§ Mr. Soamesasked the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on the torpedo programme.
§ Mr. Lee[pursuant to his reply, 16 June 1986]: Since the PAC reported on the torpedo programme last year there has been significant progress, including (a) the placing on 3 January 1986 of a fixed price contract on Marconi Underwater Systems Ltd. for main production of the lightweight Sting Ray torpedo; (b) the development of the Spearfish heavyweight torpedo has continued within the fixed price contract; (c) there has been notable improvement in the performance of the heavyweight Tigerfish torpedo.
§ Mr. Soamesasked the Secretary of State for Defence when the Tigerfish heavyweight torpedo ws originally due to enter service; what are the reasons for the delay; and how much the programme is over its original budget.
§ Mr. Lee[pursuant to his reply, 16 June 1986]: It was originally expected that Tigerfish would commence service in 1967; due to development and engineering problems a limited version did not enter service until 1974. As the PAC was informed on 14 May this year, the performance of Tigerfish has notably improved as a result of modification and tighter management of this programme.
579WThis was demonstrated by the recent extensive trials which culminated in the successful Tigerfish firing at the decommissioned frigate Lowestoft.
Since the original development programme began in the 1950s, the budget has necessarily been adjusted on a 580W number of occasions to take account of successive engineering improvements. The programme is presently contained within approved budgetary levels.