New Missile For Britain Will Be Costly

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29227, 10 June 1960, Page 15

New Missile For Britain Will Be Costly

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, June 9. Britain’s final bill for fitting her Vulcan bombers with the American air-launched nuclear Skybolt missile is unlikely to be less than £155 million, according to the “Daily Express.” And, according to the Minister of Defence, Mr Harold Watkinson, no-one could be sure the Skybolt would be 100 per cent successful.

The “Daily Express” said the figure was much higher than previous forecasts because Mr Watkinson, who returned yesterday from defence talks in the United States, had committed the Government to buying the whole Skybolt system, including complex electronic computing and arming gear which fitted into the plane. Mr Watkinson, who has just completed the Skybolt deal, hinted that a new all-British missile might be developed for the R.A.F.’s other main bomber, the Victor. In that case, the “Daily Express” said, the final cost of “souping up” the V-bomber force might be almost equal to the estimated £5OO million lost on the abandoned Blue Streak rocket. The electronics system of the Skybolt was complex because it had to compute the missile’s position in space from star measurements during the whole time the plane was carrying it. This was the only way the gyroscopes in the missile could be controlled so that after launching it flew to its target without further guidance, the newspaper said. Modifications to Die V-bombers would be extensive because they were already packed tight with electronic gear to jam enemy defences.

The "Daily Express” said the Skybolt’s warhead packed a much smaller punch than the H-bombs that the Vulcans were originally designed to drop, and plans to improve its punch must wait for future American underground atomic tests—possibly next year. Speaking at London airport yesterday, Mr Watkinson said a great deal more work would be done on the Skybolt in the next few months. Asked what he would do if it was found in 12 months that the Skybolt was not going to be successful, he said: “I will wait until that happens.” He added: “This is a development project in which we have gone into partnership with the Americans to try to maintain a working partnership between the Strategic Air Force and Bomber Command.” Britain would participate at every stage of development, testing, and production of the missile. , . '» He said that a great deal of useful work had been done during his eight-day visit. “I hope it will lead to a much closer cooperation between ourselves, the Canadians, and the Americans, and that it will strengthen N.A.T.O. as we hoped it would.” Until the Skybolt was ready the

Americans had their Hound Dog missile and Britain had the Blue Steel, “which I plan to accelerate as much as I can.” Britain would make equipment so that the Vulcan bombers would be the first warplanes to be fitted with the weapon. Britain would also make the warhead and perhaps one or two other parts.

But Mr Watkinson added: “I have no intention of making the missiles here.”

The defence correspondent of the “Financial Times” says the new agreement achieves two things. First, he says, it ensures that Britain would be able to maintain a significant contribution to the over-all Western deterrent in the period from 1965 onwards when the Blue Steel guided bomb —Britain’s principal means of delivering nuclear warheads apart from Thor missiles over the next few years—becomes increasingly vulnerable to enemy antimissile techniques: second, it relieved Britain of the onus of spending large sums of money developing a deterrent missile of its own, which would also have the further disadvantage of duplicating American efforts in the missile field, thereby wasting

resources already heavily stretched. Nothing is yet known of the cost to Britain, the correspondent says. Unconfirmed reports have suggested that Britain will buy 100 Skybolts costing around £200,000 each, but this takes no account of the cost of British participation in Skybolt research and development, which is likely to be substantial. Whatever the cost involved, however, it is likely to be far less than that of continuing the development of the Blue Streak, estimated at around £5OO million or more. Current estimates set the Skybolt’s cost about 1000 million dollars or £357 million, of which the United States will pay a good deal. The correspondent says that the possibilities of the Skybolt not coming to fruition are regarded in both Britain and the United States as being extremely remote. Although it was only last February that the American Government decided to go ahead with the Skybolt, work on the theory of air-launched ballistic missiles had been under way for several years and technicians were confident ihere were no really serious areas of techncial difficulty involved.