§ Lord Astor of Heverasked Her Majesty's Government:
What plans they have to provide the Royal Navy with fast patrol vessels having a substantially smaller displacement and a lower cost than conventional frigates and destroyers. [HL176]
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Defence (Lord Bach)The type and size of the future and surface combatant (FSC) platforms will be driven by the future capability requirement. The FSC project is still in its concept phase. No decision has yet been taken about the timescale for delivering the FSC capability and studies continue to develop ideas for the platform solution.