§ Mr. Gordon PrenticeTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many Eurofighters each of the participating countries proposes to order; and what is the value of each order. [13650]
§ Mr. ArbuthnotThe UK's commitment will be 232 aircraft to replace the Tornado F3 and Jaguar. Our partners have declared their requirement to be: Germany—180, Italy—121, Spain—87. Contractual negotiations with companies in the four partner nations for the production investment—production and support phases of the programme continue.
§ Mr. PrenticeTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence what assessment he has made of the export potential of the Eurofighter; and what potential markets have been identified. [13656]
§ Mr. ArbuthnotThe prospects for export orders for Eurofighters appear to be excellent; several countries have already expressed interest. For reasons of commercial confidentiality, it would be inappropriate at this stage to identify potential customers and I am therefore withholding this information under exemption 7 of the code of practice on access to government information.