§ Mr. Andrew F. BennettTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence (1) if he will make a statement on the awarding of the contract for the third Trident class submarine (SSBN 07); and what is the percentage break clause provision;
(2) if he will make a statement on the progress of the construction of HMS Vanguard and HMS Victorious;
(3) if his Department has any estimate of the additional costs to the Trident programme incurred by the strike at VSEL in 1988, which will be borne by his Department;
(4) in which years it is now expected that each of the four Trident class submarines will become operational;
(5) what are the currently projected programme acceptance and contract acceptance dates for the fourth Trident class submarine (SSBN 08), and the projected percentage break clause provision for this contract.
§ Mr. NeubertConstruction of SSBNs 05 (Vanguard) and 06 (Victorious) continues to progress well. We remain on course to achieve the initial deployment of Trident in the mid-1990s.
The additional cost to the Trident programme of last year's strike at VSEL is not expected to exceed £10 million. Revised terms are being sought for future contracts, under which such additional costs will be no longer fall to the Ministry of Defence.
We intend to place the order for SSBN 07 by the end of this year. The tender for SSBN 08 will be invited in due course following the SSBN 07 order. I anticipate that the contracts for both SSBN 07 and 08 will include standard break clauses which provide for reimbursement to the contractor of properly incurred costs up to 100 per cent. of the contract value.
For reasons of security, I am not able to comment on specific acceptance dates or to give the planned in-service dates for individual submarines.
§ Mr. Andrew F. BennettTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence (1) if there has been any cost escalation in the Trident programme, subsequent to the submarine-launched development testing of the Trident D5 missile;
560W(2) if there have been any changes to the expected first delivery or in-service dates of the Trident programme, due to the submarine-launched development testing of the Trident D5 missile;
(3) if there have been any major changes in specification, in terms of launch ability, accuracy, range and so on, to the envisaged capability of the Trident programme, subsequent to the submarine-launched development testing of the Trident D5 missile.
§ Mr. Alan ClarkThe submarine-launched development testing of the Trident D5 missile has not resulted in any changes to the timetable for the missile's planned introduction into service with the Royal Navy, nor has it resulted in any major changes to the missiles's specification. The United Kingdom pays a fixed development charge for Trident and is not liable for the development costs of rectifying the cause of the recent missile failures.