§ Mr. Stephen Rossasked the Secretary of State for Defence whether all Tornado aircraft have been grounded pending a full examination of the causes of last week's crash of the prototype in the Irish Sea; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. PymI refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave to the hon. Member for Edinburgh, Central (Mr. Cook) on 18th June 1979.
§ Mr. Stephen Rossasked the Secretary of State for Defence what has been the total cost to the United Kingdom of the Tornado programme up to the present time.
§ Mr. PattieOf the total of 314 series production GR Mk 1 aircraft ordered to date, the United Kingdom's share totals 146 at an estimated average unit production cost of £9 million at September 1978 conditions. The United Kingdom expenditure up to 31 March 1979 on Tornado aircraft production was £568 million. It is not the practice to disclose project development costs.
§ Mr. Stephen Rossasked the Secretary of State for Defence what is his estimate of the final cost to the United Kingdom of the Tornado programme.
664W
§ Mr. PattieThe currently planned total United Kingdom requirement for Tornado production aircraft is 220 of the GR Mk 1 variant at an estimated average unit cost of £9 million at September 1978 conditions and 165 of the F Mk 2 variant at an estimated average unit cost of £10.98 million at the same conditions. It is not the practice to disclose project development costs.
§ Mr. Stephen Rossasked the Secretary of State for Defence how much cheaper it would have been for the United Kingdom to have bought the nearest equivalent American aircraft rather than investing in the Tornado.
§ Mr. PattieThere is no United States aircraft equivalent to the Tornado GR Mk 1, especially having regard to its advanced avionics systems. The nearest United States equivalent to the Tornado F Mk 2 is the F14, which is estimated to be more expensive and is judged not to meet the requirement as effectively as the F Mk 2.
§ Mr. Stephen Rossasked the Secretary of State for Defence how the cost of the Tornado programme compares with the cost of replacing Polaris.
§ Mr. PymThe cost of replacing Polaris would depend upon the system chosen, and as I indicated in the House on 12 June—[Vol. 968, c. 221[—it is too early to take decisions on this. As regards the cost of the Tornado programme, I refer the hon. Member to the other answers given to him today by my hon. Friend the Under-Secretary of State for Defence for the Royal Air Force.
§ Mr. Stephen Rossasked the Secretary of State for Defence what delays there have been in the Tornado programme; and to what extent these have occurred in the United Kingdom, and to what extent in West Germany and Italy.
§ Mr. PattieA slippage of about six months in the Tornado production programme has resulted chiefly from delays in the manufacture of the front fuselage in the United Kingdom, the part of the aircraft most vulnerable to design change and modification in early production aircraft. Production in the Federal Republic of Germany and Italy has remained substantially on programme.