§ Sir Ian GilmourTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence what was the nature of the trials carried out on the medium mobility DROPS vehicles delivered in October 1988; and if he will make a statement on the results in respect of their duration and mileage in road-running and in cross-country applications, and as to the conclusions drawn therefrom.
§ Mr. SainsburyTwo vehicles were delivered to Germany in October 1988 to take part in user trials, which lasted for two months. In the course of the trials, they took part in a major Army exercise, Iron Hammer, and overall convered distances in excess of 7,500 km each. The majority of the running was under realistic exercise conditions with about 10 per cent. Cross-country, 10 per cent. Off-road and the remainder on German roads and highways. The vehicles performed very satisfactorily, as expected, and confirmed their ability to meet the operational requirement for DROPS.
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§ Sir Ian GilmourTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on the military implications of the reduction in the performance objectives for the medium mobility DROPS.
§ Mr. SainsburyNo; the Leyland-DAF medium mobility load carriers meet the operational requirement for DROPS.
§ Sir Ian GilmourTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence what payments have been made to Leyland-DAF, additional to contract sums, to enable improvements to be made to DROPS vehicles.
§ Mr. SainsburyIndividual payments to contractors are commercial-in-confidence, but as forecast in my reply to my right hon. Friend on 22 January 1988 column903 the modification costs were not substantial and were within the approved programme limits.
§ Sir Ian GilmourTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence what assurances have been given to Leyland-DAF with respect to the ordering of long lead-time items for DROPS vehicles.
§ Mr. SainsburyNone.