§ Mr. Robert B. Jonesasked the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on the further development of the Rapier air defence system.
§ Mr. Archie HamiltonThe development of Rapier field standard C has been proceeding for some time under a limited contract. I am glad to be able to say that a contract to cover the completion of the development programme and the supply of an initial quantity of equipment for service with the Army and the Royal Air Force has been placed with the Army weapons division of British Aerospace.
Rapier FSC is being developed to match the greatly increased sophistication of the threat anticipated in the 1990s and beyond, and will provide a major enhancement to our air defence capability.
The total value of the contract, including that of the work already done, is close to £1,000 million. British Aerospace and the Ministry of Defence have agreed on incentive pricing arrangements, bounded by a maximum price to the Ministry, for the whole of this work.
It is expected that contract will provide employment for about 10,000 people at the "peak" of the programme.