With the infusion of new aircraft, Mr. Sajjan said, the CF-18 fleet should continue flying until the end of the next decade. Given the amount of time the previous government spent studying the F-35, Mr. Perry said he did not understand why the Liberals needed five years for their review. Last year, the Conservative government announced an upgrade program costing 400 million Canadian dollars, about $300 million, that it said would extend the fleet’s operating life to 2025. During last year’s campaign, the Liberals priced F-18s at 65 million Canadian dollars each. At that time, it estimated that each F-35 would cost 175 million Canadian dollars.

Source: New York Times November 23, 2016 12:14 UTC