British M.P.s endorse rejection of Nimrod

Press, 20 December 1986, Page 13

British M.P.s endorse rejection of Nimrod

NZPA-Reuter London

The Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, appears to have mustered overwhelming support within her own party for the decision to buy six American AW ACS surveillance planes instead of a rival British system.

The Secretary for Defence, George Younger, told Parliament yesterday that he had decided to abandon a nine-year programme to develop the Nimrod early warning system because he did not believe it would work before the mid-19905, if then.

Instead, he was spend ing £B6O million ($2.39 billion) on six Boeing AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control System) aircraft to guard Britain against Soviet aerial incursions, with an option to add two more planes

within six months. The long-awaited announcement followed a bitter battle between supporters of the two systems. Nimrod backers argued that the American purchase would deal a crippling blow to Britain’s status as a world leader in

high technology industry. The Labour Party defence spokesman, Denzil Davies, speaking in an emergency Parliamentary debate, accused the Government of “kicking British technology and British industry in the teeth and throwing £1 billion spent on Nimrod down the drain.”

But Mr Younger’s statement listing the shortcomings of Nimrod, which was developed by Britain’s largest engineering company, General Electric (G.E.C.), appeared to satisfy most of his Conservative Party colleagues.

More than 70 members of Parliament, many of them with G.E.C. factories in their constituencies, had signed a motion urging the Government to choose Nimrod. The Government had a comfortable majority when the debate ended in a 339 to 170 vote. A

former Prime Minister, Edward Heath; G.E.C.’s chairman, James Prior; and a former Secretary for Trade and Industry, Cecil Parkinson, were among the few Conservatives who abstained.

Mr Younger also said that he had been in touch with his French counterpart, Andre Giraud, about the decision. France wants to buy three radar planes to guard its southern approaches, and had been evaluating both AWACS and Nimrod.

"He (Mr Giraud) made it very clear that if we took AWACS he would probably wish to come in and buy Boeings as well,” Younger said, adding that this could mean savings for both countries.

Mr Younger told Parliament that of 20 test flights on Nimrod, only one had produced satisfactory data. Tests on AWACS had resulted in a 100 per cent success rate.