(DEFENCE AND EXTERNAL AFFAIRS SUB-COMMITTEE)
T February, 1975.] Mr. A. P. HoCKADAY, C.B., C.M.G.,
[Continued.
Rear Admiral A. S. MORTON, Mr. T. CULLEN, Mr. D. M. EVANS, Mr. G. C. B. DODDS, Mr. A. R. M. JAFFRAY, Mr. J. D. BRYARS and Mr. T. C. G. JAMES, C.M.G.
of procurement expenditure which is not suitable for collaboration at all. This is certainly half of it. For instance, you would not think of buying B vehicles from anything but a British source. Wherever the research and development is low it is not really worthwhile under- taking collaboration in that sense.
178. Take the example of aircraft, what proportion of our aircraft require- ments are in fact collaborative projects at the moment?- -I am afraid I do not know the figure. The major part of the aircraft programme is collaborative, the MRCA, the Jaguar, the three helicop- ters. There is really only the Hawk that is not. (Mr. James.) We have looked up the figures for the last complete year, 1973-74, and in percentage terms over 50 per cent. of the £100 m. we spent in that year on development and 20 per cent. of the £360 m. that we spent on production relates to collaborative projects. You asked Mr. Dodds a minute ago about how he saw the trend in the years ahead, one would expect the MRCA, which is a very expensive programme, to tend to increase the actual amounts spent on development and production in the years ahead. In fact the proportions that I gave you just now are likely to reverse. As you get out of the development phase and into the production phase clearly you will be spending more of your total production expenditure in the collabora- tive dimension.
179. Would that indicate the propor- tion of our aircraft expenditure on the MRCA by the end of the decade will be approaching 50 per cent. or more of our total procurement expenditure for aircraft? It is not very far out. We reckon over the period we have covered of the Defence Review up to 1983-4 something like 40 per cent. of the expen- diture on equipment will be going on the MRCA.
180. On the aircraft equipment?- Yes, on the Aircraft Vote.
Chairman.
181. We move on to section VI, man- power. A good deal of what is in this section we have covered in individual questions to the three services. To what extent is the proposed manpower reduc-
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tion arbitrary in nature? -(Mr. Hockaday.) If you are suggesting that we thought of a number or that we started by saying to ourselves, we have got to reduce the number of people in the forces by x thousand, they were not arbitary. The review was carried out on the basis of a review of the whole range of our commitments bearing in mind the two sets of imperatives, the security imperative directed essentially to
our
own security, and that of our dependent territories, and on the other hand the economic imperatives which made it necessary to undertake the review. We reached a broad judgment as to how we should reconcile these two imperatives and the sort of general range of com- mitments and capabilities that we could retain in order, as best we could, to satisfy the two sets of requirements. In bringing this together, in reshaping our commitments and capabilities and in effecting the kind of economies that the Government judged to be necessary, we endeavoured to retain a balanced force structure equipped in a balanced sort of way and to keep in line with each other the reductions on the manpower pro- gramme, the equipment programme and other programmes, and we judged that the sort of manpower remaining at the end of the exercise, that is to say the second column in paragraph 41, was the right kind of manpower strength to undertake the commitments that we were retaining with a militarily sensible and balanced front line strength and a sensible and balanced support structure.
182. I asked that question because I hoped to get that sort of answer from you. It has seemed to this committee over the years that we are very profes- sional in our services today. It is no good just having men unless you can give them adequate equipment and arms with which to operate in this sophisti- cated age?We would agree with that.
Mr. Finsberg.
183. On manpower, if one takes for a moment the figures in paragraph 41, estimated reduction of the army 12,000, what effect is this going to have upon regiments? Are there any plans to amalgamate, merge or abolish any regi-