Written question asked by Mark Pritchard (Conservative) on Monday, 23 October 2006, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 30 October 2006. It was answered by Adam Ingram (Labour) on Tuesday, 7 November 2006 on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.

Scramjets

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how much his Department has (a) spent and (b) allocated on identifying the merits of scramjet technologies for military use.

Answer: [holding answer 30 October 2006]: The Ministry of Defence’s main scramjet research programme was Hyshot III which received approximately £1.5 million. Two other programmes, each funded to the order of £100,000 have received MOD funding. The first was concerned with analysing scramjets from a systems perspective as part of the High-Speed Weapons programme and the second is a Joint Grants scheme funded research programme at Oxford university into scramjet intakes.Hyshot III was the culmination of the UK Scramjet experiment programme. There are no funds allocated for the further development of scramjet technologies. This was addressed in the Defence Technology Strategy (DTS) (Section B7.20), a copy of which is in the Library of the House.The DTS also outlines (Section B7.21) a new collaborative programme in the field of hypersonics, the sustained hypersonics experiment (SHyFE). This involves research into novel aerosystem propulsion and has been allocated approximately £3 million worth of funds. The SHyFE concept incorporates a low risk ramjet design. However, it does not include any further scramjet research.

Secondary information