§ 2.32 p.m.
§ Lord HILL-NORTONMy Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.
§ The Question was as follows:
§ To ask Her Majesty's Government whether any of our NATO allies intend to adopt the United Kingdom design of the future Main Battle Tank.
The MINISTER of STATE, MINISTRY of AGRICULTURE, FISHERIES and FOOD (Earl Ferrers)My Lords, 1660 may I be permitted to answer the Question which has just been asked.
We are now engaged in the first stage of development, the project definition phase, of the United Kingdom's new Main Battle Tank (MBT-80), which will start to replace Chieftain in the late 1980s. We believe that our design, mounting Chobham Armour and with a rifled bore gun and a diesel engine, will best match the Warsaw Pact armoured threat into the next century. It has not proved possible to collaborate with any of our NATO allies on the design of a complete tank, but we are continuing to explore the scope for collaboration on components.
§ Lord HILL-NORTONMy Lords, I thank the noble Earl for his reply. May I ask him whether he will agree that a golden opportunity for standardisation has thereby been lost? Would he also agree that the operational and logistic disadvantages which flow from that loss are serious? Would he further agree that it may not be wise when we and our allies face the same threat on precisely the same ground to accept these disadvantages simply because the Leopard tank was not invented here?
Earl FERRERSMy Lords, the noble Lord has invited me to agree with him on a number of issues. I will take note of the noble Lord's point of view and see that that is directed to the attention of my right honourable friend.