National Defence committee  As I said, perhaps there would be two scenarios. One scenario would be that we'd still want to buy F-35s, which we could do at an increased cost but at a significantly lower IRB piece, not to exceed the actual contract value, which would be about $5 billion versus $12 billion und

National Defence committee  As I explained before, I don't think that's possible.

National Defence committee  Between seventy and seventy-five.

National Defence committee  That comes from documentation from the U.S. government, from the joint project office. We would have to check whether we have the authority to release that document.

National Defence committee  I'm not familiar with any simulations. I'm somewhat surprised that fourth generation aircraft, which can't detect fifth generation aircraft, would be successful, but I have not seen those simulations, sir.

National Defence committee  Yes, sir. The costs of withdrawing are severalfold. There are two cases. In one case you would withdraw and still want to procure the F-35. That would have to be done under foreign military sales, with the foreign military sales fees associated with that. The other cost is if yo

National Defence committee  We commented on the United States Air Force, the United States' SORD--statement of requirement document--in detail. I'm not aware whether we have a record of formal submissions that we gave to the joint project office. We could perhaps find out. But it wasn't our statement of req

National Defence committee  I will undertake to try to find out.

National Defence committee  The competition between the F-35 Lockheed Martin and the F-36 Boeing, as I mentioned earlier in my remarks, in the view of previous ADMs, really was the competition to select the next-generation, fifth-generation, fighter for the western world, because no one else could afford to

National Defence committee  The article that it's related to is 7.6, which says that member countries will not apply industrial regional benefits or offsets, and if they choose to, they have to withdraw from the MOU.

National Defence committee  You could still have another process, but if you chose to buy joint strike fighters outside of that, you'd have to go for military sales.

National Defence committee  Yes, sir. They're unclassified. They are industrial plans signed by Industry Canada with the three industrial groups.

National Defence committee  Yes, sir.

National Defence committee  My job is to get the best capability within the allocated budget in a Canada First defence strategy. We work pretty hard at being objective and factual. My job here today is to be able to provide factual information and let the members make their own decision.

National Defence committee  Yes, sir. It is interesting that Mr. Lajeunesse and Mr. Myers recently wrote to members representing the Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters Association and the Aerospace Industries Association. It was interesting. One paragraph says: By contrast, the JSF project allows Cana