§ Dr. David ClarkTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on the development of the Starstreak missile for the attack helicopter. [4572]
§ Mr. ArbuthnotThe United Kingdom is currently participating in the first phase of a United States programme to examine the feasibility of using a variant of the Starstreak high velocity missile, which recently entered service with the British Army in the ground-to-air role as an air-to-air missile fro Apache. This phase will culminate in the middle of next year in trials in the US to demonstrate safe release of Starstreak from a US Army AH-64A aircraft. Subject to the satisfactory outcome of these trials, further phases on a co-operative basis are planned.