§ 38. Mr. Healeyasked the Minister of Aviation if he will now publish his estimate of the total cost of the TSR 2 nuclear weapons system.
§ Mr. HealeyCannot the Minister even confirm the estimate of £400 million as the cost of completing the whole system? Also, can he say how big the increase of cost is likely to be in order to extend the range of the aircraft so that it can properly be described as strategic, as it was in the last White Paper?
§ Mr. AmeryI certainly cannot confirm an estimate which appears to have come out of the hon. Gentleman's head. I can neither confirm nor deny any of these figures. It is not the practice, and has not been the practice for many years, to give estimates of the cost of military weapons, which could provide important information to those who wish us ill. As far as I know, there is no intrinsic addition to the cost to be found in the extension of the TSR 2 to the strategic role; it has always been foreseen that it could be used in this role. I am speaking here, of course, of the aircraft itself, and not of any weapons used in conjunction with it.
§ Mr. HealeyBut is not the Public Accounts Committee always able to obtain these estimates if it wishes, and is not the Minister concealing something which is of interest to the people of this country and which the enemy probably know already?
§ Mr. AmeryI have no reason to believe that the enemy know this already. Obviously, if 1 were to give the figures across the Table here, they would have every opportunity of knowing it.