It is a project that is in evaluation. In fact, we have just completed this week the flight testing of the second aircraft. We are down to two suppliers in this competition. Again, there are lessons learned from the past—which I talked about early on—about the length of time these aircraft will be in service, such that we do very detailed testing analysis before we proceed with the selection.
We have been out with the Alenia aircraft and the Airbus aircraft. We have done a number of flights and a number of works, and that is completed. The evaluation process is due to end this summer and we will then proceed through the normal approval process internally and, of course, across government. Our target for signing the contract is by the end of this year.
When going out and doing industry consultations, we at times have a tendency to be very aggressive about wanting to take quick delivery. In this case, we talked to all of the aircraft manufacturers, who all told us that with the complexity of this, the order book, and the marshalling of material, the first aircraft would be delivered three years after the contract award. So we are targeting the delivery of the first aircraft at the end of this decade, and with a fairly quick delivery thereafter. Now that's the delivery of the aircraft. There is training, there are trainers, there are spare parts, so we're still a number of years away from that aircraft being in service, wherever it's going to serve, to continue to provide the fixed-wing search and rescue role.
I would tell you that notwithstanding the age of the Buffalos—and again, I am the materiel authority for the Canadian Armed Forces—we don't fly aircraft that are unsafe and that we have a lot of experience, which can be good and bad, in operating older aircraft. These are also aircraft that operate elsewhere in the world, so we are able to get spare parts and have a very rigorous technical airworthiness program to ensure that the current aircraft cannot only meet their function, but are also safe for the people in the Canadian Armed Forces. And for me, that's job one.