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Mr. Gerald Howarth (Aldershot): The hon. and learned Gentleman is absolutely right: one of the problems with the Tornado was that it was designed as a multi-role combat aircraft and therefore did not perform well as an interceptor fighter aircraft. Does he agree that the key point about the Eurofighter is that it is a dedicated fighter with air superiority capabilities, which is what Britain badly needs at present?
Mr. Campbell: The hon. Gentleman is correct: the Eurofighter is capable of achieving air superiority.
However, as the Minister pointed out in a written answer on 17 June this year, it also has the capacity to take part in ground-attack operations. That is why any review of Eurofighter numbers should accept the proposition that, instead of 232 or 238 aircraft, we need 80 more than that in order to fill the gap caused by the eventual withdrawal of the Jaguar from service.
Some hon. Members have talked about alternatives. The Grippin and the Rafale are possible alternatives, but we must accept that they have lower capabilities. There are American alternatives. We should remember that, in the last Parliament, Michael Portillo flirted--if I may use that word--with the proposition of leasing in second-hand F16s at the same time as we were leasing out second-hand F3s to the Italians. The Italians, for reasons that I need not go into, are grossly embarrassed in the fighter aircraft area. Eurofighter is probably more essential for them than for the other three project partners.
If we went down the American route, we might get cheap unit costs, but the through-life costs would kill us--if I may put it that way. When one is gauging the cost of these projects, one must have regard to the cost not of buying an aircraft off the shelf but of maintaining and running that aircraft over its lifetime. We certainly cannot afford the F22. However, if we were to buy it, you can bet your bottom dollar that the United States would not provide all the black boxes that are essential to maximising its full capability. We would always receive an aircraft that was less capable than the top-of-the-range aircraft that the United States would maintain for itself.
Mr. Robert Key (Salisbury):
I congratulate the hon. Member for Chorley (Mr. Hoyle) on introducing this short, but timely, debate. I also congratulate my right hon. Friend the Member for Kensington and Chelsea (Mr. Clark) on his usual robust and challenging speech and my right hon. Friend the Member for Fylde (Mr. Jack) on his very persuasive arguments.
I also congratulate all the men and women of the Royal Air Force and their civilian support staff, and thank them for demonstrating superb professionalism at a very difficult time of adjustment. The structure and the functions of the Royal Air Force have changed. I have seen that in my constituency, and when I have visited the RAF overseas, whether in the Falkland Islands, Belize, Gibraltar, at the sharp end in Incirlik and in Germany, where the changes have been greatest. I found that at Rheindahlen and Bruggen last year, which I visited as a member of the Armed Forces Bill Select Committee.
The RAF's withdrawal is not just an operational change; it is a fundamental change to the way of life of the RAF and all the families who so loyally follow the
flag. By 2002, the Tornados will have come home. The upgrading of the Tornado F3 and GR1 will give them another 20 years of service, but by then they will to all intents and purposes be the equivalent of the RAF flying Spitfires today.
Michael Portillo's decision last September to tell our project partners that we are ready to move ahead to the production and in-service support phases of Eurofighter reflected the Ministry of Defence's conclusion that Eurofighter was the best available combat aircraft for the United Kingdom. All other considerations, including jobs, must be secondary to the military decision, but the decision has been clearly and decisively made.
The decision was good news not just for the Royal Air Force--it was good news for Munich, Turin and Madrid--but most of all for the best aerospace work force in the world, at British Aerospace in Lancashire, and at Rolls-Royce in Bristol and Derby, as well as some 200 UK defence companies involved in the development and production of equipment for Eurofighter. It will mean up to 80,000 jobs in the UK, and some say up to 250,000 jobs across Europe, although I find that latter estimate somewhat far-fetched.
The trouble is that there are three spectres at the defence procurement party. First is the shadow of TSR2. The week before the 1964 general election, Harold Wilson went to the north-west and promised that TSR2 would go ahead. Labour was elected. Labour cancelled it. That ghost still walks. Will Labour stick to the agreement between the Conservative Government and British Aerospace to buy 232 EF2000s? The Minister says that he will, but we will come to the reason why I believe that he should not be quite so certain.
