§ Mr. Marksasked the Secretary of State for Defence what is the estimated cost of the modernisation of theatre nuclear weapons to be considered by the NATO Council on 12 December; and what is the likely distribution of costs between member countries.
§ Mr. PymThe United States will own and operate the new weapon systems, and it will bear the vast majority of this cost, but it is proposed that some of the infrastructure costs associated with the basing of the new systems (a very small proportion of the total) should be met through existing Alliance common funding arrangements, with individual member nations taking their normal share of the budget. It is impossible at present to estimate the precise United Kingdom share.