§ 8. Mr. Hastingsasked the Minister of Technology whether he will make a statement on the progress of his talks with the French Government about the Anglo-French variable geometry aircraft and the Jaguar projects.
§ 39. Mr. Fortescueasked the Minister of Technology what is now the target unit cost of the Anglo-French variable geometary aircraft, excluding research and development costs.
§ Mr. StonehouseThe agreement on the specification and industrial arrangements for the Anglo-French Variable Geometry aircraft, which includes agreement on costs, is under consideration by the two Governments.
As regards the Jaguar, we noted the satisfactory progress being made and agreed to make further approaches to the German Federal Republic about their participation in the project.
§ Mr. HastingsCan the hon. Gentleman give the House any idea when a firm agreement will be reached on the A.F.V.G. and, in particular, can he say anything about German participation in this project—not simply the question of sales, but participation in manufacture as well?
§ Mr. StonehouseOn the latter point, we hope very much that the Germans will consider participating, although the project is, I think, too far advanced for them to come into the initial development phase. On the first point, we hope that the final decision on this agreement can be made towards the end of this month.
§ Mr. FortescueSince the hon. Gentleman chose to answer my Question No. 39 with the original Question, would he please answer it in detail? He made no reference to it.
§ Mr. StonehouseThe announcement about the target cost cannot be made until a final decision has been made about the agreement to which I referred.