Fill ORDER ‘MUST REMAIN’

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31306, 28 February 1967, Page 17

Fill ORDER ‘MUST REMAIN’

(N.Z. Press Assn—Copyright) LONDON, Feb. 27. Britain seemed certain to go ahead with its orders for the American-built Fill aircraft even though the plane’s future role had been greatly altered by defence policy changes, the defence correspondent of “The Times,” Charles Douglas-Home, said today. He said no firm order had been made for the aircraft from the United States, but trade arrangements attached to the sale could probably not be unscrambled now. So the purchase would almost certainly go ahead for the total of 50 planes at a cost of £2,600,000 for each basic plane.

“At the time Britain cancelled the development of the TSR2, the main argument over military requirements concentrated on the need to replace the Canberra in the Far East during the 19705,” said Douglas-Home. “The Royal Air Force will therefore have 50 Fills and about 80 V-bombers to give Britain a long-range strike and reconnaissance capability in the Far East from 1970 to 1975, and 50 Fills and about 150 Anglo-French swing-wing planes to carry on the functions after 1975. More Doubt

“There now seems to be more and more doubt about Britain’s future policy East of Suez—certainly about the extent to which the British presence in the Far East would need air cover of this kind. “The basis of the R.A.F.’s case for a long-range strikereconnaissance aircraft was

that air power had to be able to neutralise any threat to Britain’s freedom to move about the area. “This meant that a favourable air situation could only be guaranteed by the possession of a more powerful strike force than any possible enemy. “The strike force would be poised somewhere in the rear as a deterrent to the enemy raising the conflict above the level of a skirmish. Working Example “As a working example of this policy, the R.A.F. now cites the deployment of Vbombers to Singapore during Indonesia’s confrontation. “It was only this deployment, the R.A.F. says, which deterred the Indonesians from raising the level of the confrontation and making life there uncomfortable for the British Army in Borneo.” Douglas-Home said there was an inherent contradiction

between that policy and the policy stated in the defence White Paper last week that it was the Government’s aim that Britain should not again have to undertake outside Europe operations on the scale of the Malaysian struggle. Few Roles “If the Government imagines the only future operations East of Suez are to be small policing operations, or internal security situations, where does a bomber force of this kind come in?” he asked. "Against subversion or insurrection, bomber forces, and particularly supersonic bomber forces are virtually useless.” He said that after 1975, the R.A.F. would have 25 squadrons • of high-performance strike aircraft with few, if any, major roles outside Europe.