§ Lord Kennetasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether Soviet air defences are currently capable of destroying cruise missiles, and if so why cruise missiles have been and are being installed in the United Kingdom and elsewhere in Western Europe.
§ Lord TrefgarneClearly, Soviet air defences have a capability against cruise missiles just as they have a capability against manned aircraft. That is not, however, a very compelling argument for having no aircraft or cruise missiles.
§ Lord Kennetasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they consider it impossible that any country or combination of countries could develop a cruise missile faster, more accurate, or with a longer range than the Tomahawk by the mid-1990s (Defence Open Government Document 87/01, para. 3) and whether the United States and Soviet Union are not now doing so.
§ Lord TrefgarneWhether a cruise missile of significantly greater operational effectiveness than Tomahawk could be brought into service by the mid-1990s is an open question. The point being made in Defence OGD 87/01 (paragraph 6) is that we could not reasonably base the procurement of the UK strategic deterrent on uncertain assumptions about new technologies.
§ Lord Kennetasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they wish to correct the figures and calculations in Defence Open Government Document 87/01, para. 11, based as they are on the characteristics of the current Tomahawk missile.
§ Lord TrefgarneNo. The rationale for basing the calculations on current cruise missiles is fully explained in Defence Open Government Document 87/01.