§ Sir Eldon Griffithsasked the Secretary of State for Defence what arrangements he has made for the £300,000 contract awarded by the United States to his Department for research into strategic defence initiative-related test bed requirements to be completed; and whether private firms will be involved in this work.
§ Mr. Archie HamiltonThis study, which is already under way, is being led by the MOD's Royal Signals and Radar Establishment, Malvern, with the bulk of the work being sub-contracted to companies in the United Kingdom. A contract was recently awarded to Ferranti Computer Systems Ltd. which leads a consortium involving British Aerospace, the Marconi Company, Scicon and Software Sciences. Normal MOD rules of contracting by competition applied. The study, which is scheduled to be completed by March 1987, is valued at US$300,000.