§ Lord Hardy of Wathasked Her Majesty's Government:
When they expect the tri-national common new generation frigate to enter service; and how much later this date will be than that originally envisaged.[HL2701]
§ The Minister of State, Ministry of Defence (Lord Gilbert)The common new generation frigate, CNGF, programme comprised two separate but linked collaborative UK/France/Italy projects; the principal anti-air missile system, PAAMS, and Project HORIZON which embraced the warship itself and all other weapon, command and communications systems. During the debate on defence equipment on 26 April 1999 in another place, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence announced (Official Report, cols. 50–1) that the three partners had concluded that, while collaboration on the PAAMS project would continue, it would not be cost-effective to continue to seek a single prime contractor for the HORIZON warship. We are now pursuing a national programme for the warship, which is to be known as the type 45 anti-air warfare destroyer.
The original estimated in-service date, ISD, for CNGF was December 2002. This slipped, largely owing to the need to synchronise the warship and combat systems programmes, and the tri-nationally agreed ISD was amended to June 2004. The last offer from HORIZON industry in April 1999 pointed to a UK first of class being further delayed until 2007. We are confident that a national programme can be delivered within a similar timescale.