The second spectre is the weakened German economy. The day after tomorrow, as the hon. Member for Chorley said, is crucial to this argument, as it is when the German Cabinet holds its budget meeting. Unlike this Parliament, there is no party political consensus in the German Parliament, as members of the House of Commons Defence Committee discovered when the Bundestag Committee visited us last year. Furthermore, what assurances are there from the Minister's Spanish and Italian counterparts that they will honour the agreement to buy their complement of the EF2000s?
Does the Minister accept that Eurofighter should be cheaper to maintain than the Tornado that it is to replace, since Eurofighter will be built with under 15,000 airframe parts, compared with 32,000 for the Tornado?
Has the Minister decided to include thrust-vectoring in the UK specification for Eurofighter, like the Spanish? So far, only the Spanish have said that they definitely want the upgrade, which will increase the speed and manoeuvrability of the aircraft.
Can the Minister confirm reports--which I have heard--that his Department has told British Aerospace to slash its agreed costs by 15 per cent.? If that is true, it would be very hard for the aerospace industry in this country. First the Labour Government decimated the private finance initiative programme without paying compensation to the companies, and now BAe may be forced to make savings that would put jobs at risks.
Mr. Michael Colvin (Romsey):
Will my hon. Friend acknowledge that being permitted to make a reasonable
Mr. Key:
Of course, my hon. Friend is absolutely right. Those profits are reasonable. They were extremely tight--let no one be in any doubt about that--given the international nature of this market.
The third spectre at the party is Her Majesty's Treasury and the strategic defence review. I do not doubt for a moment the sincerity of the Secretary of State for Defence, the Minister for Defence Procurement, or the Under-Secretary of State who will answer today, but not once has any of them been able to deny the bottom line of a Treasury veto. In none of the Parliamentary Questions that they have answered have they been able to make that commitment.
The strategic defence review report will go to the Secretary of State by the end of December, as he said. I believe that it will be completed--considered by Ministers--around the turn of the year, which, as a former Minister, I know only too well can mean anything up to March, which is the financial year anyway, not the calendar year. The Treasury cannot allow the defence budget to be excluded from normal spending round bargaining.
The March 1998 Budget spending plans will be followed by a defence White Paper. Would the Minister like to deny any of this? Only after that White Paper, after the Budget, will we know the truth about the strategic defence review and the fate of Eurofighter.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence (Mr. John Spellar):
I welcome the hon. Member for Salisbury (Mr. Key) to his new responsibilities. I also congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Chorley (Mr. Hoyle) on securing the debate and on his vigorously presented case for EFA, for the aerospace industry and, indeed, for his constituency.
We heard worthwhile and helpful speeches from the right hon. Member for Fylde (Mr. Jack), from the hon. Member for Ribble Valley (Mr. Evans), from my hon. Friends the Members for South Ribble (Mr. Borrow), and for Leigh (Mr. Cunliffe). We also heard an interesting speech from the right hon. Member for Kensington and Chelsea (Mr. Clark).
The interest of my hon. Friend the Member for Chorley in this vital subject is obviously shared by most hon. Members on both sides of the House, so I welcome the opportunity to underline the Government's strong commitment to Eurofighter, which will form the primary component of the RAF's future fighting capability. We are right to stress that as the key aspect to the debate.
Hon. Members raised a number of points, which I hope to dress during my reply. The Gulf conflict and operations in the former Yugoslavia demonstrated the supreme importance of effective air power. The number of
countries that possess highly manoeuvrable, high- performance aircraft equipped with modern sensors, defensive aids and missiles is expected to increase. The Russian MiG 29, and the SU27, both of which are being exported and upgraded, are representative of the potential threat that Eurofighter could face over its planned 25-year life. United Kingdom forces deployed on operations in Europe and beyond are therefore likely to encounter aircraft that could out-perform existing RAF and other NATO fighters. We must not underestimate the vital importance to our forces of control of the skies.
We all recognise that the RAF's F3 Tornado has a limited further life. It is not, as has been mentioned, an agile aircraft. It was designed to deal with the cold war threat of Soviet long-range bomber attack on the United Kingdom. The missile upgrade currently being implemented will, of course, make it a much more effective system, but that can be no more than a relatively short-term solution. The RAF's Jaguar aircraft suffers similar limitations. It is clear that both aircraft need replacement from early in the next century. That, I believe, is common ground to all concerned.
