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Arms Sales

Mr. Llwyd: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will list the (a) arms, (b) armaments and (c) military equipment sold by the UK Government in the last three years, with their destination. [123416]

Mr. Ingram: Individual disposals of defence property requested amount to many hundreds of sites. I will write to the hon. Member once the information has been collated and place a copy of my letter in the Library of the House.

Details of the disposal of all surplus armaments and other military equipment as requested would consist of tens of thousands of individual transactions and could only be provided a disproportionate cost. Licences issued for surplus major equipment exported on a Governments-Government basis are listed in the Strategic Export Controls Annual Reports, which are available in the Vote office and on the FCO website at www.fco.gov.uk.

Army (Drug Testing)

Dr. Murrison: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence pursuant to his answer of 25 June 2003, Official Report, column 876W, on drugs, what investigations he has conducted to determine why specific army units have yielded relatively large numbers of positive results on compulsory drugs testing; and what steps he has taken to address the drug problem in units scoring highly on CDT. [125726]

Mr. Caplin: The Army has vigorous education and training programmes aimed at deterring drug misuse, and steps taken include drugs awareness lectures and regular poster campaigns to promote awareness on the dangers and consequences of the misuse of drugs. Units with high positive rates are tested more frequently, and   are also likely to be given a Drug Awareness Presentation by people with first hand experience of the consequences of drug misuse in relation to Army life.

ASRAAM

Mr. Jenkin: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence for what reason the Tornado F3 aircraft will not be fitted with Helmet Mounted Sight capability for ASRAAM. [125601]

Mr. Ingram: Fitting Helmet Mounted Sight (HMS) to Tornado F3 to operate the Advanced Short-Range Air-to-Air Missile (ASRAAM) could not be achieved before 2005. Carrying out the required integration work would disrupt the aircraft's operational availability until then. Tornado F3 is expected to retire from service by 2009. It would not, therefore, be cost-effective to fit HMS to Tornado F3 to operate ASRAAM.

Mr. Jenkin: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what his assessment is of the capability improvement of ASRAAM over the AIM9M and AIM9L Sidewinder missiles. [125602]

 
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Mr. Ingram: The Advanced Short-Range Air-to-Air Missile (ASRAAM) provides a significant overall improvement in capability to that provided by AIM9 missiles. In particular, ASRAAM flies faster and further and is more agile than AIM9 missiles, enhancing the Royal Air Force's ability to engage enemy aircraft. ASRAAM also demonstrates greater counter-measures performance, greater lethality and better target acquisition than AIM9 missiles. These are all key factors in enabling our pilots to achieve air superiority, not only now, but also against all known emerging threats.

Mr. Jenkin: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence for what reason Tornado F3 aircraft have not received an AMRAAM datalink upgrade as part of the Capability Sustainment programme. [125603]

Mr. Ingram: Tornado F3 aircraft are receiving a datalink upgrade as part of the ongoing AMRAAM Optimisation Programme. This programme remains on track to complete on schedule in 2004.

Mr. Jenkin: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence whether the Jaguar GR3A has been wired for ASRAAM; and what plans he has for the Jaguar GR3A to be equipped with ASRAAM. [125604]

Mr. Ingram: The Advanced Short-Range Air-to-Air Missile (ASRAAM) is compatible with the wiring in Jaguar GR3A. I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by the then Under-Secretary of State for Defence on 7 March 2000, Official Report, column 653W to the hon. Member for Hereford (Mr. Keetch).

Eurofighter Typhoon

Mr. Jenkin: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence when the Typhoon will be capable of delivering (a)   Storm Shadow, (b) Precision Guided bombs, (c) ALARM, (d) Brimstone, (e) unguided bombs and (f) cluster bombs in operations. [125614]

Mr. Ingram: When Typhoon becomes available for operational deployment in the second half of this decade it will be equipped primarily to carry out air defence sorties but will also have a limited ground attack capability. On current plans, Typhoon will be capable of   delivering both ALARM and unguided bombs at   that stage. Subsequent incremental operational enhancements will develop Typhoon into a truly multi-role weapon system. The content and timing of these enhancements are the subject of ongoing negotiations with industry and partner nations. Our aim, however, is for a fully enhanced multi-role Typhoon to become available for operations early in the next decade. We have no plans for cluster bombs to be fitted to Typhoon.

Bowman System

Mr. Jenkin: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence which units will be equipped with the Bowman system when it first enters service; and when Bowman will be ready for operational deployment. [125619]

Mr. Ingram: 12 Mechanised Brigade HQ and Signals Squadron, 1st Bn The Royal Anglian Regiment and 1st Bn The Coldstream Guards, are scheduled to be equipped with Bowman by the target In-Service Date of 30 March 2004. Following that date, they would be capable of engaging in operations other than war.
 
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The remaining units of 12 Mechanised Brigade and its associated Divisional troops will be progressively equipped and trained to operate and support Bowman. 12 Mechanised Brigade will be ready for war fighting operational readiness when it has completed operational training and is declared as being at "High Readiness". Target date is June 2005.

Challenger 2

Mr. Jenkin: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what Territorial Army personnel have received training on Challenger 2 in the past two years; and if he will make a statement. [126141]

Mr. Caplin: A total of 330 Territorial Army personnel from The Royal Yeomanry, The Royal Wessex Yeomanry and The Royal Mercian and Lancastrian Yeomanry have been trained as gunners, loaders, and instructors on Challenger 2 in the past two years.

Chocolate

Rachel Squire: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on the reasons his Department (a) ended its order for chocolate with Duncans of Scotland and (b) placed the order with Nestlé; [126326]

Mr. Ingram: The Ministry of Defence ended its order for chocolate with Duncans of Scotland and placed the order instead with Nestlé UK Ltd. on grounds of quality and cost.

Cluster Munitions

Mr. Paul Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the cost was of using cluster munitions in the war in (a) Iraq and (b) Afghanistan. [125088]

Mr. Ingram: No cluster munitions were used by United Kingdom forces in Afghanistan. The cost of munitions consumed in Iraq in 2002–03 is being calculated. Once it has been audited and approved by the National Audit Office I will write to the hon. Member and a copy of my letter will be placed in the Library of the House.

Defence Contracts

Mr. Keetch: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will list category A projects awarded in the last three years where US companies and the UK subsidiaries of US companies were sub-contractors receiving contracts in excess of £100 million. [126115]

Mr. Ingram: I will write to the hon. Member and a copy of my letter will be placed in the Library of the House.

Mr. Keetch: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the value of defence and defence-related (a) imports from and (b) exports to the United States of America was in the last three years for which figures are available. [126113]

Mr. Ingram: The value of goods exported to individual countries is published in the Government's annual report on Strategic Export Controls. Copies of these reports, the
 
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most recent covering 2002, are available from the Library of the House and via the Foreign and Commonwealth Office website www.fco.gov.uk.

The values of defence imports into the United Kingdom from the USA are as follows:

	Current prices (£ million)
1999	660
2000	838
2001	1,474

Data for imports during 2002 is not yet available.

Mr. Keetch: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will list category A projects and their approximate values awarded in the last three years to US companies and the UK subsidiaries of US companies. [126114]

Mr. Ingram: I will write to the hon. Member and a copy of my letter will be placed in the Library of the House.

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