§ Mr. HawkinsTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on his plans to upgrade the existing decoy system fitted to Royal Navy frigates and destroyers.
§ Mr. AitkenI am pleased to announce that, following a competition, we have recently placed a contract worth around £80 million with GEC-Marconi Defence Systems Ltd. covering the development and initial production of an offboard active decoy and a ship fitted control system for the Royal Navy.
The offboard active decoy, known as DLH, will upgrade the existing SEAGNAT decoy system. It will be fitted to all frigates and destroyers as well as major auxiliaries as a soft kill device forming an integral part of the Royal Navy's layered defence in anti-air warfare by providing a means of decoying radar homing anti-ship missiles through the use of electronic protection measures.
The work is expected to last six years and maintain approximately 100 jobs at GEC-Marconi initially at Stanmore, and then around 250 jobs at the company's Portsmouth site as the project moves into the production phase, as well as sustaining a similar additional number of jobs within their sub-contractors.
This order is good news for the Royal Navy and for GEC-Marconi.
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