§ Lord Astor of Heverasked Her Majesty's Government:
What the implications will be for the defence procurement programme and the Disposal Services Agency of the decision to reduce the number of rapier fire units from 48 to 24 and the number of high velocity fire units from 156 to 84. [HL4453]
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Defence (Lord Bach)As my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Defence announced in another place on 21 July 2004, the number of rapier fire units will be reduced from 48 to 24 and the number of high velocity missile (HVM) systems will be reduced to 84 fire units as part of the Government'sFuture Capabilities White Paper. We are reviewing the scale of our investment in ground-based air defence in light of the revised requirements arising from the changes to force structures and we will be taking this forward with our industrial partners. Final decisions on the means of disposal of surplus equipment have yet to be made.