§ Miss Fookesasked the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on the latest position relating to the order placed by the United States Government for the supply of Hawk jet training aircraft.
§ Mr. PattieBAe, teamed with McDonnell Douglas and Sperry, has been awarded a contract for the preliminary engineering development to meet the United States Navy's requirement for an advanced training328W aircraft. Since the award of the contract the United States Navy has been directed, under provisions in the United States Defence Appropriations Bill, to introduce a second competitor for its trainer requirement, in addition to Hawk. We are confident that the Hawk will be successful entirely on its merits at all further stages of the competition as it has been so far.