TFX PLANE COSTS

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30286, 12 November 1963, Page 6

TFX PLANE COSTS

Low Offer For TSR2 Unsent (N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright) CANBERRA, November 12. Australia’s 24 American TFX bombers would cost about £56 million, the Australian Minister of Defence (Mr Athol Townley) said yesterday. The price covered one year's spare parts, including engines, associated handling equipment, training aids and the initial and operational training of crews in the United States. An offer to Australia of Britain's TSR2 bomber at a cut price of about £4B million was delayed by Britain’s recent political crisis, the "Sunday Times" claims. When it was clear that “the writing was on the wall" in favour of the cheaper TFX, Britain made a last minute bid to reduce the TSR2 price. Any communication to Sir Robert Menzies needed the signature of the British Prime Minister—and, at the moment, Britain did not have a Prime Minister. No senior cabinet minister was prepared to sign in his stead. Crucial Week “So. for a crucial week, the final cut-price offer of TSR2 at under £2 million each, remained unsigned and unsent,” the newspaper says. An offer signed by Sir Alec Douglas-Home was on its way to Australia on the day Sir Robert Menzies announced that he would buy the TFX, the “Sunday Times" claimed.