§ 7. Sir Ian Orr-Ewingasked the Secretary of State for Defence whether a firm operational requirement has now been agreed between the British and French authorities for the Anglo-French Jaguar aircraft.
§ Mr. HealeyYes, Sir.
§ Sir Ian Orr-EwingWill the right hon. Gentleman be a little more forthcoming and say when this was decided? We have the impression here that although the whole defence policy of the Government was founded on Anglo-French cooperation in military projects little progress has been made on these projects and it seems to me that gambles were taken to cancel British projects before these were firm undertakings.
§ Mr. HealeyNo, Sir. The hon. Gentleman is quite mistaken. Agreement on operational requirements was firmly reached last May, when I met the French Defence Minister, and, as was made clear in the communiqué published after the talks a week or so ago, production plans were presented to us and will be agreed at the end of this year or perhaps in January.