F111K Aircraft Contract

Part of Orders of the Day — Supply – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 1 May 1967.

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Photo of Mr John Stonehouse Mr John Stonehouse , Wednesbury 12:00, 1 May 1967

I estimate that it will be about the same.

The right hon. Gentleman referred also to the strengthened undercarriage and asked why we had done this. The fact that we have adopted this undercarriage has been known to the House for a long time. The United States Strategic Air Command wants the strengthened undercarriage for its version of the aircraft, the FB1 11, and it was given to us last year as an option. We decided to take advantage of the possibility because it enables the Royal Air Force to make the maximum use of the aircraft's capabilities from semi-prepared airfields to take off with bigger bomb loads.

Several questions were raised by the right hon. Member for Mitcham in comparing the performance of the F111 with the proposed performance of the TSR2. First, the ferry range is 20 per cent, better than the ferry range of the TSR2. Second, the question of engine surging: as my right hon. Friend has said, there are still engine matching problems which, we believe, will be solved in the United States because of the tremendous resources being put behind the programme there, but we are assured that the achievement of the F111 development so far meets the basic and minimum requirements of the Royal Air Force.

The right hon. Gentleman asked about the Nav-attack system. This is fully equivalent to that specified for the TSR2. Next, he asked about the terrain-following capability. This equipment has already been functioning very successfully throughout the development programme, and its performance is equivalent to, and in some respects better than, that specified for the TSR2.

There is no doubt that in the F111 we are obtaining an aircraft for the R.A.F. which meets its needs and requirements in all major respects. A further advantage which the House will recognise is that, as this aircraft is to go into squadron service in both America and Australia before the first deliveries to the R.A.F. take place, we shall be more than satisfied that the development problems of the aircraft are solved before the Royal Air Force is flying it.

Furthermore, the great advantage of this agreement as against the TSR2 arrangement is that we have here a ceiling price, subject, of course, to an escalation clause, which will give us a final basic cost of £2½ million per aircraft. The arrangement for the TSR2 was quite dissimilar because the commitment was unlimited. Although we have estimated what the cost of developing and producing the TSR2 might have been, it could have been very much more even than that. For the F111, however, we have a unique agreement with the United States, the best type of agreement for purchasing equipment from the United States that this country has ever achieved. If right hon. Gentlemen opposite, when they started negotiating for buying equipment from the United States, had concentrated their attention on obtaining this type of agreement, perhaps the Exchequer would have been saved a great deal of money and should have saved a great deal of time as well.