the only way to keep pace with this rate of technological advance is to produce systems capable of meeting foreseen requirements and with stretch potential that can be exploited later on.
23. The Buccaneer aircraft and the Chieftain main battle tank are good examples of this philosophy. The Jaguar, which the Committee mentioned in paragraph 28 of their Report, is generally agreed to be well designed and equipped for its main close support rôle; and it, too, has considerable potential for further development. But it is misleading to think of the Jaguar as a relatively simple aircraft or to compare it as the Committee appears to do with the MRCA which has to fulfil a combination of much more exacting rôles-i.e. long range strike and reconnaissance, and maritime and overland attack. In fact the Government regards the MRCA as an encouraging example of the way in which the cost of an ambitious project can be kept within reasonable bounds by judicious trade-offs during development.
24. In short, the Government shares and believes it has the means to achieve the Committee's aims.
25. The Committee urged in Conclusion 12 that every effort should be made to avoid undue delay in taking decisions on new equipment projects. It will be appar- ent from the comments on Conclusion 11 above that control of expenditure on major equipment projects is a necessarily complex process, the essence of which is to test every step in a phased programme of development before committing larger sums of money on the next step. This purpose would be frustrated if final decisions were taken before the relevant development processes and analytical studies were completed. Consultation with our allies, in pursuit of collaboration, also takes time and does not always match the tempo we would like to achieve in our national programme.
26. In the particular case of HAWKSWING, which the Committee mentions, an extensive series of field trials and analytical studies have had to be carried out to evaluate the various options that are open to us and meanwhile develop- ment of HAWKSWING has been proceeding. It is expected that a decision will be taken on this project in the near future.
27. As to the Maritime Harrier, it was necessary to ensure, as with other projects, that the case for it was not fundamentally affected by the Defence Review which the Government instituted on assuming office. Now that the Review has been concluded, and decisions taken on the major issues of strategy and defence expenditure, it is possible to consider the future of the project in the light of the contribution it would make to the military effectiveness of our forces and to British industry and technology, and of its estimated cost.
28. The Government agrees that undue delay in taking decisions on equip- ment projects must be avoided. It wastes money and damages the morale both of industry and of the Services. The aim is to take final decisions as soon as the validity of a project has been firmly established and the money for it is seen to be available.
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