§ Mr. Hoyleasked the Secretary of State for Defence which British companies manufacture Exocet components; whether they continued to manufacture these during the Falklands campaign; and what shipment of these components took place during the Falklands campaign.
§ Mr. Pattie:The purchase of the Exocet for the Royal Navy was made under the terms of a memorandum of understanding which provided for a proportion of the manufacture of components to be undertaken by British firms. Some 40 British companies are involved in this work and during the Falklands conflict these United Kingdom suppliers continued with their normal contractual undertakings to Société Nationale Industrielle Aerospatiale, the French manufacturer.
428WThe Government received satisfactory assurances from the French Government that no military equipment would be supplied to Argentina during the recent conflict.