HC Deb 11 November 2003 vol 413 cc183-4W
Mr. Hoyle

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how much his Department spent on research on unmanned aircraft in each of the last 10 years. [137339]

Mr. Ingram

The Ministry of Defence has a long-established research programme into Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), with a total of approximately £40 million invested over the past 10 years. The figures for annual expenditure on this research programme are provided in the table.

It should, however, be noted that these figures detail the expenditure on UAV-specific research only: research into technologies such as aerodynamics, stealth and sensors is of relevance to UAVs but has a wide range of applications.

Spend (£million)
1994–95 11.0
1995–96 11.0
1996–97 11.0
1997–98 11.0
1998–99 2.1
1999–2000 3.7
2000–01 5.1
Spend (£million)
2001–02 5.1
2002–03 10.8
2003–04 10.4
1 Estimate figures—no exact data available.