§ Mr. KeyTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will list those scientific research projects on which his Department is collaborating with other European countries. [114328]
§ Dr. Moonie[holding answer 14 March 2000]: Details of specific projects could be provided only at disproportionate cost but, under bilateral or multilateral arrangements relating to research, my Department has significant numbers of joint programmes or information exchanges with the following countries or organisations:
Country/organization Number of programmes France 85 Sweden 26 Netherlands/Norway 25 Germany 17 WEAG1/EUCLID2 30 GARTEUR3 8 Miscellaneous 10 1 Western European Armaments Group: informal grouping of European Defence Ministers providing policy direction for armaments and research issues 2 European Cooperation for the Long-term in Defence (EUCLID) based on competition and contracts placed on lead contractors, usually with some industrial funding 3 European aerospace forum involving UK, France, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and Italy International research collaboration also takes place under the umbrella of NATO. Details are not included as NATO also includes non-European countries.
Many technologies are involved, including:
- Energetic Materials and Plasmas
- Structural Materials and Structural Effects Analysis
- Sensor Systems
- Computer Applications and Information Processing
- Design Aspects—Platforms and Weapons
- Photonic/Optical Materials and Devices
- Electronic and Electrical Devices
- Signature Control and Signature Reduction
- Computing Technologies
- Operating Environmental Issues
- Communications and CIS Related Technologies
- Integration and other Systems Issues
- Guidance and Control Systems (Weapons and Platforms)
- Propulsion and Powerplants
- Electronic Materials
- Manufacturing Processes/Design tools/Techniques.