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ANGLO-FRENCH VARIABLE GEOMETRY AIRCRAFT
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The Committee considered a memorandum by the Secretary of State for Defence and the Minister of State for Technology (OPD(67) 35) on the
Anglo-French variable geometry aircraft.
THE DEFENCE SECRETARY said that in discussion with the French Minister
for the Armed Forces (Monsieur Messmer) agreement had been reached
Concessions had been
ad referendum to the British and French Governments on the broad specifica-
tion and costs of the proposed Anglo-French variable geometry aircraft,
and on the industrial arrangements for developing it. necessary by both countries in order to reach agreement; we had conceded to the French that the aircraft should be somewhat larger and more expensive
than was essential for the strike role for which we required it, so that
the French need for adequate fighter performance could be covered and it
should be given a rather greater radius of action at low level than our own
requirements demanded. The French on their side had reduced somewhat the
fighter performance and low level radius of action which they had recently been demanding. As a result the proposed aircraft was estimated to cost £240 million in development, shared between the two countries, compared
with a previous estimate of £200-215 million for a jointly developed
aircraft to meet our strike requirement only, while the unit production
cost for the aircraft was now estimated as £1.75 million, or perhaps slightly less, compared with £1.5-1.6 million. The total programme cost
to us for the aircraft should not exceed the previous estimate however,
as the current Defence Review should enable us to reduce the number of
aircraft that wo necded to purchase by about 10 per cent. The dolay which
had taken place in starting development of the aircraft would moreover mean that costs would be lower than had previously been expected up to
1972-73, and that the main expenditure on production would fall in the years 1976-79. The French Government were expected to reach a decision on the project on 25th May and we should ourselves decide now to go ahead
with the project definition stage, which would take about six months.
This would be on the understanding, which had been reached with the French,
that either country would be free to withdraw from the project up to 1st January 1969 without giving the fourteen months' notice which would
be necessary thereafter and that estimated costs did not increase as a result of working out the detailed specification and development programme
for the aircraft during the project definition stage. It would be most important, as soon as agreement had finally been reached between ourselves
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