Eurofighter will be capable of providing for air superiority and air defence--gaining control of airspace, whether to protect territory, or to enable other operations by land, sea or air to achieve their objectives. The same aircraft will also provide for ground attack and, potentially, tactical reconnaissance. Eurofighter will be able to offer operational flexibility in response to the uncertain demands of the new strategic environment and enable the RAF to reduce its current aircraft types. Indeed, this is characterised by the aircraft's short take-off and landing capability, which will allow it--contrary to the allegations of the right hon. Member for Kensington and Chelsea--to operate from a range of airfields.
Furthermore, I can confirm that it has been designed to meet the range requirements of all envisaged missions. Eurofighter will provide interoperability with three key NATO allies. This will yield important operational advantages as well as the financial benefits flowing from economies in support.
On the technical performance side, I am pleased to report that recent progress on the Eurofighter development programme has been excellent and that all key technical maturity criteria for entry into the production phase have now been met. That was demonstrated by the two Eurofighters that flew in formation at the Paris air show. All the seven development aircraft, two of which are twin-seaters are now flying. At the end of June they had flown more than 441 flights, amounting to about 377 hours. I am pleased to announce that the UK twin-seater development aircraft flew for the first time with two people on board on 2 July. Of the seven development aircraft, five are flying with the specifically designed EJ200 engines and two with ECR90 radar.
The aircraft is already flying at mach 1.8. Reports from our test pilots and those of other countries who have flown the aircraft confirm that they are delighted--the aircraft is simple to fly and its performance closely matches predictions. The field of view from the cockpit is excellent. I am surprised that some press comments underrate that consideration and the importance of it.
Pilot work load during the normal operation is low. That is particularly important for a single-seat fighter, as I am sure we are all aware.
One of our test pilots said that Eurofighter
As my hon. Friend the Member for Chorley has said, there have been recent newspaper reports criticising technical aspects of the Eurofighter programme, focusing especially on the radar and flight-control system. One does wonder where this knocking copy comes from. I think that the right hon. Member for Fylde was right to identify the possible sources.
First, I shall mention the specially developed radar system for the Eurofighter and the article that has been much quoted, which appeared in Der Spiegel. The real situation concerning the radar system, the ECR90, is that it is newly designed by a consortium led by GEC involving electronics companies from the other Eurofighter partner nations. Those companies are European and world leaders in radar technology. The ECR90 is the latest design. It comprises modern high- performance, high-reliability electronic technology with automated digital processing and reconfigurable software. In short, it is a world-beating airborne radar system and we should be proud of it.
Progress on the development of the ECR90 radar has been very satisfactory. It has successfully undergone flights in two of the Eurofighter development aircraft. It is in line with the scheduled programme and our expectation is that the radar will meet its full specifications. Those specifications include the ability, contrary to various articles, to counter clusters of closely spaced aircraft and to discriminate precisely the high-priority target or targets.
I move on to the flight-control systems. It is important to stress, as has already been done by the hon. and learned Member for North-East Fife (Mr. Campbell), that the Eurofighter is aerodynamically unstable by design to enhance its extremely high levels of agility, reducing drag and enabling enhanced lift to be achieved. That makes it impossible to fly the aircraft by conventional means. The pilot controls the aircraft through a computerised digital flight-control system. That eases enormously the work load on the pilot. Among other things, the flight-control system is designed so that, in the event of pilot disorientation, rapid and automatic recovery is achieved by the simple press of a button.
The flight-control system is clearly critical to the performance and safety of the aircraft. Accordingly, flight clearance for such a safety-critical system has been approached with great caution and rigour. In two official flight assessments so far carried out, satisfactory handling has been demonstrated.
The engine, the EJ200, fitted to five of the development aircraft, has accumulated more than 1,000 hours of successful running time, including 300 hours in flight, as well as excellent test-bed performance. That is a tribute to the builders at Rolls-Royce.
There has been unhelpful speculation in the media that we are seeking to cancel the Eurofighter programme or reduce the number of aircraft to be purchased. In answer
to the right hon. Member for Fylde, I never cease to wonder where those stories come from. Are journalists sometimes looking for a story to file so that they can get off home? We recognise, of course, that such speculation causes difficulties. That is why I very much welcome the opportunity today to set the record straight once more.
