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MINUTES OF EVIDENCE TAKEN BEFORE THE EXPENDITURE COMMITTEE
11 February, 1975.] Mr. A. P. HOCKADAY, C.B., C.M.G.,
[Continu
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.
spent on equipment as being slightly larger than it is at the present time. I am afraid we cannot say how that will compare with what the Germans and Italians will be doing then because we do not quite know how they will be going, but our percentage of equipment in our total budget is holding up, there- fore I think it would be reasonable to assume that it would probably then still be slightly greater than for those two countries.
168. The Americans have the concept of the high low ratio, so they have some of their troops equipped with high quality equipment and a lot of the others equipped with lower quality equipment. Is this something we have considered, and if so, would this be a method lead- ing to equipment savings? We work to a rather different concept, and per- haps this is a function of the fact that our forces are smaller and have for a long time been professional, though I realise the Americans are now moving into a wholly professional situation. But our philosophy has been that we should equip those units which have a front line war time role with the best possible equipment that we can afford to enable them to discharge that role.
Chairman.
169. We will turn to paragraphs 38 and 39. Could you say how far the preser- vation of national interests, particularly in the industry, is an obstacle to effective collaboration? -(Mr. Dodds.) Obviously it is some restriction. Indus- try is beginning to appreciate that they will not have projects in the future un- less they are collaborative to some ex- tent. This is influencing them towards a greater spirit of cooperation with other countries. It is difficult for them because in terms of their own exports, their shareholders' interests, and so on, they obviously do better if the project is solely British and they export it. But if they are not going to have a project at all by adopting that line then it may sway them overall.
170. Is there good collaboration between industries in this country?. Yes indeed.
Sir Frederic Bennett.
171. Do you mean internal collabora-
tion? I thought that is what the Chairman meant.
Chairman.] That was my second question, my first one was international.
Sir Frederic Bennett.
172. Do you find both sides of indus- try have any problems on this, because obviously there are national interests to be protected at both levels?We have not had a great deal of trouble. We have heard of cases where the other side of industry have objected to certain pro- jects, certain work being done for other countries, but it has not happened very often.
173. It is more at management level that this operates in fact?-That is so.
Mr. Roper.
174. Could we ask what is the total procurement requirement of all the Eurogroup countries at the moment and how these compare with the procure- ment funds of the United States? (Mr. Hockaday.) I am not quite sure what you have in mind by procurement requirement, but if you measure it by what they spend on equipment, in 1974 the figure for the European NATO countries excluding France is about 5,300 million dollars and that compares with a corresponding United States ex- penditure of 15,700. So the European figure is about a third of the American figure.
175. Of the 5,300 million dollars pro- cured by European NATO countries excluding France in 1974 what propor- tion is likely to have been procured on a collaborative basis?. (Mr. Dodds.) I cannot answer that. The British per- centage is 15 per cent.
176. What has the trend of that been in recent years?It is reasonably stable.
177. What about the projection for the period of the review? Would you expect us to be procuring a larger pro- portion than 15 per cent. by the end of the review period?-I would certainly hope so. There are great difficulties about this. One of the things one has to remember in talking about percent- ages is there is a very large proportion
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