HL Deb 17 February 1960 vol 221 cc91-4

3.44 p.m.

THE FIRST LORD OF THE ADMIRALTY (LORD CARRINGTON)

My Lords, with your Lordships' permission I should like to make a statement made by by right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Air on the setting up of a Ballistic Missile Early Warning Station.

Her Majesty's Government and the Government of the United States of America have reached agreement about setting up and operating a Ballistic Missile Early Warning Station in the United Kingdom. This agreement is in support of the North Atlantic Treaty. The text of the Agreement is available as a White Paper in the Printed Paper Office.

The station will be sited on Government-owned land at Fylingdales Moor in Yorkshire. It will give early warning of ballistic missile attacks on the United Kingdom. The station will also be the third in a chain giving early warning of ballistic missile attacks on the North American Continent. Thus the two countries have a community of interest in its erection and operation. In providing additional protection for Western strategic deterrent forces, the station will contribute substantially to the security of the entire N.A.T.O. area. The station will be commanded and operated by the Royal Air Force. The information it obtains will be available simultaneously to operations centres in the United Kingdom and the United States. The Supreme Allied Commander, Europe, will receive the warning generated by the system; and the United Kingdom will also have access to information provided by the other stations in the chain.

The United States will provide and instal the radars for the station, and pay for the communications required to link the station to the rest of the system. The United Kingdom will provide the land, erect the buildings, and provide communications required to link the station with our own authorities.

For the first five years of operation, the cost of spares for the radars and other technical equipment will be borne by the United States Government, and the cost of the maintenance of this equipment on the site will be borne by the United Kingdom Government. The responsibility for these costs after the end of this period will be a matter for later review. The other running costs of the station will be borne by the United Kingdom Government. The capital cost of the station to this country is expected to be about £8 million. The capital cost to the United States is expected to be about £35 million.

The Government greatly regret that the station has to be in part of a National Park. But the topographical, geographical, and the operational criteria governing the choice of site are extremely stringent, and, after detailed examination, the Government are satisfied that there is no other suitable site in the whole country. The Fylingdales site comprises about four square miles of land, owned mainly by the War Office and partly by the Minister of Agriculture on behalf of the Forestry Commission, and is within a larger area which has been used by the War Office for military training. As the site is in a National Park, the Government undertake to demolish the buildings if at any time in the future the station is no longer required. The Air Ministry will discuss with the local authorities, and with the National Parks Commission and other amenity bodies, the detailed siting arrangements and measures to be taken to minimise the effect on the landscape.

VISCOUNT ALEXANDER OF HILLSBOROUGH

My Lords, we are all obliged to the noble Lord for giving us this statement on what is obviously a very important and necessary development, although it is a warning to us all that the sands of time in the nuclear sphere are running out unless the nations do something urgently about doing away with the present threat.

It occurs to me to ask one or two questions. I hope the noble Lord may be able to answer them to-day, but if he is unable to do so perhaps he will give us the information in 'this House at a later date. First, a question about the actual intercepting apparatus itself. With all the recent developments with regard to sited or movable bases for the despatch of rockets, will the apparatus set up be able to pick up its own direct information, thus giving a warning from all points of the compass? That is the first question I would ask. Of course, it may already be arranged that it will pick up signals from other stations in the chain coming from different parts. But it is with regard to its own actual contact with the moving object that I wanted to have that information. Of course, we have a good many arrangements for getting warnings. We have the general warning system. Will this new station be of such a character that it will enable us to do without certain of the other warning systems, and thus enable us to save in manpower and cost against the capital and maintenance expenditure we shall have in this respect? Thirdly, I should like to ask whether it is to be highly automatic, or whether it will demand a large number of new and highly technical personnel.

Fourth, there is the point in the statement which endeavours to allay our fears about the use of the National Park. I thought the adjectives used in the section dealing with that were very strong—topo-graphical, geographical, operational criteria. But this is a small area, about two miles by two, and it seems to me rather extraordinary that an area only two miles by two miles could not have been found in some other place than in an area which has definitely been reserved as a national park. It is said that widespread inquiries have been made in other directions, but I do not feel highly convinced in this matter. More important is the question of whether there will be any interference in the long-term investment of public funds in the actual forestry plantations.

LORD CARRINGTON

My Lords, I am much obliged to the noble Viscount. I hope that I can remember all those questions. As regards the first, this station is part of a chain of three stations which are themselves capable of intercepting any ballistic missile coming from Russia; and we should get the information from the other two stations: so I think I can say that it will cover everything we need. On the second point—can we do without any of the warning systems we have at the present time?—I think it is too early to say. As the noble Viscount appreciates, there is still a threat to this country from manned aircraft, and the early warning system already in existence will continue to be needed.

The noble Viscount also asked whether the station would be highly automatic or whether it would be necessary to have a large number of highly trained people. It is intended that about 500 people will operate the station. They will not all be in uniform; about 50 will be in the Royal Air Force, or the United States Air Force, and the rest will be civilians, quite a few of them from local towns, which will therefore get some employment.

As regards the choice of site, I have every sympathy with what the noble Viscount says. Nobody wants to put these things in the middle of a national park, and one has to weigh such matters very carefully. It has to be put in a very thinly populated area, and there are other criteria which I do not think I ought to mention to the House as they are secret. These factors make it almost impossible to find another place—in fact impossible. In order to try to allay the noble Viscount's fears I should perhaps say that the Ministry of Housing and Local Government, who have been brought into the matter, are convinced that this is the only possible site to use. Any other site would have even greater objections than this one.