Written question asked by David Martin (Conservative), in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 24 October 1996. It was answered by Michael Portillo (Conservative) on Thursday, 24 October 1996 on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.

Ministry of Defence

Question: Statement on what is the current status of the Army's Challenger 2 programme.

Answer: Mr. David Martin: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what is the current status of the Army's Challenger 2 programme; and if he will make a statement. [194] Mr. Portillo: The Challenger 2 development programme was successfully completed, with all reliability targets achieved on development tanks. Following a series of trials on early production tanks we identified a need to improve the reliability of some of the elements of production vehicles to meet the very high standards set. An agreed programme to achieve this is being undertaken by the contractor, Vickers plc, at no additional cost to my Department. Central to the programme is a sequence of production reliability growth trials with agreed technical milestones. The company has met the requirements set in the first of those trials, which was held in July. Challenger 2 has already demonstrated an impressive capability. I am confident that Challenger 2 will fully meet all our technical and reliability requirements in 1997. In order to ensure that the comprehensive logistic support arrangements that we require are properly established, I have agreed that the in-service date for Challenger 2 will be June 1998.

Secondary information

Type: Written question
Reference: 194; 284 c7-8W
Session: 1996-97
Subjects: Contracts Defence Defence equipment Tanks Challenger tanks Vickers Defence Systems