The Globe and Mail reports in its Tuesday edition that the patrol planes Bombardier hopes could replace aging Canadian military aircraft will have a price "competitive" with that of jets from rival Boeing, the Montreal-based company says. A Canadian Press dispatch to The Globe says that the business jet maker earlier this year joined U.S.-based General Dynamics on a surveillance aircraft with submarine-hunting technology. Both partners are calling on the federal government to launch an open procurement process to supplant the Royal Canadian Air Force's 14 CP-140 Aurora maritime patrol planes, built by Lockheed Martin and set to retire in 2030 after a half-century of service. The price of the 16 P-8A Poseidons and associated gear that Boeing aims to sell to Ottawa amounts to $5.9-billion (U.S.). That total is one Bombardier can compete with, said Bombardier's Pierre Pyun. "We are absolutely convinced of that," he said in French, though the company declined to name a price. "For us to be able to put forward a price, there would have to be a request for proposals, then there would have to be specific requirements," he told reporters during a presentation last week at the Bombardier plant in Montreal.