§ Mr. HoyleTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on the Enhanced Surveillance Radar recently developed at the Defence Evaluation Research Agency; and what plans he has to use this technology in the armed forces. [53806]
§ Mr. SpellarThe Enhanced Surveillance Radar, ESR, has been designed by the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency and built by GEC Marconi Avionics. It is an airborne surveillance radar and has been developed to meet the needs of a number of military research and development programmes for high-quality, high-resolution, radar data and also for in-flight, real time demonstration of new radar techniques. Currently undergoing commissioning trials, it is envisaged that the ESR will support MoD work on the Airborne Stand Off Radar, ASTOR, programme.