In 1995, two parallel studies were conducted into the number of Eurofighters required. Allowance was made for training, support and attrition. It was concluded that 232 Eurofighters would be required to replace the Tornado F3 and Jaguar fleets. Of the 232, 35 will be twin-seaters and used for training purposes, although they would also have an operational capability.
My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Defence has made clear the Government's intention to order Eurofighter according to the conditions and numbers established by the previous Administration. We made that clear also when we were in Opposition. We are therefore committed to the purchase of 232 Eurofighters. I made that clear in a written answer to the right hon. Member for Fylde as recently as 26 June, and I reinforced that answer in my intervention. I regret, therefore, that the hon. Member for Salisbury sought to cast doubt on this matter, which can cause only confusion elsewhere, especially with a critical decision being made this week.
I understand that there have been criticisms of the cost of Eurofighter, and suggestions that alternative aircraft could be purchased instead. One wonders which aircraft, and that issue has been dealt with in previous speeches. Extensive operational analysis has been carried out to compare the cost-effectiveness of Eurofighter with a variety of other potentially available aircraft types and, of course, combinations, in a range of scenarios against opposing aircraft. The analysis demonstrated the excellent technical capability that Eurofighter will provide in the air-superiority and air-defence roles, and in ground-attack missions.
When costs and the multi-role capabilities of Eurofighter were taken into account, it was clear that an all-Eurofighter fleet would be substantially more cost-effective than any of the alternative aircraft options or mixes. Compared with other solutions, the potential cost savings are considerable. Logistic costs for a single type are significantly lower. In addition, pilot training costs are reduced. A single type of full-mission simulator covers all training requirements.
What I have said so far sets the scene on the justification for Eurofighter and the progress achieved in development phase, the numbers required and the technical position. The Government's position on the commitment to future phases is well known, and I have reinforced it this morning. We are now ready to sign the memorandum of understanding for the production of Eurofighter. We earnestly hope that our partners will also be in a position to proceed very shortly.
We understand--this has been mentioned by a number of hon. Members, including the hon. Member for Salisbury--that there are domestic pressures in Germany. In the interests of the programme, however, decisions must be made and priorities set. We are doing all we can to urge our German counterparts to proceed with the project as soon as possible. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State met the German Defence Minister, Mr. Ruhe, last month. He confirmed that Germany both wanted and needed Eurofighter. When my right hon.
Friend the Prime Minister met Chancellor Kohl on 6 June, the Chancellor made clear his personal commitment to Eurofighter.
We were greatly encouraged, as, I am sure, were all right hon. and hon. Members, by the announcement last Friday by the German Finance Minister, Dr Waigel, that funding for the production phase has been included in the draft 1998 budget. We are hopeful that, when it meets to discuss the 1998 federal budget on Friday, the German Cabinet will take the decision to proceed to the production phase. Bundestag approval would be sought in September. I take on board the suggestion of the hon. and learned Member for North-East Fife that there is a need to involve Members on both sides of the House in lobbying in support of that decision.
Eurofighter is the largest European collaborative defence programme. I am confident that Germany, along with Italy and Spain, will join us in the production of this highly capable aircraft. As has been said, Eurofighter will sustain tens of thousands of high technology jobs in the four Eurofighter partner nations. The UK's Eurofighter will be assembled at British Aerospace's Warton site in Lancashire from components manufactured by industries of the four partner nations, with work on the EJ200 engine concentrated at the Rolls-Royce plant in Filton, Bristol.
The export potential for Eurofighter has been mentioned by my hon. Friend the Member for Leigh and others, and it is good. A number of countries have already expressed interest in Eurofighter. Further delays to the production phase of the programme run the risk of jeopardising Eurofighter's export potential, especially in the face of fierce and fairly ruthless competition.
Eurofighter is also an important element of European defence co-operation. That was stressed by my hon. Friend the Member for Leigh. It is central to the future of European defence and crucial also to the future of the European aerospace industry because of the key skills, particularly those relating to systems integration, that are supported by defence investment. In short, I confirm once again that the Government are totally committed to the Eurofighter programme and are determined that it will succeed.
"is ahead of anything I have ever flown before."
That is clear testimony to the value of involving pilots at an early stage in the design process. That was a valuable contribution by the Ministry of Defence, the Royal Air Force and British Aerospace.
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