asked the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement about progress on the JP 233 airfield attack weapon, following the United States of America's decision to withdraw from this joint project.

Following the withdrawal early in 1981 of the United States from the JP 233 joint project which was being carried out in the United Kingdom, it has continued as a national programme. Progress with the development of the system continues to be satisfactory, but in order to help bring the defence programme and budget for 1982–83 into alignment it was recently decided to defer the introduction into service of the weapon by a few months.