HC Deb 15 October 2001 vol 372 cc955-6W
Mr. Hancock

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will list the projects and European countries involved in collaborating with the MoD on specific defence research and development projects. [7336]

Dr. Moonie

Under bilateral or multilateral arrangements relating to research, the Ministry of Defence has significant numbers of joint programmes or information exchanges with the following countries or organisations:

Country/organisation Number of programmes
France 60
Sweden 28
Netherlands/Norway 31
Germany 20
WEAG1/EUCLID2 38
Miscellaneous 10
1 Western European Armaments Group: informal grouping of European Defence Ministers providing policy direction for armaments and research issues.
2 European Co-operation for the Long-term in Defence (EUCLID) based on competition and contracts placed on lead contractors, usually with some industrial funding.

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.