals promised that the F-18 Super Hornets would only cost $65 million per jet. I would tell the member that Kuwait is the last country that bought Super Hornets, 40 of them, and Kuwait paid over $335 million per fighter jet. That is not a savings on anyone's books.
If we went to an open and transparent competition today, we would get the best plane at the best price in the best interest of Canadian defence.