A prior witness stated that we should undergo the entire exercise of designing and tendering the F-18 replacement from scratch because it would be the transparent thing to do, even if the end result were the purchase of the F-35.
Now in the best-case scenario, how long would this take? Would there be a gap between the F-18 retirement and the replacement availability? What would the financial cost be, not necessarily the price--I know you probably couldn't tell--but perhaps just a percentage increase on the price of the F-35, and of course the cost of the valuable time of our public servants to conduct this exercise?