§ Mr. CohenTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence upon what satellite guidance system it is currently anticipated Trident will be dependent.
§ Mr. SainsburyTrident will not be dependent on any satellite guidance system.
§ Mr. Andrew MitchellTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence what is the latest estimate of the cost of the Trident system.
§ Mr. YoungerI am pleased to announce that for the second year running there has been a reduction in the estimated cost of the Trident programme, which now stands at £9,043 million.
After allowing for the effects of inflation and exchange rate variations, there is a real reduction in the estimate over the one announced previously of some £376 million and a real reduction of £1,038 million over the original 1982 estimate, over and above the savings resulting from the decision to have United Kingdom missiles processed in the United States facility at King's bay, Georgia. The total will be spent over a period of 20 years.
In line with established conventions adopted for the recosting of the defence programme, the estimate is based on the exchange rate used for the long term costing of the defence programme, namely £1-$1.62.
The proportion of the programme to be undertaken in the United Kingdom has also reached its highest recorded level—64 per cent.
The Select Committee on Defence previously asked that when announcing the annual revised estimate, I should report on the state of the project as a whole. I am pleased to say that the project remains on programme to enter service as planned in the mid-1990s. There has been no slippage in the in-service date since the decision to proceed with Trident II was announced in March 1982.I am, as last year, sending to the Chairmen of the Select Committee on Defence and the Public Accounts Committee a more detailed report covering the points on which the Select Committee on Defence sought advice. I am also placing a copy of the report in the Library of the House.