Mr. Chair, when it comes to discussing capability, as a nation we have commitments to NORAD and we have commitments to NATO. Obviously, for security reasons, I cannot give the exact number of those commitments. However, currently we cannot meet those commitments simultaneously.
However, one thing I think all members in this House agree with is that we need to replace our aging fleet. We are going to do that with a full competition to replace the entire fleet.
Here is another thing. The previous government said that 65 fighters was going to be enough. We are a G7 nation. We talk about our sovereignty. We had 138 fighters a long time ago, and we are talking about 65 now. We need to make sure that we have the right number of aircraft to meet our obligations.
We are going to have a full competition. We need to invest in a legacy fleet. A transition for the fleet takes a long time. It is going to take longer than 2025, even with the full competition. We need aircraft in place. At the same time, I would love to be able to snap my fingers and have aircraft by tomorrow. However, we cannot produce the pilots, the training, and the technicians at the same time. We need to make sure it is a transition that it is smooth, because our aircraft are also being used. It is a plan that we have taken a thorough look at. Yes, the planes should have been replaced 10 years ago so that we are not in this situation. It is problem that we inherited. However, it is our problem now, and we want to make sure that we get this right. That is why we took the time to do a proper analysis. We are committed to making sure that we have the right number of aircraft for our Canadian Armed Forces so that we can meet all of our obligations.