§ Ms. Ruddockasked the Secretary of State for Defence whether the Government have changed their assessment of the relative superiority of the air forces of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and the Warsaw pact, given the change between paragraph 6, annex A of the "Statement on the Defence Estimates 1986" and paragraph 4, annex A of the current year.
§ Mr. Ian StewartThese two paragraphs are to be taken in different contexts. Paragraph 6 of annex A of the "Statement on the Defence Estimates 1986 (Cmnd. 9763-I)" is concerned with the modernisation programmes of NATO's air forces which make an essential contribution to countering the Warsaw pact armoured threat. The equivalent paragraph in the "Statement on the Defence Estimates 1987 (Cmnd. 101-I)" is paragraph 10 of annex A. Paragraph 4 of annex A in this year's statement is part of a commentary on the balance of158W conventional forces, which indicates that NATO aircraft face greater numbers of Warsaw pact aircraft, a situation unaltered from previous years.